A little misunderstanding Karnak.
You should be aware our aircraft in AH has the "white zone", the "yellow zone" and the "red zone". Full military power rests the needle at the end of the "white zone", engaging WEP pushes it to "yellow zone", and then the WEP switches off automatically as it enters the "red zone".
I'm not entirely sure how fast the engine starts to overheat when rads are damaged, but arbitrarily, let's say it's 2 minutes.
In that case, with your example of the P-38L, with the very first engagement of the WEP the P-38L will be able to actually do 7 minutes(!) of WEP - increased length, not decreased and castrated
........
5 minutes of initial WEP time between the yellow zone, plus the extra 2 minutes inside red zone.
However, if, the pilot pushes the WEP to full use, near the brink of engine failure, he will have to rest the engine full 16 minutes(!) before he can use the WEP to full potential again. (I'm aware that the Allied planes in AH most usually use something like a 2:1 ration on cooldown/WEP time.)
1. So, if the P-38L pilot uses the full 7 minutes of WEP, the needle will enter yellow zone and proceed to almost the end of the red zone.
(5 minutes of "safe WEP" + 2 minutes of "unrecommended WEP")
2. After WEP is switched off, since the cooldown time in the red zone is suggested 1.5 times longer than its "normal" cool down, then the cool down time required for the needle to fall back to the beginning of the red zone will be 3 minutes
( {2:1 cooldown ratio} x {1.5 times longer cool down} = {3:1 ratio red zone})
( 3x2 minutes of red zone = 6 minutes to cool)
3. Then, when the needle falls into the yellow zone, normal cool down time applies, so it would require 10 minutes for the needle to fall back to the boundary of the white/yellow zone.
( {2:1 cooldown ratio} x {5 minutes of "normal WEP"})
4. If the P-38L pilot decides to abide by the "recommended" WEP durations of 5 minutes, then he'll need just 10 minutes to cool down, to bring the needle to the start of yellow zone
( {2:1 cooldown ratio} x {5 minutes of "normal WEP"})
5. If the P-38L pilot uses the recommended length of WEP duration, but decides to keep it on for some extra time of 1 minute, then it would be:
( {10 minutes cool down for YZ} + {3 minutes RZ} = 13 minutes cooldown )
6. If the P-38L pilot, who is in the condition described as in section 5., waits only 3 minutes of the cooldown time of the total 13, and then rengages WEP, then the needle will be at the start of the redzone when he decides to do so - he will have only 2 minutes of WEP time before he absolutely needs to cool down.
7. So, if this P-38L pilot initially used all of his WEP potential of 7 minutes, and then engages the WEP in intervals of 3 minuts of cooldown time, then he can use the WEP in intervals of 2 minutes WEP, 3 minute cool down, continuously. During those intervals the needle will be staying in the red zone.
8. This might bring up questions of abuse - in the fact that there's nothing that stops the use of WEP totally except the end of the 'red zone'. However, if the pilot constantly uses WEP in the way described between 5~7, if he ever needs to engage WEP to run away, or climb away, or to do any action that needs a steady, prolonged use of WEP over some time, he won't be able to do it. His choice of continuous, short use of WEP over the red line, comes with a price with no steady WEP time.
A harsher solution may be provided, like making it unable to switch WEP back on when the needle is in the red zone. In that case, the pilot has no use but to wait at least more than 6 minutes, to use WEP again: 5 minutes of normal WEP, 2 minutes of 'redzone WEP' - after using 2 minutes of redzone, he will have to cool it down for full 6 minutes until needle drops back into yellow zone, since with this harsher scheme, he won't be able to switch WEP back on while the needle is in the red zone.
