Keep trying, and failing, to start engine - what am I doing wrong?

[Kubius]

My general protocol:

1) Set up cold loop with a gas, usually plasma (I tried plasma/oxy and it literally exploded - never again. The shuttle was on the way thankfully). Turn on cold loop and get it chilling.

2) Set up hot loop with a gas, usually again with plasma, and get it circulating.

3) Activate burn chamber with 35/65 plas/oxy, and/or furnaces.

And then the following sequence of events always happen: It gets up to over a megawatt (hit 2MW last time I tried with a "safe" mix and I even got a purple-engine hellburn on Cogmap 1), then slowly stops increasing, and slowly starts decreasing.

I can never figure out why, but it happens EVERY SINGLE TIME and I always lose power after a few minutes. What am I doing wrong?

[Vitatroll]

The Wiki Page
A recent engine topic; read Erik's post if you wanna hellburn

It depends on what you want to do.

On a side note, using the furnaces and combustion chamber together is generally bad. The furnaces act as heat sinks at higher temps. Also, I'd say use Erik's post as a starting point if you want to hellburn, but still experiment. I do some of the things he says to not do (like use n2) and can still hit pw before 60.

[TheNewTeddy]

A lot of the things we*/I are told about the engine are just false. For example; that the pipes bursting does nothing; it does plenty as it drains the pressure from your loop. In addition, the instructions provided are frequently, at the best of times, unclear. Such as "open the incoming valve". There are a dozen valves, which one should be opened?


* as players in general, I listen in when others ask and others answer.

[Kubius]

It depends on what you want to do.

I think I'd like, if possible, just a stable entry-level burn, megawatt-ish - basically just a boring "the station doesn't run out of power" setup. Knowing how to hellburn would be cool, but my main objective is being able to get the station online and stable. The page you linked to Teddy's topic looks pretty damn easy to follow - the single furnace thing genuinely surprised me.

On a side note, using the furnaces and combustion chamber together is generally bad. The furnaces act as heat sinks at higher temps.

Noted.

[TheNewTeddy]

I'll be editing the thread in a day or so. Spent a few hours over on 4 tinkering with various engine stuff, and believe I have everything down, including the "proper order" that each step should be done in.

[UrsulaMejor]

The pipes bursting doesn't do anything if you've hellburned properly. Hellburns exploit engine weirdness to allow the pipes to flow gas though even when burst; it's a bug as old as Donut 2

[ZeWaka]

1) Set up cold loop with a gas, usually plasma (I tried plasma/oxy and it literally exploded - never again.

Yeah... You are supposed to put the plasma oxy mix into the combustion chamber to burn. If you introduce oxygen to heat, its going to burn, increase pressure, and maybe blow up the pipes.

[UrsulaMejor]

1) Set up cold loop with a gas, usually plasma (I tried plasma/oxy and it literally exploded - never again.

Yeah... You are supposed to put the plasma oxy mix into the combustion chamber to burn. If you introduce oxygen to heat, its going to burn, increase pressure, and maybe blow up the pipes.

Oxygen isn't flammable.

Oxygen + plasma is very flammable.

plasma by itself can't ignite without oxygen.

 gas pro tips

[Kubius]

Tried a few burns since then with pure plasma in both loops from the bottom side auxiliary ports. The engine always runs good to start, but then the kPa equalizes in the hot loop and power output drops to nil. Anything I can do to counter that?

[Vitatroll]

It will spike and then drop, but shouldn't be dropping to nothing. It should still be plenty enough to power the station for an hour plus.

I usually set up a hellburn because, ironically, it takes me less time, not be cause it provides more power. That and I somewhat enjoy people screaming at me. If I'm not the CE I usually just hotwire solars. By not CE I mean generally any job with maint access. The engine is just icing unless you need money; the station can run just fine without it. I'm convinced it's mostly there to keep engineers from killing themselves out of boredom every round. It also makes a really pretty night light.

[The Grim Sleeper]

Tried a few burns since then with pure plasma in both loops from the bottom side auxiliary ports. The engine always runs good to start, but then the kPa equalizes in the hot loop and power output drops to nil. Anything I can do to counter that?

