Extending life of the engine in Bf 109

[todeskvlt]

Hi, how set throttle and propeller pitch when the engine is damaged to extend his life in situation when i finish combat and want return to the airfield?

[L3Pl4K]

Prop on 100 percent(low rpm) if possible. Manifold pressure at 0.8 ATA or lower if possible.  Possibilitys will be increased by cold weather.

Edited July 8, 2018 by L3Pl4K

[Blitzen]

I read somewhere that the average life span for a 109 during the war was about 9 hours...so don’t worry about engine life...?

[BubiHUN]

Pull back the throttle to 37%, open radiators fully, and dont go in dives. 

[Willy__]

Engage manual prop pitch and set it so that you get 1800-2000 rpms, manifold pressure should be not higher than 1.0 ata, 0.8-1.0 is a good range, any less you start to lose too much speed. You shouldnt worry about the water radiator until the engine goes out, after that engage manual radiator and close it fully. Best way chance to get back to base is going straight to it with climbing, if your engines craps out you can use the remaining alt to glide to base.

[6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann]

It does like a new Oil Filter every 25 hours. 

[todeskvlt]

I made test in Bf 109 F4. I'm not sure how it relates to engine damaged by bullet but i broke my engine by flying at 100% throttle. When i receive message that engine is damaged i change throttle to 0% immediately, after that i set propeller pitch and radiator to 100% and throttle to 50% (0.8 ATA).

 

I was at 700m height and i flew 21:37 min after i crash because when my speed go down to less than 200 km/h i had to go down 100m to gain speed 220-230 km/h.

 

100m down gives me few mins of flight.

 

Thank you guys.

[Inkophile]

100% propeller pitch is often exaggerated unless you have a lot of altitude to spend, because it gives very low thrust. But as Willy_ said aiming for ca 1800 rpm coupled with the already several times mentioned 0.8 ata is usually good. That way you'll produce sufficient thrust to get home even at very low altitude, unless your plane looks like Swiss cheese.

Edited July 9, 2018 by Inkoslav

[todeskvlt]

Ok, i will test it too. Thank you

[=EXPEND=CG_Justin]

I set prop to 100%, open rads 100%, and depending on the 109 variant, whatever the highest "Continuous Power" setting would be. Provided the engine is not severely damaged, I never have an issue with thrust when RTB with a broken engine. As a general rule, if the engine is causing the aircraft to shake and shudder, and there is oil accumulating on the windscreen (or any combination of the two), find a place to land NOW. You have just a few short minutes. 

 

I know this seems like a pretty generic procedure, but I'm a pretty generic guy and I like to keep it simple. Like I said, as long as my engine is not hit hard, I usually make it home.

[SCG_motoadve]

Does opening rads help at all? it will add drag, does it extend the life of a damaged engine?

 

Anyone tested it?

[todeskvlt]

Hello, i made a new test with settings according to what Inkoslav and Willy said.

 

When i receive message that engine is damaged i changed throttle to 0% immediately, after that i set propeller pitch to get 1800 RPM and throttle to get 0.8 ATA. I opened the radiator to 40%, but I don't know if it had any effect on the test result.

 

The result was better than I could have ever imagined. I flew one hour in straight line with constant speed 320 km/h and constant height 790 m!

 

Of course the whole airplane was in perfect condition except the engine that i broke by myself so after fight the result may be different but i guess it's worth to try.

[6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann]

If the engine runs a bit too Sooty you should replace the Spark Plugs.

[1_Robert_]

On a side note it would be cool if we could clear oil from the windscreen like the real bird. 

[Willy__]

5 hours ago, todeskvlt said:

The result was better than I could have ever imagined. I flew one hour in straight line with constant speed 320 km/h and constant height 790 m!

 

The amount of time that you can fly with a damaged engine depends on how much damage it took. If you purposely used throttle at 100% to break it and then immediately cut throttle you can still fly a long time, but if the engine took some bullets it may not run longer. Basically in your test you did the best possible scenario. 

[=EXPEND=CG_Justin]

3 hours ago, 1_Robert_ said:

On a side note it would be cool if we could clear oil from the windscreen like the real bird. 

 

You can, just shut the engine down and the oil will slowly dissipate. You can also stop your engine from smoking in this fashion. Restarting could be challenging though.

[SCG_motoadve]

If you go thru the clouds your windscreen will be cleaned.

[Inkophile]

5 hours ago, =BAIT=CG_Justin said:

 

You can, just shut the engine down and the oil will slowly dissipate. You can also stop your engine from smoking in this fashion. Restarting could be challenging though.

 

Well, even though we can let the oil blow off we can't use the Germans' feature of washing the front glass with fuel (petrol dissolves oil), which was a quite handy thing.

[todeskvlt]

7 hours ago, Willy__ said:

 

The amount of time that you can fly with a damaged engine depends on how much damage it took. If you purposely used throttle at 100% to break it and then immediately cut throttle you can still fly a long time, but if the engine took some bullets it may not run longer. Basically in your test you did the best possible scenario. 

 

Yes, i wrote about that in last sentence  hope i can test it soon at Wings of Liberty.
 

13 hours ago, todeskvlt said:

Of course the whole airplane was in perfect condition except the engine that i broke by myself so after fight the result may be different but i guess it's worth to try.