Good thoughts here concerning EGTs and the life of an exhaust valve. Still I hope that the effect of high CHTs are considered as most of the cooling of the exhaust valve is done by the valve being in contact with the head and still more through the valve stem. (I've heard different numbers but most give an 80% or more through the valve seat and 15% or less through the stem). Cooling the exhaust valves by enrichening the mixture can only go so far. If the heads are running redline CHTs (or nearly so) then something needs to be done.
In the report cited earlier it was noted, “…. relatively large increases in over-all cylinder-head cooling are required to maintain constant valve temperature.” When CHTs are high the valve cannot be cooled as well as with lower temps. High CHTs weaken the aluminum and cause seat loosening and recession and misalignment. When the valve and seat can't seal and hot exhaust gas escapes past the valve the burning begins.
A good review is found here with many references (including the earlier study):
https://www.csobeech.com/exhaust-valves.html“Variation in fuel-air ratio (leaning) had a relatively great effect on valve temperature.”
Many were surprised when Jabiru gave such low max EGT numbers for their aircooled engines along with lower max CHT numbers also. Some of that may be due to the alloy used in their heads. VWs heads are not healthy when run over 400-450ºF while Corvair turned on the idiot light at 575ºF. No one wants to run their heads that hot.
FWIW, I generally see 225-250ºF CHTs in the summer with EGTs running 1225-1250ºF. When I had an Aerovee Sonex the best I could do with head cooling in cruise was 385ºF on the left rear (all others were lower) while the left front was slobbering rich. I was reading accurate temps taken under the plugs.
Charlie Radford did a test back in the days of the old Yahoo group where he compared the under the plug sensor with the smaller probes mounted next to the plug per the Sonex instructions. IIRC I believe the difference was 20-30ºF cooler for the remote mounted sensor. There were a few that mounted a CHT ring probe under the head bolt near the exhaust valve. That was said to be 70ºF lower than a plug mounted sensor. Some were claiming amazing CHT numbers but hadn't bothered to calibrate thier system and/or mounted their probes in places where the cooling air was cooling the probes.
So the joke was to mount the probes where they made you feel the best and just go fly the thing! 8~)
Dale
3.0 Corvair/Tailwheel