Gunner wrote in message . ..
On Sun, 13 Jul 2003 23:44:39 GMT, "R. Zimmerman"
wrote:
A waste of time if you already have a gasoline engine. The engine could be
adapted to run on all kinds of gaseous products such as coal gas or methane
from sewage/manure.
Better to make a gas producer than a boiler.
How hard would it be to make a solar flash boiler, for those of us in
the Southwest/South?
Gunner
Randy
"Gunner" wrote in message
.. .
A thread came up a day or three ago, about building some sort of motor
to run a small generator or a belt to supply power to :stuff: in
either remote locations or in the event of a long term power failure.

A serious question to the group....in your individual opinions, does
anyone have any suggestions for a simply made from common materials,
with minimal machining, steam engine?

Boilers are another issue of course..and suggestions on that would be
nice as well.

Would it be possible to convert an internal combustion engine, for
example a VW engine, to run on steam?

Given the numbers of steamers here on RCM, and itinerant inventors,
somebody should have some ideas. Think of it as Junk Yard Wars.....

The only criteria is that it be easy to assemble from common
materials, capable of running an automotive generator (at the least)
and can be done with minimal tools, or simple machine tools. If it can
be scaled up for larger gennys/line shafts, that would be a plus.

Actually, I have been thonking about this since it first came up. A
mVW, or other small(sort of) *air cooled* engine, would be the best
base. Feedingh steam through the intake and outlet valves, while
venting through the spark plug hole. They could probbaly be easily
converted from a _4_ cycle to dual 2 cycle engine. Since the older
engines have the valves easily accessible, rigging something to open a
third (plug hole) valve, would be easier.

For thos who don't know, can't visualize it: 1)intake stroke (pull
in fuel air mix, down), 2)compression stroke with plug firing (up),
3)power stroke (down), 4) exhaust stroke (up). With steam, it would be
1)steam enters through intake manifold(power stroke, down), 2)exhaust
stroke (up) through sp hole & valve, 3)steam through exhaust manifold
(power, down), repeat of 2. POwer on every stroke, with nearly
simultaneous opposing power strokes.

Thanks in advance, let the fun begin.

Gunner