Curt B Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 (edited) All, I've seen several P-38 models painted with exhaust stains of a light tan or grayish tan, supposedly to address the exhaust color of exhaust coming out of engines running lean. While I'm not questioning what others have done, I wouldn't mind knowing the following: 1. Does a lean running aircraft engine typically produce a light tan/gray colored exhaust, as opposed to a black/dark brown color in a more 'normal' fuel enrichment? 2. Assuming the answer to 1. is the light tan/gray, was it typical for P-38s in the south Pacific theater to run their engines lean, and if so, why? Fuel conservation? 3. Were exhaust stains on P-38s typically present all the way back to the rudders, such that even the rudders and the vertical stabilizers were covered in exhaust stains? Thanks for any help on this one, guys. Edited September 27, 2020 by Curt B Quote Link to post Share on other sites
KenM Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 Yes it was fuel conservation as the had long distances to go before getting into the fight. The Yamamoto raid 600 miles out in a round about way and 400 straight back, the grey was caused by the lead in the fuel. You could see that on on cars from the sixties, I remember coming back from the Street Machine Nationals in St. Paul MN in 1977 my buddies 70 Hemi Cuda had grey almost white exhaust tips going down the highway great mileage to almost 12MPG !!! Ken Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cubs2jets Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 (edited) I think the correct expression would be "properly leaned" for normal operations. Ken is correct about the light gray color coming from the TEL content of the fuel. Yes, the "staining" carried all the way back to the tail. C2j Edited September 20, 2020 by Cubs2jets Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Slartibartfast Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 You can see the same effect on camouflaged P-51s of the 1st Commando unit in Burma. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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