Combution Engines Not Outputting Correct MJ/t

[Bob Leonard]

I'm trying to use combustion engines to power a quarry, and I've noticed a problem with my MJ/t.  I've read online that combustion engines should output 6MJ/t (although I've never been totally clear if this is on green, yellow, or red).  However, if I connect a combustion engine to a redstone energy cell I can control the rate that energy leaves the energy cell.  Theoretically, if the combustion engine produced 6 MJ/t, and I set the redstone energy cell to output a maximum of 5 MJ/t (with a load connected to the energy cell, like a quarry), then the redstone energy cell should built up a surplus of energy.  However, when I try this (with a combustion engine running on green), I find that the redstone energy cell never fills.

 

Moreover, I found that when I connect two engines to the redstone energy cell the energy cell will accumulate energy when I set the output to 2MJ/t, but it will drain when I set the output to 3 MJ/t, suggesting that each engine is outputting between 1 and 1.5 MJ/t (again the engines are running on green).  I've tried using conductive pipe as well as redstone conduit with the same results.

 

So the question is: what's wrong with my reasoning?  Do combustion engines really output such low power on green?  Or, do I not understand redstone energy cells?  Perhaps its a difference of ticks versus seconds?

 

I should note that I'm not using the most recent version of tekkit.  I'm currently using 1.1.5 because I found that everything beyond this version breaks the conductive pipe gates.

[plowmanplow]

1) The engines have to be up to full speed in order to output max power.

 

2) You don't state what kind of fuel you are using in the engines. Combustion engines provide different rates of power based on what type of liquid fuel you are using.

[Bob Leonard]

Hi Plowmanplow.  Thanks for the response.

 

I'm using fuel refined from oil. So, it should output plenty of MJ/t.

 

After poking around the forums for a while, I found someone mention connecting the output of the engine to more than one face of a redstone energy cell.  When I tried this I found that the energy cell was receiving energy at a much faster rate.  Why is this necessary?  Does the engine only produce energy on strokes (producing an average of 6MJ/t through energy pulses)?

 

Is the best practice to simply to build a large number of energy cells?  If energy cells are touching, will they transfer energy between them?

 

Lastly, on point one: are you saying the engine will only produce 6MJ/t if the engine is using oil and running on red?