[Onkel Neal]

Onkel Neal has made a Best of SUBSIM nomination.
Nomination Category:

Most Helpful in General

Nomination basis: nice summary of engines and the results of abusing them with water
Forum: Wolfpack

Nominated Member: BrendaEM
Nominated Post: Engine Hydrolocking, Airspace

If the diesel engines were running and mist went into the air intake, mist could likely cause the engine to misfire and perhaps stall.

Anything more, might fill an engine cylinder, bending or breaking a connecting rod or wrist pin, damaging the main bearings, perhaps throwing the rod through the side of the engine. It is possible that a hydrlocked diesel might endure more than a gasoline fueled engine because diesel engines are built to have a higher compression ratio, which means that the parts that water would break--would be stronger in a diesel than a gas engine.

If the engine were off or idling, the water might only hydrolock the engine. Because water is almost uncompressible, it would need to be drained from the cylinder before the engine could even crank. I couldn't find the video, but one Vespa had lost a head-gasket, and was hydrolocked. When they pulled the plug, water sprayed from the cylinder on each stroke. Perhaps that was an additional reason why they put the cylinder valve on the u-boat diesels, to drain water from the engine.

It's conceivable that, if you lost a connecting rod, and it didn't go through the block, and you repaired it, the water would have to be drained from the remaining cylinders. I think that in Das Boot, I saw a main bearing, they were working on.

Also, if water got into the engine the oil would be foamy yellow sludge.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SqLpcffZHOU



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElgLDRoMpmI



Not now, but at some point, it would be cool that if the sub is damaged, it will fill with water, sort of like this, until the sailors float, under the remaining airspace, to get the full late-war U-Boat submariner experience.



In game, I don't know what could be done to save a flooding sub. In the movies, there's always a valve that can be tightened. : )
I suppose that it's possible that bolts on flanges that had yielded to tension, could be replaced.

An interesting game dynamic: deciding to abandon the U-boat, which has happened.