Is the LV-N broken?

[DoToH]

^The nuke has already been significantly nerfed by the new tech tree as well as the liquid fuel only update, and if squad wanted to make it a big ship only part they could make it a 2.5m part, with significantly higher mass and thrust. All this new overheat mechanic has done is suppress creativity and induce lag.

-Argon

The liquid fuel only update nerfed them? please explain....

and

they are the ONLY engine that wasnt nerfed to oblivion by the ISP nerfs.

[Dooz]

They just forgot to add radiators I think the heating is fine.

[Armchair Rocket Scientist]

It doesn't explode instantly because it has decent thermal mass. As it should​ be, being a fuel tank with insulation. Not to mention only a little bit of the sides are getting heated. And it exploding is equally unrealistic. It would either melt or vaporize.

Tractors are very realistic and more efficient when it comes structural mass.

Wouldn't the flame first burn a hole in the insulation, then heat tank wall until it ruptures, spraying fuel into the LV-N's exhaust stream? (or even worse, spraying oxidizer or monoprop into the exhaust stream, creating even more heating?)

[Francois424]

Well I do not know if this is normal or not. But yesterday I made a ship with a Nerva.

I put 4 airbrakes on my capsule (I read somewhere on main forums that it was good for evacuating heat).

I ran long stretch of burns with it and it never even initiated the overheat bar near the engine's icon.

I'm going to have to test more powerful ships to see, but so far with that trick, no problems.

[supremeownage]

They need to add dedicated radiators, for the love of God!

[Nothalogh]

The problem with the "just add radiators" argument is that is not how NTRs work, the propellant removes the heat from the reactor.

That being said, they should melt down if you run them dead out of propellant at full throttle.