Cowl mods
Trying to get prepped for Oshkosh so time is limited but I do plan on doing a "how to," on the cowl mods. I actually copied the idea from Ron Moring who did this to his RV8. He started with the Sam James plenum and modified from there.
I opted to start from scratch on my plenum. The top and bottom were glued together and a new top cut. This allows the inlets to be undisturbed when the top cowl is removed. Much easier than the Sam James inlets that split the top and bottom.
CHT's and oil temps have been great. I did my 40 hour fly off during the hottest summer on record here in AZ. I only topped 400 degrees one time when I intentionally did a very aggressive climb. Out here 425 is not uncommon and is not a problem as long as it is a transient temperature.
Oil temps stayed below 210 except on the hottest days on climbs. Most of the time 185-190 was normal.