I build 1/8 scale Live Steam Locomotives.... these are big enough to ride on
and have quite a lot of power, like pulling 15 cars with 50 people kind of
power. :-)

You are going to find your biggest problem is water... unless you build a
condensing steam engine, you are not going to go very far before you have to
stop for water. Condensing engines are pretty well known (steam ship
engines are condensing) but this just adds another layer of things to break
and can be a real PITA in something as small as an automoble

Steam engines do have some interesting characteristics, like full torque at
0 RPM, or the ability to use the engine as a brake by sliding the valve
timing back, even past forward to reverse.

In the long run I'd go back to diesel.
--.- Dave


"MikeMandaville" wrote in message
ups.com...
Last year I bought a diesel truck, an '83 half-ton Volkswagen Rabbit,
with the idea of rebuilding the engine, and then running it on recycled
cooking oil. Now I am giving serious thought to converting it to
steam.

The idea of being able to power my truck with solid fuel is one which I
find to be greatly appealing. At the time I decided to convert to
diesel, I was looking for an economical means of moving foundry coke
from Alabama to Texas. With a gasoline powered vehicle, the cost of
the gasoline would exceed the cost of the coke by one full magnitude.
Interestingly, for about the first century of their existence, most
steam powered road vehicles which I have read about seem to have run on
coke.

In the nineteen-fifties, the Sentinel truck company sold several
hundred steam trucks to the government of Argentina. These trucks were
used for hauling coal. Of course, these trucks burned part of their
load to power their boilers. I see no reason why the Argentinian
solution should not work for me also.

Any comments?