Progress

I continued testing throughout the winter of 2008 and I had the cooling to the point I could spend a little time in the air but I was SURE that I was still cooking the heads. I had to adjust valves on a regular basis and I had trouble with head stud torque. I kept a record of the previous adjustment to track what each valve was doing and I was not happy. More work was needed before summer.

 I had been reading the late Bob Hoover's blog for quite sometime and in it he stated the cylinders only accounted for 15 to 17 percent of the heat rejection of the engine.  I looked at the airflow paths through my engine and suddenly remembered that air is like water, it follows the path of least resistance. This path was down and out around the cylinders, not through the head fins. I had used cool tin under the cylinders like everyone else used but what I finally realized is the path around  the cylinders was shorter and therefore offered less resistance, basically a cowling leak. I needed to make the air go where it was going to do the most good, which is what I had been trying to do all along. I just couldn't see the forest for the trees. I figured that blocking off all the air down through this area wouldn't hurt for a test flight just to see what happened.
 The picture above shows my original head and baffle configuration but of particular interest is the small piece of metal visible in the lower left corner and then the piece between the cylinders. There is another one in the back but it is not visible here.
 I was just blown away when I flew, the cht was down about 50 degrees average. Oh boy! We were going to start traveling now!  I stepped up flying and when I began gaining confidence in the engine I would find some issue that scared me and destroyed that confidence.  All along the way I had other problems, things like oil temp, uneven egt, oil leaks etc. and I would just keep chipping away at it.
 Two things of interest I want to point out about this test. When Continental put the 0200 on a weight reduction program recently they realized that the fins on the barrels were basically worthless for cooling. So they removed them and then discovered that the barrels would not stay round. They added material to the barrel wall to increase it's thickness but found that it was heavier than the old finned barrel. The fins actaully act like a brace and give the cylinder it's strength so they went back to the finned barrel for lightweight strength, not cooling. The second thing is I learned a lot about trying my own ideas. Bob Hoover told me all the time "you are your own best mechanic". After this success I began to realize more than ever I needed to quit listening to the same old song and develop my own package. Bob always said "every installation is different".  
 In August of 2009 I decided I was going to fly it to the Zenith Aircraft Open Hanger Day in the middle of September. I was going to have to fly at least 16 hours round trip without major problems but I felt like I could handle any of the little things that would crop up if I was prepared.  About 4 weeks before the departure I decided to tune it up and when I pulled the bottom plugs, well they wouldn't come out. Three of them stripped out the threads and the forth broke off, in the head.  What a blow.
 I had about all of this I could take, this was supposed to be fun, right?  So I gave up. Three weeks later I got the itch again and decided to just abandon the heads I was using and order a brand new set ready to bolt on. I had cooked them and they were constantly requiring attention, and after all, I had the cht under control, I thought. The heads came in and I bolted them on using copper head gaskets for setting the compression ratio. The first flight was a disappointment since these didn't cool quite as well as the others. I took a couple of short test flights and at about 1.2 hours I noticed  number two would hiss out the exhaust pipe when I pulled the prop through. It would seal when the engine was hot though. I made a few calls and was told the guides were probably tight and the valve was sticking due to the colder weather. Uh huh. Well, I'll just fly it and see what happens. And I did, but the valve never got better. This is probably one of my best stupid moments, I KNEW it wasn't going to get better in my heart. I flew the plane to the local airport to work for my friends at the fbo with between 12 or 14 hours on the new heads. When I departed for home I knew I was in real trouble, the takeoff roll was longer and it didn't climb at all. About 250 to 300 fpm. I turned for home after climbing around the airport for enough altitude to make a safe landing either at home or the departure airport.
 Disgusted, I pulled the engine and gave up for good.......