A bit of a fantasy, but...

[BlueChariot]

I had a thought whilest enjoying some beer that I wouldnt mind trying to power an old fullsize truck for cruising around in the flat rocky bits of desert like in Nevada. BUT I had the idea to make it steam powered. Steam engines are simple, and effective. I genuinely don't think it'd be difficult to adapt it into a truck. The only annoying part would be to hook it to a transmission.

It'd have poor acceleration, but I don't see why it's not possible. Thoughts?

[Original_Ranger84]

Why not just do water injection on the engine in the truck? It squirts in a little water in the cylinder right before it fires or after and turns...explodes into steam which helps alot in power and economy. My old auto shop teacher did it to his Geo Metro 3 banger and was pulling off about 65mpg... and then he had a 460 ford that got 5mpgs.. lol

[7.5L_STX]

Originally Posted by Original_Ranger84

Why not just do water injection on the engine in the truck? It squirts in a little water in the cylinder right before it fires or after and turns...explodes into steam which helps alot in power and economy. My old auto shop teacher did it to his Geo Metro 3 banger and was pulling off about 65mpg... and then he had a 460 ford that got 5mpgs.. lol

i bet that top end was clean as hell too! is it possible on any motor? or does it cost a butt ton of monney to set something like that up? i know diesels have kits, but i didnt know it would work in a gas engine.

[BlueChariot]

I like the idea of water injection, but it's missing the point of this. I'm talkin about what is essentially a stemship for rocky desert land. The sheer cool fact and the simplicity of implimentation are very appealing to me, as opposed to doing something that alot of other people do to internal combustion engines.

Also figured out a way to drive it from the bed Ship style with a wheel and everything.

[3.0ranger1227]

To the OP, I think the Steam would be pretty cool, at least as a novelty thing.

Originally Posted by 7.5L_STX

i bet that top end was clean as hell too! is it possible on any motor? or does it cost a butt ton of monney to set something like that up? i know diesels have kits, but i didnt know it would work in a gas engine.

You're thinking of a water methanol injection system. Designed to cool the intake charge to prevent detonation under high boost/advanced timing/etc. It does work and is super simple to setup a primitive but effective system. All you have to do is run your windshield washer fluid to your intake and make it a constant on. Same liquid(assuming you're not using the bug guard stuff with additives), already in your truck with a pump and everything. It gets used a lot on high boost race applications, gas and diesel.

I'm not sure about what Original_Ranger was talking about, as that sounds fairly complicated but also like you're just using steam instead of more gas to expand in the cylinder faster.

[BlueChariot]

The novetly of it is what I'm aiming for with this idea. Obviously it wouldn't be street legal. The first types of cars were powered by steam after all.

I think Henry Ford would like the idea.

[cammeddrz]

Originally Posted by 3.0ranger1227

You're thinking of a water methanol injection system. Designed to cool the intake charge to prevent detonation under high boost/advanced timing/etc.

you're both right........http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crower_six_stroke

water injection can work to prevent pre-ignition
and it can work by expanding into steam to create a power-stroke

[stmitch]

What would you power this steam engine with? Coal? Wood? Use the current engine to heat the water?

[FlyinRyan]

A cool idea but the issue is control, as you mentioned earlier.

Creating steam means you need an abundance of water and heat... hope you're towing a mighty big trailer Second to that is control of flow and thus power. Steam is doing the mechanical work by expanding and releasing heat - two things very difficult to control, ask any HVAC designer.

If you really want to blow some peoples socks off pump that steam through a turbine! Again, you're going to run into some issues with creating the steam, but tiny turbines are incredibly powerful and are easy to control because you will just throttle the steam. The only downside is that turbines are rediculously expensive to build, and even more so to build small. The problem is that the turbine blades get too small to cool properly and you end up with a spinning time bomb that will shred everything in sight once the tiny blades fail.

If you really want the fastest RBV in the world go design a material that stays cool and doesn't expand when heated and cooled in cycles!

Until then...

[BlueChariot]

It's not a about steam, think about steampunk stuff.

I would created the heat using propane flames, and it would have a big water tank with asump and some sort of condensing system to return some water back into the tank.

Listen, people make miniature steam powered trains all the time, I'm simpley talking about bringing it into the medium scale between the small and the actual trains.

[martin]

You're right about steam engines being fairly simple, Safe, reliable boilers or steam generators however are not. Check out jay Leno's site, He has a steam car that was manufactured in the thirtys and he refers to it as the most complex piece of machinery in his garage.

[Mutant Pony]

None of you guy have seen the steam cars that Jay leno drives down the street? Yes it is possible and streetable. It would be possible to build a multi-cylindered steam engine that would smoke the tires of a street car/truck!
Steam power has a lot of loss, not very efficient. It takes a while to get it warmed up in the morning!