"Ed Huntress" wrote in
:
snip
The burner and stoker (for solid fuels) and the control systems are
the big bugaboo that will take some serious work. Triple expansion
motors and Condensers are easy, but getting the cylinder oil out of
the water before you feed it back to the boiler it is always a
challenge.

Modernizing the controls and sensors so it can run automatically and
unattended isn't bad, they have continued building steam boilers -
you just have to miniaturize control gear built for a 100MW power
plant down to the proper size to work on a car.

To modernize the handling of solid fuel, you'll need a little robot
with a shovel, who sings "16 Tons" while he's stoking the boiler.

Why not base it on pellet stove technology?

A friend of mine uses a pellet stove for heat. He has a big hopper in
the garage labeled "Purina Stove Chow".

Doug White