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You started with a diatribe against the engine but now your saying - "I think this reinforces my earlier post showing that the P-51B was a highly defective airplane in the spring of 1944."
You need to show us when Mustangs with the Allison engine suffered this many problems:
" Operational Diary—1944 [4th Fighter Group]
25 February 1944—The ground crews had their hands full trying to get about 50 Mustangs [P-51B] ready for combat. Before morning all of the kites had been painted in QP, WB, VF livery in anticipation of the first Mustang show the next day.
26 February 1944—Weather scrubbed the 4th's Mustang debut but at least there was time for familiarization …
27 February 1944—At 1315 a Rolls-Royce tech representative held a briefing on the P-51. Don Blakeslee held a discussion on flying problems with the Mustang which had been disappointingly numerous. A plague of mechanical gremlins diminished the pilots' enthusiasm for the new fighter. Jim Goodson, Willard Millikan and George Carpenter had bounced the new paddle-bladed P-47s of the 56th and frustratedly reported that these Thunderbolts were a match for the Mustang upstairs and downstairs. This added to the air of uncertainty.
28 February 1944—Maj. Clark led the first Mustang mission, a Free Lance under Type 6 control with two 75-gallon drop tanks under the wings of each kite … Both 334 and 336 got 12 aircraft up while 335 put up 11, but there were several aborts due to mechanical problems …
29 February 1944—The P-51's ugly side reared its head—Mills prop began throwing oil and his wing tanks would not feed; Biel's cooling system and RT went out Beil's cooling system and R/T went out; Rafalovich could not get enough manifold pressure and his R/T also quit. France, Chatterley and Smith could not catch up with the Group. All six were forced to abort the mission. After everyone got back a bunch of disgruntled pilots went to the briefing room at 1645 to hear a 354th Group pilot talk about mechanical failures with the Merlin engine.
4 March 1944—During combat several pilots were hampered by windscreen frost and jammed guns. At 18,000 feet and 550 mph indicated, Ward's canopy, wing and tail came off, hitting Megura's kite … Paul Ellington had engine problems and bailed out over the Dutch Coast … Bob Richards was killed when he went in near Framlingham returning from the show. Blakeslee returned fuming, his guns wouldn't fire at all.
[John Godfrey later said that Richards crashed due to motor trouble].
7 March 1944—New spark plugs were put in the kites to see if this might improve the engine problems.
8 March 1944—In spite of claims of 16 destroyed, rough engines and unservicable drop tanks were the order of the day.
13-15 March 1944—In spite of the successes against the Germans, the P-51s were mechanical nightmares and they were grounded. Rough engines, props throwing oil, glycol leaks and auxiliary tank feed problems were causing aborts on every mission. These two days all the wing bolts were replaced and engine mount bolts were magnafluxed, but these precautions weren't effective. On the 17th Burtonwood manufactured new motor mount bolts but even these turned out to be unsatisfactory and by April North American had to rush 250 sets VIII FC.
Table II prop kits for the Mustang arrived in February and March stripped and useless, so propellers continued to be in short supply until July. V-1650 engines were also in short supply through March and April. All this added up to low mission strengths for quite a while. Many times a squadron was able to get but 10 airplanes up for a mission. To get 20 up was a minor miracle …
The gloom over losses due to engine problems was hard to dispel. At least five pilots went down during March due to glycol and engine failures, possibly more since several losses are noted due to unknown causes. The gunnery and electrical systems also failed with regularity, resulting in lost kills. And the installation of the 65-gallon upright tank behind the pilots' seat without baffle plates to prevent violent shifts in the center of gravity was considered a nightmare by several pilots.
Blakeslee's crew chief, Harry East Jr. never could get the right bank of the Chief Cook's Merlin to quit smoking and missing. Col. Don kept the kite because it was fitted with a better-vision Malcolm hood. 43-6437 was not replaced until the hydraulic line was perforated, much to East's relief.".
See p.40-45
Garry Fry Ethell. Escort To Berlin: The 4th Fighter Group in World II. Arco, 1980.
what people say and think now has no bearing on 70 years ago.
I think this reinforces my earlier post showing that the P-51B was a highly defective airplane in the spring of 1944.
Things like oil and coolant leaks are production quality control issues not the aircraft design and complaints about the radio have nothing to do with the aircraft.
Many of these aircraft were test flown at the factory, disassembled and then shipped to Europe, reassembled and sent off to squadron so the potential for "quality" issues were great.
...To suggest that the merlin itself was defective in 1944 is a little off the wall, it powered almost all British front line fighter recon. and bomber aircraft up to that time, especially the ones on the longest missions with two or four of them.
"Anecdotal information is difficult to include and draw reliable conclusions from"
I wonder if the V-1650 powered P-40's also had such development issues.
Or just with one of them
The Fulmar was also managing long missions, combat included, over the water for the start. On a single Merlin engine.
Nope.