Quote:
Originally Posted by Arclight
More power and more efficiency? Not sure that's even possible, the 2 seem mutually exclusive.  |
I'm judging by experience with 1940's Motorcycle engines here but....certainly you can. Clean the air filters, tune the engine timing, Make sure all surfaces in moving contact are well oiled, modify the richness of the fuel/air mixture, change the gear ratio, etc....
All of these can mean that the engine is running cleaner and more smoothly, improving fuel efficiency at cruising speeds and allowing for better Revs and subsequently speed when the engine is pushed to her limits.
I'm not saying you should get both at the same time but with proper maintenance you could certainly get a knot or two extra out of the engines at Maximum Revs and slightly better fuel efficiency at cruising speeds.
Since this would require constant high quality maintenance I would definitely include it as a passive ability of the Chief Mechanic.
You could also have this ability decrease the chance of the U-Boat being spotted at long range since the visibility of the exhaust gasses would greatly depend on the richness of the fuel/air mixture that the Chief Engineer tunes the engine for and how well maintained the Diesel Engine is. Anyone noticed the black crud most diesel trucks throw out? This is because the engines are in poor tune and failing to burn all the fuel in the cylinders, throwing out carbon particulates (soot) as exhaust instead, imagine if a U-boats engine was as badly tuned as that
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