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Originally Posted by SteamWake
Saltwater mixed into the diesel even in tiney amounts would absolutly wreck the engine. Ive seen a 750 HP diesel generator that inhaled some rain water and ended up siezing the engine. The cylinder walls looked like they were scrubbed with 80 grit sandpaper.
There is a gizmo called a fuel / water seperator on the fuel feed lines of the engines to try to avoid this catastrophie. In the above example generator the water was sucked through the wall vents, through the air filter, and into the engine. (the mechaincal engineer had undersized the intake louveres and there was too much air velocity literally sucking rain into the room). I imagine that air intakes for a subs engine has some sort of way of avoiding that.
I belive the ballast tanks and fuel tanks had no interaction with one another.
That being said a full fuel tank would most likely help to dive a tad faster but then again the ballast tanks would have to be ... uhh... emptier to keep the ship afloat.
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US Subs had what was called a clean fuel oil tank, and in fact even modern submarines have a similar setup with diesel on top and seawater on bottom. No high tech gizmo here just a simple seperator tank. So, not blasting you, but there is more than one reference in the books about this fuel/ballast tank. It did exist and was used for fuel & once empty, ballast tank.
Frank "Torpex" Kulick
Subsim Staff
