Pistons

[Leviix_Official]

Hey guys
Is it more efficient to use all 4 sides of a crank to hold the 4 pistons or just have more cranks ??? For simplicity assume that the magical 1800rpm is constant across all



Cheers
Leviix

[Admiral Obvious]

It's probably more efficient to use more cranks, at least from what I've seen so far.

More pistons tend to be good if you'd ordinarily over pressurize the pipes, which means more cranks would be more efficent as they'd use more steam. That in turn makes it a viable idea to use a lower fuel ratio.

[The Civillian]

I played with these a fair bit today (like most of the day) And I found the following a decent set up.

4 x 4 large boilers set to 0.15 burn rate (This means 4 large boilers with 4 parts each.)

2 boilers connected to 2 large pistons/cranks

So you end up with 4 boilers connected to 4 large pistons/cranks (But limit steam so only 2 boilers are powering 2 cranks)

I have that set up on my cruiser but with 8 boilers (4 lots of 2) All powering one gearbox, It pushes out just over 35k power.

2 of those net me just short of 70k to play with for shields/props

And a seperate boiler/turbine setup for power.


The main thing is the Piston RPM (Seen on the gearbox) If your happy with the burn rate but the RPM is too high add more pistons, If ya RPM is low and you want more juice add an extra boiler or two.

Generally the rule of thumb is this:

Need more power - Add more boilers (Seperate or single) Or increase burn rate

Need to lower RPM Then add more pistons

For a faster start up add more boilers.

But if your going for efficiency Lots of small (Large boilers but only 2/3 sections) boilers at a low burn rate are the way to go.

If you have a turbine in your system you DO NOT NEED steam vents, And in my setup Even if the engine is hit the pistons won't blow because the boilers have to get hit first.

[Leviix_Official]

That is some solid info ty much ty