Hurricane radiator settings

[Plt Off JRB Meaker]

Ok,I'm sure this has been asked before,but now that I think I have mastered CEM,I now want to fly my Hurricane using 'Engine Temperature Effects'as well,so I'm asking the following questions.

1.What % of rad open should I start up engine with?

2.What % of rad open should I take off with?

3.What's the best % of rad open should I have open during normal flight?...I know this is a bit dependant on RPM so let's say I'm using about 2600 approx in normal level flight.

Any help to guide me into getting this feature right I'd be most grateful,thanks.;)

[MadTommy]

All i can say is what i do.

Rad closed to start and to warm up engine. Open it when the temp is around 60

Open for take off & climb.

Between 20 - 60% during cruise.

Not sure if this is right.. but i just keep an eye on the temp and adjust accordingly.

[Les]

I'd recommend starting up and taking off with radiators fully closed, but then opening them up all the way as soon as you're in the air, and then leaving them open all the time. Edit - On second thoughts, as the others have said, safer to open them right up before take-off.

After a cold start, it takes a couple of minutes to warm up the engine enough to get moving without throttling up and stalling. Having the radiators closed can speed that up. But once in the air it can take less than a couple of minutes to cook your engine if you leave the radiators fully closed.

I haven't played around with varying the radiators while flying, to try and reach and maintain maximum cruising speed for example, so I can't say what trade-offs there might be between cooling and loss of airspeed due to radiator drag in the game. Don't know what they did in real life either. All I know is, with radiators fully open, and keeping a constant watch on the boost and oil temperature gauges, overheating's never an issue for me.

[MadTommy]

I'd recommend starting up and taking off with radiators fully closed

I've perforated my radiator on take-off doing this.. temps can rise very fast! Probably okay if you watch the gauge like a hawk.

[BlackbusheFlyer]

Radiator should be open on ground full, after take-off passing 500ft AAL set to three quarters open for climb. Cruise around 40-50% is fine. Coming into land, open radiator on downwind. Basically monitor it and adjust accordingly as part of T's & P's checks.

[Plt Off JRB Meaker]

Thanks for the input guys,I'm starting to get this all now,I'm certainly not getting oil leaks all over the windscreen which was really getting on my nerves previously.

[Blackdog_kt]

Generally, engine start, taxing and take-off are done with radiators full open in most aircraft, from warbirds to cessnas in your local aeroclub.

During flight you can take advantage of the airflow helping with heat dissipation so theoretically the faster you go for a given power setting the less you need to open them. If you go flat out on the throttle thought, it's only natural that you'll need to open them.

Just like the previous posters said, i keep them open from engine start to take off, then use about 3/4 during the climb. In cruise and combat i can get away with about 50% or less (depending on aircraft) because i try to keep fast at all times.

That being said, it seems that the temp effects might be a bit understated in the sim. I'm not a real world pilot mind you so i can't say if it's realistic or it should be tweaked in a patch, i'm just going by my experience from other sims.

Anyway, my impression is that when idling on the ground with the rads fully open the temps take too long to rise or don't rise to the expected level at all. This is usually solved by advancing the throttle a bit during taxi, or just using about 30% throttle during the initial take-off run to let it warm up in a hurry, then apply full power.

Also, it seems that during flight i can't get the engines to overheat easily. I don't know how easy or hard it should be, i just find that after stepping into CEM and temp effects from day one with my only similar experience being some limited FSX flights with 3rd party add-ons on a friend's PC, i usually never have to worry about overheating during combat and didn't ever damage an engine unless i was doing it on purpose to see how it works.

I just set rads to a setting that works and forget about them until i need to change power settings for a prolonged amount of time, as cutting to idle to force an overshoot or going full power for a few seconds when chasing a target in a climb is not enough to drastically affect the temps.

[Plt Off JRB Meaker]

Thanks Blackdog,this is all good stuff,I really have appreciated all the help here,so thanks to you all.No more blown engines for me,......not ones I cause myself anyway!