RivetBangers.com

So for the past 5 years I have been feverishly building my precious RV. Never did I have to worry about maintaining anything that wasn't flying yet. So I have about 5 hours on her now and everything is great. I keep the oil topped off at 6Q, but it runs down to about 5.75Q. I keep it topped off even though I know it is probably just being blown off.

So I have been running the engine at 75% (24" Manifold Pressure, 2400 RPM) to break her in according to the Superior schedule. Superior said to lean it back to 75 degrees rich of peak (ROP), but my friend (who works for Textron, a real lycoming guru) said to run it full rich for the first 10 hours then lean it back. Any thoughts on this? I'm not trying to be cheap here, but 15 GPH is a lot of fuel to be a burnin'! Right now with running full rich I am running my EGT's at about 1100-1200 degrees.

Also, when should the first oil change be? I am running straight Aeroshell 80 mineral oil now.

Thanks for any advice.

Mike, I was told by my builder to change my oil at 2 hrs and then at 10 hrs, but the club planes I've been around all got their first oil change at 10 hrs.

I ran full rich for 5 hours, then started to lean. Don't put too much stock or faith in EGT's...they really don't tell you a whole lot. I've been taught that for years at work, and there is a great article in a recent Kitplanes or Sport Aviation about why...REALLY good article.

I did my first oil change at 5 hours, doing the second at 25 (still gonna run mineral), then another at 50 hours (will switch to Phillips 20w50 then), and then every 50 after that.