Narrative:

On departure; I climbed as instructed to 3;000 feet and turned to assigned heading of 290 before climbing to cruise altitude of 10;000 feet. At cruise altitude when trying to lean the engine; the left engine exhaust gas temperature (egt) went to red line while the engine leaned at a fuel flow of 6 gallons per hour greater than the other engine. This had the potential to become a serious situation; however the engine continued to run smoothly. By this time I was with center and advised them I needed to return to [departure airport]. They asked if I needed assistance and based on the operation of the engine at the time I said no. At this time I was about 15 miles from the airport and 9;500 feet AGL; which put me at an extremely high altitude within the initial approach segment for the ILS for 20. Center handed me off to approach and put me on an easterly heading for a while and then back on a westerly heading which lead me to believe I was east of the localizer on a westerly heading to intercept the localizer. I was given a heading of 150 to intercept; when I thought a heading of southwest would be correct; and consequently flew through the localizer. It was all very disorienting. ATC offered to vector me back on to the localizer; but since I had ground contact and was in VFR conditions; I asked for a vector toward the airport and a contact approach. I then had the airport in sight and was handed off to tower and landed on 20 after requesting it.the contributing factors were the stress of a potential serious engine problem in a light twin engine aircraft. A very high altitude close to the airport and within the approach corridor (distance within the intermediate segment of the approach). Multiple vectors in varying directions to get to the localizer. Heavy com radio static.discovery of the problem was during the normal operating procedure subsequent to level out during the normal leaning procedures.corrective action was to revert to the simple solution of proceeding VFR to the airport since I was in VFR conditions with direction from ATC while maintaining a contact approach.in retrospect I may have been willing to hurry the approach and accept clearances that were too demanding for the situation resulting in task saturation due to dealing with aircraft and approach issues so high and close to the approach. I should have asked to proceed to an initial approach fix that would have given me the time to deal with situation with adequate to perform the approach without overloading myself.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PA-31 pilot reported the left engine exhaust gas temperature went to red line while leaning the engine at cruise altitude. Engine was reported running smoothly; pilot returned to the departure airport in VFR conditions.

Narrative: On departure; I climbed as instructed to 3;000 feet and turned to assigned heading of 290 before climbing to cruise altitude of 10;000 feet. At cruise altitude when trying to lean the engine; the left engine Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) went to red line while the engine leaned at a fuel flow of 6 gallons per hour greater than the other engine. This had the potential to become a serious situation; however the engine continued to run smoothly. By this time I was with Center and advised them I needed to return to [departure airport]. They asked if I needed assistance and based on the operation of the engine at the time I said no. At this time I was about 15 miles from the airport and 9;500 feet AGL; which put me at an extremely high altitude within the initial approach segment for the ILS for 20. Center handed me off to Approach and put me on an easterly heading for a while and then back on a westerly heading which lead me to believe I was east of the localizer on a westerly heading to intercept the localizer. I was given a heading of 150 to intercept; when I thought a heading of southwest would be correct; and consequently flew through the localizer. It was all very disorienting. ATC offered to vector me back on to the localizer; but since I had ground contact and was in VFR conditions; I asked for a vector toward the airport and a contact approach. I then had the airport in sight and was handed off to Tower and landed on 20 after requesting it.The contributing factors were the stress of a potential serious engine problem in a light twin engine aircraft. A very high altitude close to the airport and within the approach corridor (distance within the intermediate segment of the approach). Multiple vectors in varying directions to get to the localizer. Heavy com radio static.Discovery of the problem was during the normal operating procedure subsequent to level out during the normal leaning procedures.Corrective action was to revert to the simple solution of proceeding VFR to the airport since I was in VFR conditions with direction from ATC while maintaining a contact approach.In retrospect I may have been willing to hurry the approach and accept clearances that were too demanding for the situation resulting in task saturation due to dealing with aircraft and approach issues so high and close to the approach. I should have asked to proceed to an initial approach fix that would have given me the time to deal with situation with adequate to perform the approach without overloading myself.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.