P51D overheat ARB

Game Discussion Realistic Battle
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1

Does anyone else have problems with the P51Ds overheating without WEP?

Im grinding china to try us and ussr trees at once (and for j7e) so I only have 2 p51s (the d20 and k (d30)) but they both overheat slightly on 100% throttle. The oil is fine, but the water yellows at 111 Celsius and eventually oranges, still at 111. No engine damage shows on the vehicle model, and I don’t feel any noticeable performance drop, but it prevents WEPing since the AEC overheats the engine almost immediately, and then the damage is there.

It also plays on the weaknesses of my p51 playstyle, with the main effects showing late in the match when I usually pick up the most kills. Usually I stay high and loiter, picking up late-game kills, without RBTing. But that lets the engine overheat for the whole match, and usually by the end I’ve lost the ability to WEP without damage.

I’ve tried MEC, but i dont want to have to manage prop pitch and mixture and supercharger

it feels similar to when your engine overheats due to high rpm, not normal use, but that could be my lack of expertise (ive played lots of other warthunder-esque games before, but i only have 40 hours on WT itself)

Anyone have any tips?
should I climb then throttle down and let the engine cool
this only happens after 15-20 minutes of flying (always at 100% no WEP) so usually i only throttle down when the engine is already in the orange
the reddit article from 11 years ago only agrees that its there without offering solutions

2

Good news, you don’t have to on the P-51s, they don’t have any superchargers, and you don’t need mixture control for all but a handful of planes.

For the D-30, set the prop pitch, oil, and radiator all to 100.

2 Likes
3

I tend no not have many problems, but if they are overheating, just turn the throttle down to 90% and it should cool down pretty quickly

4

The P-51D does, its just automatically controlled, and I’m pretty sure you can’t control them, because of that. Its the same story with the 109s

5

at all?
my understanding of MEC is that you can either activate it with the keybind in-flight or you can disable the instructor control of the engine in options
do they both give you manual control of the same things or no

6

… yes they do.

Its powered by the rolls royce merlin, a supercharged v12 engine, even the allisons had superchargers iirc. however i dont think theres any way to control the gear stage they are in within WT, irl they were manual to some extent

2 Likes
7

Some engine mechanisms are entirely automated to the point where the pilot cannot control certain aspects manually

8

The D models are just bad. It’s best you skip em.

9

Work with the throttle (lower/higher) in 90% -100% mode - full WEP.
Usually this is enough for many aircraft.
If the engine overheats into the red, you have to reduce it to 70% for some aircraft…
When climbing you need full power, when descending it is good to reduce the throttle, at the same time the propeller blades are automatically adjusted and the aircraft accelerates…

It is quite alchemy how to work with the throttle correctly…
If you are looking for your own throttle and propeller blade settings (MEC), go through the forum, but in the game it is not possible for all aircraft and it is quite simplified…
Some experienced players recommend not using WEP at all, removing it in the settings and playing vertically, exchanging height for speed…

10

“Some experienced players” Experienced in what? Certainly not War Thunder. Not using WEP is crippling yourself on purpose, you have so many better ways of dealing with overheating engines that it’s ridiculous to suggest you give up such a huge portion of your engines potential just to not see funny number go yellow. Most matches the average player doesn’t even live long enough for the engine to start flashing red after which is the ONLY point where it starts taking irreversible damage, and even that is moderate and can be controlled by cooling again.

As for the OP, as others have pointed out the only thing you have to do in p51 is set PP to 100% and then control the radiator. Then turn MEC back off when you throttle below 100% so the prop pitch doesn’t slow you down unnecessarily (unless you want it to). Mixture is not modeled and supercharger is controlled automatically even on MEC.