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High Oil Temp

How many hours do you have on the airplane?

Is this the first time you've flown in honest-to-gosh hot weather?

What oil cooler setup do you have?
 
same here

grab a cup of coffee:

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=23331&highlight=oil+temp+woes

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=16212&highlight=oil+temp+woes

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=63032&highlight=high+oil+temp

I have the same problem, TMX IO-360 standard (low) compression, one mag one LSE and the fancy SW 8406.
I am seeing well over 200 degrees in a moderate climb. Never drops below 200even after throttling back. I must admit that it was 93 degrees outside but nevertheless I need to work hard to keep the temps below 220. Undesirable to say the least because I am not even able to climb above the hot air before the oil temp restricts the climb. I am still working on a solution, debating if it makes sense to make a spacer between the baffles and the cooler in combination with a shield around the no 4. cilinder or if I just have to bite the bullet and buy a bigger cooler.

check out neal@f14 posts, they were fighting high oil temps because of their fire breathing engine. Dont know your exact setup... maybe their struggles can help you

Also, expect the temps to drop sharply when the rings start to seat (I noticed a distinct drop temp wise after about 5 hrs)

I will let you know what I find out after testing...

good luck, I know how frustrating this can get

Marco
 
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The engine has 570 hours on it since new (was a new certified 0-320 D1A in 2005) The oil cooler is the standard unit supplied in the Vans FF kit and is mounted on the back of the engine baffle on the left side, a very common setup. The temps have always ran normal to a little cool, even in hot weather, and it's seen hot weather before as the plane has always been based in Florida or lower Georgia,

This winter I blocked off part of the cooler to get the temps up during the cold weather, but that's removed now.

Oil temp reads about ambient on the ground before startup and the temps did come back down on that last flight, once I throttled back and began the descent.

Based on my research so far, it could be the gauge or the sender, a bad ground, plugged or partially colasped oil lines, plugged cooler or the vernatherm.

I'm thinking it not the gauge or the sender since the temps seem to go up and down in a fairly normal and not in an eratic manner. I had just installed a new battery just before the issue first appeared, so possibly a poor ground.

Given the sudden onset of the issue, I'm betting the vernatherm is the culprit. That would be consistant with my luck, as that little sucker isn't cheap...

Let us know the outcome. The vernatherm is one of the usual suspects but in my experience is rarely (not never) the culprit. If the engine has been flying for a while with no problems, I'd be more inclined to believe a gauge/sender/ground problem. Recently, I had a fuel pressure indication problem that turned out to be a marginal wire connection at the sender.
 
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