# DB601A Power management



## Schwalbe (Jan 30, 2021)

Hello, I have a simple question regarding the management of DB601 or Ra1000 aircraft engines. I have always wondered what would happen if the time limits set for the supply pressures were exceeded in use.


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## MiTasol (Feb 3, 2021)

Probably the same as most engines - overheating and structural distortion up to and including collapsed pistons and cracked cases.

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## mad_max (Feb 4, 2021)

"In October 1944, Jorg recalls an encounter in attempting to intercept a Mosquito. “The controller put me right up in front of a group of them, and I had the altitude to dive on them. One was caught by the searchlights, and I went after him. I was diving on him and he was still almost as fast as I was – it was such a beautiful plane! – So I pushed the throttle into over-boost, into takeoff power. I knew the engine wasn’t going to like it, but I wanted to get him.”

Jorg started his dive at eleven thousand and leveled off at seven thousand meters. The search lights had kept the Mosquito illuminated all the while. Just as Jorg was entering firing range he squared the Mosquito in his gun sights when the Mosquito vanished. The bomber was still there it had slipped out of the search lights. Frustrated, Jorg was about to reduce his speed, shutting back on the booster when his engine exploded.

“The searchlights lost him and there I was in the darkness. And then, before I could throttle back, the engine exploded!” Oil burst from the engine all over the windscreen, and the engine compartment caught fire. “I was going to bail right out,” he recalls, “and I got rid of the hood, but then the wind blew out the fire in the engine. It was definitely dead, but I stuck with it a little longer. I got all my gear and disconnected everything. I was really calm, much more so than I would have expected. I could see the altimeter and it read almost five thousand meters. I got up on the back of the canopy, just like they instructed us, and pushed myself up so I would miss the rudder. There I was, falling up into space, and it was so beautiful in the night.”

http://www.wednesdaybomberboys.co.nz/newsletter/NZBC Newsletter July 2019.pdf

I know this isn't a 601, but this is what would happen!


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## Schwalbe (Feb 4, 2021)

Thanks for your answer. Mine is a curiosity to know if these motors could be protected with a power limiter to prevent serious damage.


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## mad_max (Feb 4, 2021)

There was a type of timer to keep the Take Off power under the time limit. There's also mechanical devices; just like on most motors, that limits the boost pressures to a safe level in most circumstances. Some of the countries at war had motors that have an over ride feature, but I don't know if the 601/605 had such a way. Here's an article on the Daimer-Benz motors that I believe you'll like. If you don't want to read the whole article; start on the 4th page look for boost pressure (bottom right) in bold that continues on page 5 of the PDF. I have much saved that I've collected through 40 years on google drive. Enjoy.

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## Schwalbe (Feb 5, 2021)

Fantastic documentation !! But it is incredible edible this was a magazine printed in 1942, during the war !! But who could read it?


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## Denniss (Feb 19, 2021)

With that long use of overboost he either ran out of MW50 with fuel pre-ignition destroying the engine or the engine got so hot that something else failed.


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## herman1rg (Feb 19, 2021)

I expect it's like a car engine having a rev limiter, it's to protect the internal workings. I drive a smart roadster which has a rev limit of 6,250 (3 cylinder 698CC). I know of a couple of people who used some electronice to override the limiter, cue explosive destruction of engine.


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## pbehn (Feb 19, 2021)

herman1rg said:


> I expect it's like a car engine having a rev limiter, it's to protect the internal workings. I drive a smart roadster which has a rev limit of 6,250 (3 cylinder 698CC). I know of a couple of people who used some electronice to override the limiter, cue explosive destruction of engine.


Things like that make me laugh, if there were no ill effects to removing it why would it have been put in in the first place. I had a friend who cut the skirts off the pistons of his Yamaha 400, then he skimmed the head and took the air filter box out, then he skimmed the head some more and cut the pistons a bit more. You will never guess what happened? His mother bought him a new engine and told him not to fiddle with it.

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