Engine management

[sturmkraehe]

I am now trying to play with realistic settings and this requires of course some engine management. To be honest I have no clue. I know that with radiator and oil cooler opening I manage heat and should avoid overheating. Mixing is for altitude adaptation. But are there some guidelines, e.g. 60% throttle + 60% rpm for cruise, 100% throttle&rpm for dogfight etc.?

[busdriver]

In the timeless words that have echoed in fighter squadron briefings around the world..."it depends." Give us something to work with, which airplane, are you using technochat, do you know the difference between Continuous (works all day), Combat (lasts a limited time), and Emergency Power (works for a minute or five)? The Specification page for each airplane has the data. 

 

Have you looked at this?

 

 

Or this

 

 

 

[6./ZG26_5tuka]

The aircraft ingame are very specific (which they were in reality, too) so there can not be a general "rule of thumb" in operating the parameters.

 

If you want to learn the basics of engine managemenet pick a simple aircraft (Yaks, Lagg-3 and the Ju-87 are pretty beginner friendly) and watch your guages as you change some of the engine settings. Read the aircraft specification sheet ingame to know your engine limits like

 

Water overheating temperature

Oil overheating temperature

Max continues RPM & Manifold pressure

Combat Power RPM & Manifold pressure

Emergency Power RPM & Manifold pressure

Supercharger Gear transition altitude

 

Some aircraft have the benefit of shared engines, for example the Ju-87, Ju-88 and He-111 all use the Jumo 211 which means they share their engine settings. Same goes for all Klimov M-105 powered aircraft like the Yaks, Lagg-3 and Peshkas.

[Dragon1-1]

If you've got the time, there's Sheriff's guides for some aircraft. However, the problem with them is that they're on YouTube, and they take a lot of time. The rest, I'm afraid, are dry technical specs. All the other guides I've seen just read from the pilot notes, you have to figure out the important stuff yourself. Written materials for Il-2 are utter crud, for most part pilot's notes in another form. The only decent one I've found is only for FC.

 

There are a few rules of thumb, however:

For combat, 100% RPM, boost on, rich mixture, and control MP with the throttle.

In combat, stay in combat power, and use emergency for as long as you need to.
Water rads are more draggy than oil ones, close them first if you need speed.

Cowl outlet shutters are draggy and don't do much, don't open them at all unless you're running hot (or you're in scissors and need an ersatz speedbrake).

Don't close cowl inlet shutters unless diving at low power, they're not draggy at all.

Oil and water are OK around 100-110 degrees, cylinders around 200. Open the rads if they get hotter than that.

As long as you don't flood the engine, too rich mixture is much better than too lean, especially in combat, where extra fuel will cool the engine.

 

The important values are:
Cruise RPM (that's what you set when you want to go off the combat mode).
Emergency MP.

Combat MP.

Supercharger gear shift altitude.