I was Chief Pilot for a skydiving club for 10 years before I went commercial. Now I have 13,000hrs plus getting bored across the Atlantic in an A330, but I am building an RV7 and enjoying it.
However............... back in the 80's, we worked closely with our Engineer and stuck to what he said.
All our engines went to TBO - yep, that's what I said - we were using them for skydiving in a Cessna 206, Cherokee 6 and Piper Lance.
The Cherokee engine was finally overhauled at 3500 hours, the Cessna engine suffered the usual Conti crack at about 2300 hours - the Lance engine is still in at nearly 4000 hours.
So............. what is the secret ?
You work them hard, you stabilise temperatures - no rapid cooling.
You top overhaul at 1/2 life.
You religiously change oil at 25 hours.
You break in on mineral oil.
You lean after takeoff and keep them lean all the way up.
You have an empathy with your engine - if you don't understand, keep asking the questions of the Engineers and experienced operators and eventually, you will get it