So the air is finally warming up around here and the Density altitudes and air temp are going up. Full fuel and 1 passenger, took me a while to get up to Mode C land. I have a few leaning questions. During my PPL training we never went up very high 7500 ft and then on only a couple of occasions. we kept it rich for the climb then pulled the mixture out until the engine coughed then enrichened it until we got a 50 degree drop. My plane has a 4 cylinder digital EGT and I was told to keep it under 1450. So, do i lean little along the way in a long climb or just keep it rich until i get to our altitude? Also, my engine wants to run better when the EGT on the hottest cylinder is around 1450, if i richen it up to get it down to 1400 or so it just doesn't seem to be running as strong or sound as good. It was really a chess match between me and the engine to get it safely under 1450 at the RPM setting I want and running like i want to hear it run or maybe it was the mountain range under me that made me hear nuances in the engine so well.