Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 20; Flight Crew Total 200; Flight Crew Type 170
Confusion; Distraction; Troubleshooting
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe
Flight Crew Landed As Precaution; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; General Maintenance Action
Weather; Aircraft
I was doing a normal climb out of SNS and was vectored due east (090) by Flight Following to avoid incoming traffic into SNS on the ILS 31 approach. This direction pointed me to the hills east of Salinas; which concerned me as I did not have enough altitude to clear them by 2;000 ft yet. The plane was acting sluggish and seemed a little slow. I had leveled off intermittently during the climb to do a visual check and to help keep the engine cool. What I didn't know and later discovered in conversation with my IFR CFI who was the one doing the ILS approach with another pilot was that there was a Temperature Inversion that morning (my opinion due to the heat from the San Jose Valley area as it was headed to 100F that day). It was under 70F at takeoff.As I was approaching the ridge line; I noticed that the Engine Temp had creeped up quite a bit; so I leveled off to cool it down. But it didn't stop and continued to overheat way past the red line and pegged the Oil Temp Gauge. The Oil Pressure was in the green; but seemed to drop some. It was at this point; I did a 180 degree turn back towards Salinas (SNS); and contacted NORCAL that my engine had severe overheating and was headed back to Salinas to land. I was using VFR flight following during my flight after takeoff. NORCAL gave me a vector to Salinas Runway 31 and I began my descent. It did cool down approximately 3 miles from the runway. I landed OK and taxied to the Ramp; and parked. Inspection of the airplane showed no fire. I checked the oil & it showed 5.5 quarts (I had added 1 quart prior; so was at 6 at takeoff). I contacted the FBO to advise of the problem and that the A&P should check out the plane before anyone else flew it & squawked it on their system. Conclusion from discussions with other pilots was that C172s have a cooling issue since they have a small oil cooler; no cowl flaps; the climb out; and that the Temperature Inversion helped push the engine Temp into the red.
C172 pilot reported returning to the departure airport due to high cylinder head and oil temperature; possibly due to a significant temperature inversion.