Had the opportunity on Friday to get into the air for a test of the new oil cooler. 

 Lots of traffic  and had to spend a lot of time holding short for takeoff, oil temps remained well within limits, Left bank CHT's got a little warmer than I would like but remained within limits. managed to get about .8 hr of flight and landed to check for potential oil leaks. Found one connection that needed tightening and will check it again on the next flight. Minimum loss of oil.

Today we managed to finish the installation of the new Positech Oil cooler and the new manifold pressure guage as well as re fit the cowl. engine has been tested and no leaks were found. Washed down the engine and fuselage with mineral spirits to remove any residual oil from the previous leak.

During the ground run the manifold pressure guage indicated 12" @ 1000 RPMS and 15" @ 1600 RPMS it will be interesting to see what the indications are at the next takeoff. Aircraft has a fixed…

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Had a beautiful day on wednesday 65 degrees and clear skies so opened the hangar and brought out the plane for a short hop after the long winter.

Preflight went normal and I got airborne without a hitch, climbed out and flew for about 45 minutes and CHT temps seemed to be lowering, noted the oil temp seemed to be getting a little hoter than normal so I returned to the field and landed, went into the restraunt for a bowl of soup and when I came out there was oil all over the ground…

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On Monday rolled out the 801 with the cowling off, warmed up the engine and reset the idle to 800 RPM warm, put the cowl back on and added some fuel then rolled to Rwy 22 for another test flight. Plane came off the ground after only a short roll and was climbing at 80 MPH, cylinder temps remained within the limits and noted the oil temp had dropped to 220-240 F and held there, EGT s remained balanced throughout the flight. Flight was very bumpy as a storm was brewing just south of the airport… Continue

I had noted the plug wires as originally run appeared to be blocking airflow into and around the cylinders, so to improve the airflow I changed the location and manner in which the plug wires were run. The photos posted are only a few of those that tell the story of the change and I will try to include more photos as allowed. Take notice of the clear air pathway thru the intake plenums and how the plug wires now are barely visable within the plenum. I also made use of the old plug holes to…

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