A6M with Homare engine

[LordRain]

Is there any version or modification to A6M to made it accept any Homare engine? If not, can it be done?

 

[Hardrada55]

I asked a similar question on another forum. A6M8 Zero with a Homare engine rather than Kinsei. The Homare is pretty heavy. It might fit, though. But, it might be better to install the Kinsei 56 engine (1,560hp for take off and 1,250hp at 5800m) or the Nakajima Ha-315 engine, which was a 14 cylinder Homare technology engine with 1,350hp at altitude.

 

[Shinpachi]

Homare for A6M was realized as A7M1. Test pilot Kohukuda testified that A7M1 was actually an improved Zero fighter and A7M2 was perfect.

 

[taly01]

or the Nakajima Ha-315 engine, which was a 14 cylinder Homare technology engine with 1,350hp at altitude.

I never heard of Ha-315 before, but its AN interesting what-if is that the Homare 18cyl was based on the Sakae 14cyl. Now say you made a Homare-Sakae with 14cyl of Homare type (Ha-315).

Homare 35.8L = 1990hp (55.6hp/L)
Sakae (21) 27.9L = 1130hp (40.5hp/L)
Homare-Sakae 27.9L = 1551hp (55.6hp/L)

Now this Homare-Sakae 14cyl would be lighter weight and less diameter air resistance than Homare (or Kinsei), and more suited to Zero small fuselage!

 

[tomo pauk]

Just having a water-alcohol injection for the Sakae would've yielded a nifty HP increase, between sea level and 20000+ ft for the 30 series Sakaes. For Zero, probably less of the hassle than it was the instalation of the Kinsei, and certainly far easier to do than the Homare installation.

 

[cherry blossom]

The Sakae-31 (Ha-315 or Ha-35 mod 31), had it run reliably, would have given the A6M7 a better performance compared to the A6M5c. The intended power was 1360 ps because the rpm was kept at 2700 compared to 3000 for the Homare but that power was never achieved. The water methanol injection was not perfected and there also seem to have been problems with the supercharger (Goodwin and Starkings, page 177). The Sakae-31b actually produced lacked the water injection and returned to the Sakae-21 supercharger, so the A6M7 did not show much gain in performance.