You're problem is your trying to use clean drives for what I assume is a combat stealth build. (I cant remember if you specifically stated that or not.) Yes in a stealth combat build DD might be the better option if the PP can compensate for the increased heat output. That's a very specific purpose though and isnt what clean drives are meant for. They are meant for non combat builds. Cargo ships benefit the most imo. The type 6 litterly overheats from just charging the fsd. You cant say something is useless just because you dont like the activity its associated with.
I just ran a couple of tests myself. I took my asp explorer swapped out the PP for a C grade and put on a G5 DD and a G5 CD and flew circles around my local star inside it's hot zone and timed myself from the time the fuel scoop indicator poped up until my heat reached 100.
It took 53 seconds with the dirty drives to get to 100 with a resting supercruise temp of 35%.
The clean drive had a resting temp of 29% and it took 3 minutes and 5 seconds to reach 100 heat. So yes they are useful. Maybee not to you but they do have a purpose.
I think you mentioned a silent running build and cleans earlier, so I gave you my input on that, and why dirties ended up being better overall in that regard. And most other situations. The most popular exploration ships should totally get away with using dirty drives.
I acknowledged that some odd builds can benefit from clean drives, but G3 is
plenty fine for a majority of ships. One of the ships I took to beagle was equipped with mid grade cleans if I remember right. The second trip was in a combat Conda with dirty drives that was quite a bit warmer, but I had an undersized plant, overcharged to high heaven, so I wasn’t surprised. Had a lot of plasma, boosters, banks, etc. It was still manageable.
I didn’t think thruster mods affected ship heat while in supercruise, since drives aren’t what propels you in SC unless something has changed, or I’m completely mistaken. That’s not counting the slight increase in idle heat that comes with using drives that are more power hungry. More draw on the plant=higher base heat %. I might test this myself later anyways just to see.
Anyways, the purpose of dirty drives on a T6 is just for survival/meme purposes. They’ll hit 580 if you build them right. Even some PvP ships will have difficulty running you down. Cleans would be slower, suffer the same integrity penalty as dirty drives, but offer you no major benefit in a dangerous situation. In some of the slower ships, I might even recommend reinforced drives over either clean/dirty.
Dont want to derail the thread but would you be willing to expand on the mechanics of this strategy a little?
Okay, so this has everything to do with powerplant malfunctions. A scramble spectrum laser, pulse disruptor, or a damage-induced plant malfunction causes your powerplant to operate at reduced output, which is 40% of its total power.
If your drives use over 40% of your plants total power, even if you set them to priority one, and everything else to priority two, you will be a sitting duck until your plant stops malfunctioning.
Now if your drives use, say, 38% of your plant’s total power, and they are the only module set to priority one, you will still be able to move at the very least if your plant malfunctions in combat.
Keep your priority one modules below a total of 40% power usage, basically.
In the case of my build, without that Monstered experimental on the plant, my drives used 41%, meaning a plant malfunction was going to stop me dead. By switching to Monstered, it raised my plant’s power output just enough that my drives used like 39.x% power.
I lose everything but my drives in a malfunction situation, but it sure beats sitting still and getting hammered while I wait for the malfunction to correct itself.
