Cold engines not starting?

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FireRescue85
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Cold engines not starting?

Post by FireRescue85 »

Hey guys,

I've noticed recently that if the temperature drops below -20C the engine's wont start. I think it's due to the oil being too cold, however when I open up the fuel/weight management window and click "oil", it is refilling the oil but not raising the temperature like I thought it should (to simulate engine heaters or adding warm oil, like it does in the B-17 and B377). Anyone know a way around this issue to start your engines in very cold climates?
Fire Marshall, Firefighter/Emergency Medical Tech.

B-17G
B377
L-049

alan CXA651
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Re: Cold engines not starting?

Post by alan CXA651 »

Hi.
-20 is pretty cold , how many attempts at starting do you try , and does the engines seem to rotate slower than normal , i cannot remember what the temps where when at aspen last year , but it took two oil changes and about a dozen attempts , before they fired up , and that was after an oil dilution the night before.
Also what is the state of the engines mine where excellent last year , they are now in a good condition , the one thing you could try , is spawn at an airfield in a warm climate , fire them up , when warm do an oil dilution , max two min then shut them down , and see if that helps when back at the cold airport.
regards alan.
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FireRescue85
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Re: Cold engines not starting?

Post by FireRescue85 »

Hey Alan,

Engines are in excellent condition with 47 hours on them. Rotation speed seems to be fine with them, I even spooled them up with no magnetos or fuel flowing (was in the C-69 operating handbook for cold climates to allow oil to move) and I get an increase in oil pressure while they spool. I tried the engines 4 separate times to no avail, and the engines are still in excellent conditions. I spawned in a warmer climate and they fired right up.

My main question is, I thought the L-049 had a similar feature like the other A2A aircraft where if you hit "oil" under the fuel/payload screen it tops of your oil, while raising the temperature to about 70F. This was to simulate engine warmers or adding hot oil as needed for a cold engine. I might be mistaken, but I thought the Connie had that feature, like the B377 and B17G.

-Scott
Fire Marshall, Firefighter/Emergency Medical Tech.

B-17G
B377
L-049

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Scott - A2A
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Re: Cold engines not starting?

Post by Scott - A2A »

Scott.

There was conflicting information about pouring warm oil into engines, so I seem to recall that is why we didn't make that the same in the Connie. However -20C is very cold, but the way to deal with that is to use oil dilution before shutting them down and use a lot of primer.

Scott (the real "Scott" :) )
A2A Simulations Inc.

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FireRescue85
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Re: Cold engines not starting?

Post by FireRescue85 »

Scott,

Thanks for the clarification. I switch between multiple A2A aircraft so often it’s hard to keep all of the in depth features straight lol. Thanks for the advice, I’ll use oil dilution since the Connie doesn’t have the warm oil feature.

-The Other Scott
Fire Marshall, Firefighter/Emergency Medical Tech.

B-17G
B377
L-049

EnDSchultz
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Re: Cold engines not starting?

Post by EnDSchultz »

Not sure which model of Constellation this is for, but Page 13 of this engineer manual recommends putting the mixture to Rich simultaneously with cranking and priming when starting in cold weather:

http://justplaneprints.com/wp-content/u ... 749sml.pdf

So far I've seemingly had much better luck getting the engines to turn over in those frigid temps using this method than with priming alone.

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Eugene Kremlev
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Re: Cold engines not starting?

Post by Eugene Kremlev »

EnDSchultz wrote:Not sure which model of Constellation this is for, but Page 13 of this engineer manual recommends putting the mixture to Rich simultaneously with cranking and priming when starting in cold weather:

http://justplaneprints.com/wp-content/u ... 749sml.pdf

So far I've seemingly had much better luck getting the engines to turn over in those frigid temps using this method than with priming alone.
Thanks for doc. In it about 749.

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