...a very good article from Viper on engine management in IL2/FB...
Simple Engine Management Got ya Down? Well Read here for a great article about Engine Management.
Simple Engine Management

1. Things to remember:

a. opening your radiator completely can overheat your engine by causing enough drag to work your engine even harder when already hot. This can be avoided by a careful eye on your guages. In a radial engine, watch that cylinder head temperature as well as oil temp as u cruise to the combat area. In an inline liquid cooled engine, be sure to keep the radiator closed long enough to get your coolant temperature up to working range before opening to the proper radiator aperature. If your coolant temp stays low you are not exchanging heat, and your oil temp and cylinder head temps will climb uncontrollably. As we fly German aircraft for the most part, the later models have automatic venting control, which works well here in FB outside of combat situations(when throttle is below 100%, wep off). In the early 109's and Fw's, once again be sure to learn your guages and carefully monitor them for proper cooling.

b.Keep your rev's down to indicated safe rpm. Especially in the early planes, throttle down in those dives to keep the prop from overdriving your engine. This can also happen on auto-prop planes during a dive steep and long enuff to overdrive the prop clutching system. High RPM's lead to cylinder head overheat even when coolant and oil temp guages read acceptable, and also can simply blow your engine due to overstress.

2. Prop Pitch settings:

a. Never set your prop pitch at a percentage lower than your throttle settings, e.g. it would seem that you can set for a "higher gear" by setting your throttle at say 95% and the prop pitch at 90%. But, by doing so you simply waste fuel and overstress your crankshaft, as well as generate alot of heat by "loading" your engine thus putting engine rpm at odds with mixture and fuel intake settings with no gain in performance, as the overloaded engine is not burning fuel efficiently due to reduced rpm under pressure. In an actual aircraft you would immediately foul all your sparkplugs by fuel wetting and crash, although mercifully it seems oleg didn't include that here. The proper setting for a 90% prop pitch is about 90% throttle( I tend to set about 87% or so) and on down the line. Logically, one can see that top throttle is designed for top rpm and so on and so forth. All later Me models from the F models onward,and the Dora-9 as well, have automatic pitch control, which is proper in 99% of situations...

3. Mixture settings:

Although these vary slightly from aircraft to aircraft, these are some general guidelines for german planes:

a. Below 6000 ft(1800m) a pilot should set for 120%

b. From 6 to 12,000ft(1850 to 3500m) 100% mix

c. from 12 to 18,000ft (3550 to 5500m) 80% mix

d. from 18,000 to 25,000ft( 5550 to 8000m) 60% mix

e. from 25,000ft to ceiling 50% mix

Lower mixtures than 50% are usually for economizing fuel burn for long range cruising.

* note- it was pointed out to me once by a UBI Forum Member that German planes will run on 100% mix at high alt, and that the fuel injection system made manual mix settings redundant. He was correct in saying that they will run like that, but saying they run is about all. Remember that a fuel injected engine also needs air, and by restricting or dialating the intake aperature and advancing or retarding injection timing the most efficient mixture is obtained giving better response and power, keeps those plugs dry and provides better, faster response.

Till next time
Viper


....article courtesy IL2flying.com

The mixture settings vary rather significantly by aircraft type so it is worthwhile to test for yourself in the aircraft you are flying, and as luck would have it, it is easy to see if you need to lean the mixture out by simply looking for the peak EGT/CHT or Peak RPM/Manifold Pressure. If leaning does not lead to an increase in MP/RPM (depending on if you are flying auto or manual prop) you do not need to lean it.  This section (below) is incorrect in real aircraft, as well as in the sim (though for different reasons). Many pilots have been taught to avoid "over-square" operations however there is no actual merit to this, and a well trained, instructor today will teach a different method as the understanding of engine behaviour has evolved. This is a complex issue, and the complexities of it don't apply to the sim. In the Case of the sim,  many of you have noticed that you must run reduced prop pitch settings in many LW craft, and in many allied planes you don't *need* to but you will be rewarded with increased performance if you do. Oddly enough you will also notice that this performance doesn't come with any associated temp increase. The type of operation will determine what prop setting you employ, climb is different than cruise, which is different than descent which is different than dogfighting etc. Once again, you need to experiment in each plane type that you are seeking to master. Of course this muct be done in the current version of the game as every patch that comes out nullifies any detailed testing you did in the previous patch. "a. Never set your prop pitch at a percentage lower than your throttle settings, e.g. it would seem that you can set for a "higher gear" by setting your throttle at say 95% and the prop pitch at 90%. But, by doing so you simply waste fuel and overstress your crankshaft, as well as generate a lot of heat by "loading" your engine thus putting engine rpm at odds with mixture and fuel intake settings with no gain in performance, as the overloaded engine is not burning fuel efficiently due to reduced rpm under pressure. In an actual aircraft you would immediately foul all your sparkplugs by fuel wetting and crash, although mercifully it seems oleg didn't include that here. The proper setting for a 90% prop pitch is about 90% throttle( I tend to set about 87% or so) and on down the line. Logically, one can see that top throttle is designed for top rpm and so on and so forth. All later Me models from the F models onward,and the Dora-9 as well, have automatic pitch control, which is proper in 99% of situations... "S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO

