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David:

You did not mention the outside air temperature or oil type which may suggest
the solution.  
I had a similar problem years ago in my old 182.  Departed Salt Lake City on
a cold winter day, and oil temperature went high on climb.  Back to the
airport, to the FBO, and I learned about congealing oil in oil coolers.  Oil
gets so cold it turns to molasses and oil flow slows dramatically, hence high
oil temperature.  Cessna makes a kit for this that blocks much of the oil
cooler.  No kit available, so the fix for us was to put duct tape across half
the oil cooler to restrict cooling (tape perpendicular to the tubing
direction, sized to approximate the picture showing the Cessna kit), and it
worked fine getting us back to the Bay Area where we removed the tape upon
landing.  
So, my guess is that your oil temperature was being controlled by the
vernatherm until you opened the door, increased the air flow, over-chilled the
oil in the cooler which then caused it to slow to a dribble of molasses,
temperature goes up, then you shut the oil door causing the oil cooler to get
warmer, the oil to start flowing, and oil temperature drops.  My guess is you
were using straight 50 weight instead of multigrade.  You were also flying low
in thick air and going fast, so cooling was very good, unlike high altitudes
where the air is thin.  
If you provide the rest of the data (oil weight, OAT) maybe we can solve the
mystery.

Fred

[Fred, and everyone...

David was kind enough to write back with the real explanation, that
being that the oil cooler door was closed when he thought it was open
and vice versa.  I had originally thought that that was what his symptoms
were suggesting, but I didn't say anything because I thought that there
was no possibility of it being something that simple.  I guess I was
wrong.  This would appear to be one of those instances where we can all
be reminded of a very basic engineering tenet, that being when something
is wrong the first place to look is to the obvious.  Granted, many times
we may be searching for a real gremlin, but if we don't eliminate the
first things that come to our minds before going on to find the more
mysterious explanations, we may very well spend a lot of time in
chasing our tails, only to find out there was a simpler explanation
all along.

That being said, just keep those posts coming!!

   <Marv>