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Managing Heat


reece146

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I've been having a bugger of a time trying to manage the heat in the Mustang in combat.

 

I've done some searching here in the forum but I'm not sure if the things mentioned are still applicable in the latest few builds (stable or OB). They don't seem to help ... much.

 

I've tried various combinations of manually controlling the coolant and oil doors, leaving them automatic, etc.

 

Context: extended dog fight... trying to use full throttle as little as possible, breaking the seal, trying to keep boost under the seal, under WEP when possible, as little as possible, 10-15-20 minutes in ... gauges are pegged ... engine seizure is bound to happen. Normally by that time I'm trying to extend away and being chased by D9s... success is ... yeah.

 

Pointers?

 

Btw, is there any difference between -25 and -30 with respect to heat management?

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Admittedly there are times when my speed is quite low, and my overall average speed is on the lower side - could very well be the problem. Lot's of high alpha, dunno if that is modeled into the cooling system as an oblique flow over the radiators. AI D9s are a PITA!

 

Refresh my memory on what speed I should be trying to stay above from a cooling perspective?

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If you are staying slow during a dogfight, you are not using this airplane correctly. Speed is the Mustangs biggest asset. It's not a Spitfire, don't fly it like one.

Set RPM's to about 2700. Leave it there. Keep your sped up without redlining it.

The Mustang is not hard to manage. It's one of the airplane's strongpoints. A lot of fighters that came before it gave the pilot a heavy workload, but the Mustang is a piece of cake, really.

And Reece, you think the AI Doras are hard. I find them an easy shoot down. It's the 109K that's a royal PITA! At least I think so, anyway.

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Yes, the 109s are hard as well but I seem to fare better against them.

 

FWIW, in the fights I am having I am downing D9s - there's just lots of them.

 

But yes, I do gravitate to flying/fighting like a Spitfire at times and try to catch myself when I do.

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I was testing P-51 in hot weather.

I set 30 C ambient temp.

Pls, can any one show me how to take off this bird w/o overheating.

After take off, speed 200 mph still not sufficient to drop coolant temp below red line.

Even in my cold country 30 C happens from time to time, but in hotter places on paved airfields temp near the ground can be much much higher, So can any one explain to me why RL P-51 do take offs in hot days w/o blowing coolant ?

Is it because Cooling system is improved in modern P-51

I totally get that P-51 may overheat while siting on the ground, or while taxing, but once it hit 100 mph should be able to cool engine at any power rating.

Taking off with coolant doors set to auto will obliterate coolant temp.

Other issue is while climbing full power or WEP at speed 170mph which is the best climb.

I did not read any info about cooling problems while those testing were done, i know that while P-51s were tested at 75" MP pilots dint report any cooling problems.

Do any one know is this a real thing that P-51 cant take off w/o overheating in hot day ??

Same problem happens while flying at high alt, Low IAS sometimes makes impossible to use max power.


Edited by grafspee

System specs: I7 14700KF, Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Elite, 64GB DDR4 3600MHz, Gigabyte RTX 4090,Win 11, 48" OLED LG TV + 42" LG LED monitor

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I can't speak to the real plane but I spent a bunch of time flying the DCS Mustang a few days ago.

 

What I found was that with the oil and coolant flaps set to auto the plane tends to overheat if speed is below ~220 indicated. This is under 10k feet but didn't really seem to matter a lot for any altitude. Even at 38k' it was overheating if speed was slow. It's supposed to be -60 degrees at that altitude...

 

My testing was mostly trying to cruise at 2400RPM and 36".

 

The quickest way to get the engine to cool once it was close to red was to open the oil cooler. Then it would cool quickly even with the coolant in auto. The water coolant flap/duct seemed to be much more "secondary" (tertiary?) for cooling.

 

I haven't tried it again in extreme conditions like dogfighting.

 

There was a recent thread here regarding overheating while taxiing. Suggestions was to make sure all your taxxing is done into the wind. Not sure how practical that is - or how realistic.

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At high alt, air density is much lower, so even -40 C, there are not much air molecules to absorb heat.

System specs: I7 14700KF, Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Elite, 64GB DDR4 3600MHz, Gigabyte RTX 4090,Win 11, 48" OLED LG TV + 42" LG LED monitor

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There was a recent thread here regarding overheating while taxiing. Suggestions was to make sure all your taxing is done into the wind. Not sure how practical that is - or how realistic.

 

It is common in case of liquid cooled planes, if you taxing with wind, the small airflow through radiators is reduced by wind making engine overheat.

But once you gain some speed radiator should be able to provide cooling.

In DCS when you are about to take off and you are on high side of temp limit you will hit 150 C which in my opinion is not realistic.

Even with Hot engine planes should be able to take off, where DCS P-51 cant. some time has temps problems at speeds 200 mph-220 mph, Secondly Coolant doors actuators lag behind the temp changes in P-51 by far. This thing alone makes me suspicious.

Second thing, In P-51 manuals, nothing is mentioned about cooling problems in Hot weather, i think it would be if there was a problem with cooling.

Something off here :)


Edited by grafspee

System specs: I7 14700KF, Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Elite, 64GB DDR4 3600MHz, Gigabyte RTX 4090,Win 11, 48" OLED LG TV + 42" LG LED monitor

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  • 2 weeks later...

If your going to turn and burn open both oil and water radiators. Oil tends to get hot in general and I periodically open it to lower oil temps in general. Just keep an eye on temps and you will generally get a feel of when to open what radiator.

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Noticed that the new OB release notes mentions fixing oil pressure issues in the Mustang. I wonder if this could make a difference to the cooling since it seems to be oil cooling related.

 

 

Not sure I'll get chance to test tonight.

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Just spent ~40 minutes beating on the Mustang doing totally mechanically unsympathetic, ham-fisted, monkey things to the engine.

 

In auto she manages heat fine now. I guess that fix of the oil pressure in the this week's patch is what was needed.

 

Fully automatic just works - will get hot when going too slow but not stoopid hot the way it was. Once conditions improve it cools off quickly also. Was WOT most of the 40 mins. About 5-6 minutes with the seal broken in the middle of the flight.

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Set RPM's to about 2700. Leave it there.

 

You can only get away with that against the AI.

 

P51 engine is borked. WEP will seize the engine, just a question of how quickly.

P-51D | Fw 190D-9 | Bf 109K-4 | Spitfire Mk IX | P-47D | WW2 assets pack | F-86 | Mig-15 | Mig-21 | Mirage 2000C | A-10C II | F-5E | F-16 | F/A-18 | Ka-50 | Combined Arms | FC3 | Nevada | Normandy | Straight of Hormuz | Syria

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The rpm needs to be higher or equal to the Equivalent manifold pressure other wise it will overheat pretty quickly (High manifold pressure with low rpm will overheat the engine). Always drop manifold pressure first before rpm. You can pretty much keep the rpm at 30 and just drop the manifold pressure to keep the heat at bay.

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The rpm needs to be higher or equal to the Equivalent manifold pressure other wise it will overheat pretty quickly (High manifold pressure with low rpm will overheat the engine). Always drop manifold pressure first before rpm. You can pretty much keep the rpm at 30 and just drop the manifold pressure to keep the heat at bay.

 

This is not matter of overheat because, engine at 61" 3000 rpm produce more heat then at 61" 2700 rpm.

Too high MP for given rpm will risk detonations to occur, and this will damage engine severely, or even it can knock out engine completely in relatively(overheating damage) short time.


Edited by grafspee

System specs: I7 14700KF, Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Elite, 64GB DDR4 3600MHz, Gigabyte RTX 4090,Win 11, 48" OLED LG TV + 42" LG LED monitor

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