leaning in climb

Actually, on most of the lycomings it's not necessary to screw with this
at all. Set the best power during your run up (at your magcheck rpm).
Climb at Wide Open Throttle. WOT lready adds extra fuel to maintain
engine cooling.

Some of Lyc's specifications result in really rich running
engines. We have a 182RG that has an HA-4 carb, and it runs very rich
at most power settings when the mixture is full forward. The Precision
Aeromotive guys (former Marvel Schebler) tell me that this is the way
Lycoming specified the carb when they designed that particular engine
model (O-540J3C5D), and that you have to get used to playing with the
mixture much more than you did with a 172. We lean while idling on the
ground, full rich for takeoff unless above 3000' DA (as per POH), and
you have to lean it in the climb if you want it to run smoothly and not
smoke. When carb heat is applied in the circuit, it gets pretty rough
unless it's leaned again.
Our airport is at 2975' ASL. We get lots of leaning practice.
Dan