Well, until recently, I never messed with anything and did average to okay, and now, i'm experimenting with pitch etc and i'm horrible.  I have much to learn and retain my short term memory lessons like a strainer retains water (note....short term memory loss associated to what?????).I'm to understand prop pitch is like changing gears right?  Lower the pitch..80 down to 75 down to 70 etc like going from 5th gear to 4th to 3rg while riding a bike, or is it the opposite? Is lower prop pitch equal to hitting that lavel road and you increase gears for faster performance, or reverse?  Basicly, what I need to now is how pitch relates to a bikes gearing to better understand it and therefor use it effectivly, and not be a worse pilot.I'll never know if I don't ask.

....Copper,lowering the prop pitch from 100% to 70% is like changing from First gear on the bike to 4th gear...In my HE-111 I usually take off at 100-95% pitch at 100%mix.Once I get off the ground I set pitch to 80-90% and mix to 80% to maintain 300/320kts enroute to target.Also worth noting is that when you decrease prop pitch while on approach to your landing field while reducing throttle you can slow your plane down faster than by just reducing throttle....say backing throttle to 20%...and changing pitch from 90-100% to 50% or less...then once slow enough I then increase pitch to 95/100% in case I need to adjust speed quickly..TX-Cuda

Generally in a combat maneuvering situation you want as much available power and thrust as you can get from the prop, this means the maximal Manifold Pressure/RPM (in other words: throttle) and the maximal safe RPM (as adjusted by the prop pitch controls if the aircraft is so equipped). In  cruise you clearly will not want such a setting as it can't be maintained for very long, and in a sustained climb you won't either as your engine will suffer.These non-combat times are when it may be helpful to run lower RPMs. Of course you can only lower them a little before you will be scrubbing energy, there is a point at which the flying speed will maximize and beyond this you are wasting engergy. For example in cruise conditions in most planes I fly I may run 24 inches Manifold pressure and will roll the prop down to 2100-2200 to quiet the ride, and reduce the fatiguing low frequency sound generated by the prop. There is often a scale of equivalent power settings published that lists various MPs and RPMs that result in, say, 75% power output. In the sim it doesn't have much detail or accuracy in this regarg so employing real world techniques isn't really going to reward you as much as learning how your plane behaves in game. In the real world there are going to be power settings for each operation, many of which can be maintained only for a short time. In the sim most people just fly close to wide open at all times, and at either 100% prop or auto prop in the 109's and D9s. Generally this is *OK* in the sim. One thing you will see though is that some manual control may help you out a bit, in other instances it isn't really worth it. The p-45, 51, and 39 (and probably many others) will cruise faster at lower prop pitch settings (which is actually higher blade pitch) than at 100%, and in a cruise climb they may even climb faster provided you are using a fast climb speed. In this aircraft it is certainly worth it to be able to extract a little more speed out of them when cruising, especially if you are either in pursuit or heading home with no ammo. . . this may give you an edge over the bandit that changes the outcome of the engagement. In the case of the 109s/D9s etc I generally find the prop pitch to be too cumbersome to be worth it's use. There are ways that people can sort of exploit the way the game interfaces with the player to make rapid changes from auto to manual and this is thought to circumvent the overheat issue somewhat while still allowing rather high RPMs for the purpose of extreme climb angles and low speeds. I for one feel that the benefit, is not worth the effort that you are taking away from flying the plane, watching your wingman's 6, calling sitreps, etc. It also simply feels like one of those game things that don't belong in a sim. . . I like to think I use this more as a sim than a game, and as such don't really enjoy this type of thing. In the Soviet planes there really is no need that I have seen to run anything but 100% prop. You can cool your engine a little. . . but in a DF you aren't going to want to be killing your thrust, so its only useful in cruise.Here is my old CEM post that lists some particulars for the individual aircraft: http://www.txsquadron.com/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=&TOPIC_ID=601S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO

Thanks Cuda and Eco....much appreciated.