Nursing damaged engines

[Xenunjeon88]

I know this is (or can be) a super complicated topic and without opening the hood and taking a look at what is acutally hit, what you can do to prevent complete engine failure is limited to just educated guesses or even a question if nursing an engine is even possible.

 

But there seems to be a trend I see when dealing with nursing home a crippled aircraft.

 

If your engine is damaged but not smoking = I just lay off WEP and not push the engine to it's limits, I should be okay.

 

If your engine is damaged and is smoking = You need to get back ASAP and land cause you only have a limited amount of time before it cuts out.

 

If your engine is damaged and is/is not smoking, but the RPM/ATA needle is wobbling and your engine is "revving"= engine is about to die, not much you can do.

 

Your cooling system is hit = open all the vents and go as low a power as you can to prevent overheating

 

Your oil is hit = return home immediately, your engine is going to die very soon.

 

If your engine is on fire = not sure if it is possible to extinguish it, does anyone happen to know?

 

So my question is this, what is your advice or personal preferenced procedures to nursing a damaged engine?

 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2015 by Xenunjeon88

[Y29.Layin_Scunion]

You pretty much covered the basics. Something else though...don't be afraid to lower mixture to keep your engine cooler.

[Jade_Monkey]

I think that in a previous patch they mentioned the possibility of extinguishing fires. I dont remember exactly how but if you are interested you might wanna read through the dev diaries to find out.

[DD_Arthur]

. Something else though...don't be afraid to lower mixture to keep your engine cooler.

 

?

[SCG_Space_Ghost]

?

 

+1

[FuriousMeow]

I think that in a previous patch they mentioned the possibility of extinguishing fires. I dont remember exactly how but if you are interested you might wanna read through the dev diaries to find out.

Side slip and dive for fuel tank fires. That does work.

 

Probably the same for engine but you may have to cut throttle, zero fuel in mixture or shut down everything.

[Xenunjeon88]

You pretty much covered the basics. Something else though...don't be afraid to lower mixture to keep your engine cooler.

Lean mix or rich mix? I recall some American aircraft that had a limited supply of water that would be mixed in with the fuel on auto rich to cool the internal components of the engine, although that was an American thing, I believe. So lower mix to get higher ratio of air in pistons and thus cool the plane engines?

 

Sorry I'm a little confused.

[Ace_Pilto]

Keep the manifold pressure low as possible, lower pressure inside the engine means less stress and less fluids being lost from the system due to all round lower pressures. Lowering the mixture will make the engine run hotter, lean it too much and you get detonation (fuel/air detonating at the wrong stage of the engine's stroke which means more stress on the engine) richer == cooler but too rich causes spark plug fouling (carbon builds up on the terminals and makes them less reliable or causes complete failure).

 

Run rich as you can without losing RPM, open everything, and low manifold pressure is about all you can do. If you're lucky enough to be going at a reasonable speed, keep fast as you can too.

 

The water injection system has nothing to do with cooling, it adds water to the fuel/air mixture inside the cylinder to increase manifold pressure for extra boost. 

[Y29.Layin_Scunion]

Lean mix or rich mix? I recall some American aircraft that had a limited supply of water that would be mixed in with the fuel on auto rich to cool the internal components of the engine, although that was an American thing, I believe. So lower mix to get higher ratio of air in pistons and thus cool the plane engines?

Sorry I'm a little confused.

The leaner your mixture, the cooler your engine will run especially with a radial. Run it as lean as you can without sacrificing engine power.

 

You said it...the leaner the mixture, the more air is running through the engine. Keeping it cooler.

Lowering the mixture will make the engine run hotter

 

I'm sorry, that's wrong.

[Willy__]

 

 

The leaner your mixture, the cooler your engine will run especially with a radial. Run it as lean as you can without sacrificing engine power. You said it...the leaner the mixture, the more air is running through the engine. Keeping it cooler.

 

Thats not how things works. JimmyBlonde explained very well on the post above. But one thing I dont know for sure is if that (lean mixture = hot / rich mixture = cool) is modeled ingame, because I barely have any rpm changes while changing the mixture. 

[Dakpilot]

The leaner your mixture, the cooler your engine will run especially with a radial. Run it as lean as you can without sacrificing engine power.

 

You said it...the leaner the mixture, the more air is running through the engine. Keeping it cooler.

 

 

Unfortunately that theory is not correct, the leaner the mixture the hotter the engine will run, it is the extra fuel that causes the less efficient cooler combustion.

 

lean mixture = hot engine and too lean will lead to pre-ignition and damage, this is why you use a CHT cylinder head temp gauge to set mixture to its most efficient lean setting.

 

Now increasing airflow over the engine by opening cowl/gill flaps, that will help cool the engine

 

Cheers Dakpilot

[Y29.Layin_Scunion]

Unfortunately that theory is not correct, the leaner the mixture the hotter the engine will run, it is the extra fuel that causes the less efficient cooler combustion.

 

lean mixture = hot engine and too lean will lead to pre-ignition and damage, this is why you use a CHT cylinder head temp gauge to set mixture to its most efficient lean setting.

