Always in a hurry ..

[gtmize]

I'm routinely cruising from the Rockies to the Gulf Coast at FL10+ & above and always in a hurry!
Max MP at 2500 - 2550 RPM .. to maximize TAS .. usually around 135 to 140 ... slightly rich of peak.

So far my engine checking out OK annuals but am I pushing my engine too hard / Lycoming 360MIA?

[Rich]

No.

[haykinson]

Look at your CHTs. If you're hanging around 400 degrees for a long while then you're running your engine pretty hard. If you're above then definitely back off. If you're 380 or below then you're probably just fine. I think that the settings you use will yield different engine temperatures depending on outside weather, altitude, moisture content, etc, and those are probably the things that — outside of entering yellow/red arcs — will determine if you're stressing the engine.

[Rich]

Second on the CHTs. Running at higher RPM does increase the challenge of maintaining CHTs. Using 2400 RPM as the baseline, each 100 RPM above that increases the rate of combustion events in total and, of course each cylinder. 2400 RPM = 80 combustion events per second (C/S), 2500 RPM = 83.3 C/S. This is 4% more heat transfer that has to occur, all else remaining equal.

[CFIDave]

Gary: Flying at that altitude (around 10K feet), the use of higher RPM (e.g., 2500) is a great way to increase the power output of your engine, since it will draw in a greater fuel-air mixture despite the thinner air. However the manifold pressure at that altitude is low enough that you're still producing considerably less than 75% power and not stressing the engine. Back when I had a Lycoming DA40 I used to do the same thing when flying up high.