I've had wonderful luck with piston aircraft engines throughout my 37 years as an aircraft owner. All the engines on my airplanes have made TBO with minimal maintenance along the way, and in recent years they've gone well beyond TBO.For decades, I was convinced that the secret of my success was the fact that I "babied" my engines, typically limiting my cruise power settings to no more than 60% or 65% power. I felt that sacrificing a little airspeed in exchange for long engine life and reduced maintenance cost was a good tradeoff.More recently, I've come to learn that such "babying" is one way to achieve long engine life, but it's not the only way. That's because it's not power that damages our engines -- it's temperature. It turns out you can run these engines as hard as you like so long as you are obsessive about keeping temperatures under control.Or as my friend, powerplant guru and former TCM tech rep Bob "Mose" Moseley says, "There are three things that affect how long your engine will last: (1) temperature; (2) temperature; and (3) temperature!"
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/ownership/the-savvy-aviator-36-temperature-temperature-temperature