 

Now increasing airflow over the engine by opening cowl/gill flaps, that will help cool the engine

 

Cheers Dakpilot

What about when comparing an inline to a radial? I don't see how running more air into the fuel mixture is going to make the engine run hotter...that makes no sense.

[Dakpilot]

It is the same, it is just the fuel/air ratio the leaner the mixture the hotter the combustion, it is the same principle with a two/stroke engine, if the mixture ratio is to lean it will seize due to overheating, running a too rich mixture can be seen as producing smoke, this 'smoke' is actually unburnt fuel which helps to cool the engine.

 

When you lean the mixture you are putting less fuel in not more air

 

Cheers Dakpilot

[Y29.Layin_Scunion]

It is the same, it is just the fuel/air ratio the leaner the mixture the hotter the combustion, it is the same principle with a two/stroke engine, if the mixture ratio is to lean it will seize due to overheating, running a too rich mixture can be seen as producing smoke, this 'smoke' is actually unburnt fuel which helps to cool the engine.

 

When you lean the mixture you are putting less fuel in not more air

 

Cheers Dakpilot

Understood.  I have been highly misinformed then.  Thanks.

[avlSteve]

If your engine is on fire = not sure if it is possible to extinguish it, does anyone happen to know?

 

 

In ROF, if you had enough altitude you could cut the power/fuel and dive for the deck... a lot of times the fire would extinguish (hopefully before you ripped off your wings).

 

I'm not sure if this would work in BOS, and imagine bailing is the better option.  In ROF there wasn't much choice since, bailing wasn't an option.

[6./ZG26_5tuka]

In general radial engines should be less prone to catch fire and thus be more safe in combat. I have not managed to extinguish any engine fires in inline engined planes yet.

 

Your other points are quite true, although be carefull with radiator / cooling damage. The faster you go, the moor air hits the aircraft = better cooling. If your cooling system is damaged and you throttle down to min you may end up being too slow to effectively help the engine to cool down. Instead I'd go for somthing close to continues power or slightly lower and enter a shallow dive while RTB as quick as possible.

[Jade_Monkey]

What % mixture do you use in soviet planes when cruising? I know altitude is a factor.

 

Do you look at the color of the flames?

[HansHansen]

What helped me quite often was once I was all out of coolant, was periodically climbing and then shutting the engine down when oil temperature approaches its limits. While gliding down, the engine cools and can be used again when arriving at low altitudes. In total the engine will be hotter than before, but you can repeat this process a few times until the engine finally dies. Of course you should know your best climb and best gliding speed (perfectionists close water radiators for better aerodynamics)

 

In my experience, with the rpms low and manifold pressure high, the oil temperature rises not as fast, probably because of less friction.

And of course, as already mentioned, use rich mixture to help cooling.

 

I haven't had much experience with radials yet, I can't tell if flying level with low power is better than short climbing and gliding periods.

[CaK_Rumcajs]

Lean mixture => slow fuel burning => increased temperature of cylinders and especially exhaust valves.

Rich mixture => some heat is spent on evaporating the extra fuel hence serves as coolant, also causes carbon deposits.

 

BTW this technique is used even today with direct injection engines. To lower fuel consumption the engine runs on lean mixture. To prevent overheating some strokes are made rich to cool the engine a bit again.

 

 

All this may have very little to do with the game. Unless confirmed by devs it's nearly impossible to make any assesments regarding best strategy to prolong damaged engine's life. We never know how exactly the engine was damaged and how it's interpreted by the game engine. TBH no need to make it science. If you get the "engine damaged" message, you have very limited time of engine running. Bail out or get ready for ditching the airplane. If it's in combat the chance of getting out of the mess unscathed becomes very slim. To prevent being shot down people turn engine off to prevent further damage to it and try to land. It has more to do with how the game calculates shot down state than damaged engine management.

[-TBC-AeroAce]

I'm my experience if they are gona konck they konck and u know they will if the rpm starts spiking. Otherwise they generally keep going but of course its wise in all situations to dial back the rpm, mp and make sure its cooled

[Ace_Pilto]

What % mixture do you use in soviet planes when cruising? I know altitude is a factor.

 

Do you look at the color of the flames?

 

No, I look at the tachometer. On the ground run it up to 1,000RPM or so and decrease mixture. The RPM will increase (by 50/100 RPM), when the RPM stop increasing you have the best mixture for your height. If the RPM start to go down again then you've leaned it too much.

 

It's usually use around 85% at low alt and gets leaner it as you get higher, check it at 3,000m or when you change supercharger stages. 

[Kuhnada]

If your engine is hit just lower your propeller pitch, this is tied directly to the engines RPM

 

it will preserve and keep cool your engine until you get back to base. If your engine is on fire just dive fast..the wind will extinguish the fire. 

[6./ZG26_5tuka]

For engine fires the standard procedure is:

 

1. Cut your throttle to idle

2. close your radiators

3. enter a dive at above cruising speed and wait for the fire to extinguish

4. If it doesn't you may turn the engine off for a while (be carefull in BoS as you rarely can restart it once turned off after reccieving damage).

 

Propeller pitch should be as low as possible to allow better gliding + low RPM. I have not seen this working perperly ingame however as either the aircraft desintegrated or the pilot died well before the fire eventually went out.

Edited August 18, 2015 by Stab/JG26_5tuka