Valin & Allyson,

You will need to adjust the oil cooler door all year, on almost every flight, to keep oil temps high enough.  Typically we reset the door at cruise and on descent (and now in climb.)  Prior to Neal George’s Continental Forum at Greenville, we used 175 degrees as the target.  Neal recommends 200 degrees as the preferred setting.  The door cable has enough load to require a locking button, see:  A-700 BUTTON LOCK DASH CONTROL http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/appages/a700.php?clickkey=276832   An additional benefit is reduced cooling drag.

Neal also said 320 degrees is the minimum Cylinder Head Temp and the mid 200’s a lot of us have at cruise is too low. 

Steve and Claudette Colwell  Legacy RG 550

Hey LML gang,

Working on our IO-550N engine installation…  Already have baffling done and flapper door in front of oil cooler.  We’ve heard mixed reports of whether it is needed or not.  We need to decide if we really need to have cockpit control of the door or not.  We’ve heard some people just remove the door or wire it open or closed depending on the season.

Would appreciate hearing about your flight experience with the Legacy with an IO-550N engine and the usefulness or not of control of the oil cooler door…

Thanks!

Valin & Allyson Thorn

Legacy Project

Boulder, Colorado