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Old 03-01-2022, 10:33 PM
bladeracer bladeracer is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Perth, WestOz
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Col Ninny View Post
In real life a damaged engine would be run with lowered power and rpm settings and max cooling to reduce the stresses on it and keep it running.

There are a variety of opinions on this in the IL-2 BoS community. My view is that if you reduce the power and rpm you naturally reduce your speed. This means that if you reduce your speed to 200 from 400 it will take you twice as long to get to your destination. It also means you will be running the damaged engine for twice as long increasing the chances of a fail.

Personally, I run engines and rpm at 90% pwr and rpm because it "feels" right. But there is no way to tell and confirm if what we are doing actually works!

When we get a flag saying "First engine is damaged" we have no idea by how much. Thus we have no idea if increasing or decreasing the power, rpm, or cooling rads has any effect whatsoever on keeping the engine running.

The assumption is that the game mechanics/physics will mimic real-life but is there a definitve answer?

What so ye oh wise CEM fanatics!!! What proof is there ? Cheers, Col ninny
I don't know how "mechanical" the damage model is, it may be modelled with zero regard to actual engine architecture.

Depends somewhat on the engine design. A water-cooled engine is going to seize fairly quickly as coolant runs out, so you have a very limited lifespan regardless of whether you run it hard or light. A water-cooled engine is not just an air-cooled engine with a cooling system, it has been designed to run significantly hotter to make more power, the cooling system is _required_ to prevent the combustion chamber (piston/cylinder/head) from warping. But in reality that time span will depend on where the leak is in the cooling system.

An air-cooled engine is likely to run for a while until the oil has run out. If an upper cylinder has been torn off the engine but the sump is intact the engine may run indefinitely despite the damage. If the engine is not damaged at all, but an oil feed line has been cut, the engine will run just fine while it pumps the sump dry, then it will seize. Even a water-cooled engine that takes a shell through the block below the water jacket will likely run for a while, even if the conrod is broken, as long as there is still oil in the sump.

Much like fuel leaks, if you have engine damage that is only causing fluid leakage then you have a time period during which the engine will probably run normally. In this case it may be prudent to push the engine harder for a short period to extend before easing off. If you have a fuel tank leak you might as well go full throttle, the engine is not going to drink fuel faster than it's leaking out.
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