Radial Engine Cooling

[SaQSoN]

There is no coolant leaks whatsoever in the game. Even on water cooled engines.

PS Hint: all engines, no matter how they are cooled, have oil inside of them.

[Luno13]

Radial engines are quite a bit tougher in this game than in-lines. On multiple occasions I've had a damaged and whining Pratt and Whitney turning for at least the 30 minutes it took to get back to base. A Merlin typically seizes up instantly or quits within five minutes.

The black smoke effect you are seeing is just oil burning. Coolant would appear more like a fuel leak if it was modeled.

[Letum]

Originally Posted by SaQSoN

There is no coolant leaks whatsoever in the game. Even on water cooled engines.

Wait...what? Really?

[Pursuivant]

Something screwy that I've noticed is that identical engines with similar cooling setups sometimes behave in very different fashions. For example, it's very hard to get the Wright R-1820-40 Cyclone on the B-239 Buffalo to overheat, but much easier to get it to overheat on the Curtis-Wright CW-21 Demon.

For liquid-cooled engines I can understand if there's more variation in the time that it takes for the engine to overheat or cool down, since you're dealing with things like radiator surface area and heat transfer efficiency.

For radials, it seems like there shouldn't be so much variation, though, since you've basically got a big round engine and the size and shape of the cooling flaps is more or less defined by the engine's diameter.

[Luno13]

For radials it's a bit tricky too. The aircraft could be cruising at different speeds due to drag or mass and the cowl size/shape ought to have an effect. Propeller types (weight and diameter) could have an impact as well if you're maintaining a certain % "power".