I've encountered this problem myself, both on Cog1 and Cog2, and never found a way to properly fix it. Adding more gas to the loops starts the engine back up again, but only for a while, and then you are out of canisters.
I have the vague impression that it is caused by opening the valves before adding gas to the pipes and starting the furnaces.
This is actually the reason I never wrote a troubleshoot-and-solve for the wiki; following the start-up procedure there To The Letter, taking special note of the valve order, is the only way I ever got a char-burn without this problem, and the only problem encountered after that was refilling the furnaces.


I haven't played engineer much (or at all) since I wrote that, which was 3 months ago.  I have looked at the changelog, but saw no mention of engine updates. Is this still a thing?

Did I mention that I wrote the engine start-up guide on the wiki, cause I wrote the engine start-up guide on the wiki, and I am going to tell everyone that I wrote the engine start-up guide on the wiki, because doing so inflated my ego, much like the gas in the engine, for which I wrote the start-up guide on the wiki, blablablabla

[Superlagg]

I think I've fucked up the engine more times than I've gotten it to work for more than a few minutes.

I'm under the impression that the reason hellburns work with broken pipes is that the heat increases the pressure faster than the pipes can purge them. This also assumes that broken pipes are still connected as though they were intact, but vent their contents very quickly. Would also explain why pipes break in every segment in heller burns and not in one place where all the gas would fly out.

I used to think that the room itself would work as a pipe, where the pressure in the pipe would equalize with the room and thus still allow gas transport, but this doesn't seem to be the case, burst pipes seem like a one way flow.

I've tried plasma, nitrogen, and co2, separately, as the hot loop gas.

Plasma sets the world fire the moment anyone barges into engineering or the oxygen tank pops, killing either me or the engine the process -- but that's just because I'm a heckburn noober, its the best of you know what you're doing.

CO2 killed the engine in record time and i don't know why because I'm afraid to test it again. Might be related to how plasma-oxygen fires generate co2, and that ample ventilation vents co2 but not the ploxy flames? But then why do other gases work just fine? I dunno!

Nitrogen is my favorite; it doesn't turn Engineering into an impenetrable castle with a moat of fire, it only needs ventilation to keep the burn mix from exploding, and it still produces a frickload of power.

I haven't tried oxygen in the hot loop because that's insane. I kinda want to try n2o just to see it'll kill Mr Rathens faster.

Cold loop, I haven't noticed much difference -- it either gets cold and runs the engine or it doesn't. It'll also get really really hot and give you a hard time on the cooling catwalk.

Also mind the welder tank in the pod bay on the south end of engineering, it will explode. I've never been caught in the blast though, almost always just a tile off from being slightly warmer than usual.

Kind of a side note, but working the engine for even a short while sends my body temperature into the millions. Doesn't do much other than make me eat a burn patch every few minutes though. Heck of a lot nicer than turning to ash like all the crowbars and transfer valves. I'm guessing it's a byproduct of the billion degree gas spraying out of the pipes, and that only fire can set mobs on fire, no matter how hot or flammable they are.

[Noah Buttes]

WORDS

N2O should, in theory, be a good engine gas since it's got a high specific heat since it's so dense.

[Vitatroll]

Hellburns: Burn chamber set up correctly? Check. Tiles with chamber fuel cans protected from heat by being in a vacuum? Check. Correct valves open? Check. Now toss equal amounts of clown farts into the loops and watch it burn sol to ash.

I'm not kidding. You can reach petawatt with nothing but a single air pump on each line -- in a normal (if longish) round no less. Hellburn's a bug. A beautiful, face melting, cluwne eating, ascended bug. It doesn't need to make sense, and generally doesn't.

Furnace: I always open the valves and start the furnaces first. I then wrench both cans into place and let em' rip at roughly the same time. This method has never failed me.

[The Grim Sleeper]

Furnace: I always open the valves and start the furnaces first.

Do you start the furnaces first or open up the valves first? And in what order do you open the valves?
For me, fiddling with the valves before supplying heat means a guaranteed flat-line within 5 minutes.