new engine idea

[stegomon]

my father and i thought what could be the next engine....

and we came up with the idea...it is an old idea that goes as far back as the greeks....

the steam engine...lol...well we thought that if you use modurn computer.....you dont have to move valves by hand...the puters and re-lays and stuff could do it...we can make them smaller...the boiler could burn propain or somethin...no wood or coal needed.......with todays burners and electronics...we could have a bad ass motor....small...and POWERFULL!!!!

what do you think...stupid idea...lets chat about this one

 

[almostclueless]

It would need some manner of recycling all the heat of combustion that would escape up the "chimney" to be efficient....and it would take a while to get up enough heat and steam to go anywhere unless you wasted a ton of fuel.

 

[Dave R]

Well, it's possible but "bad ass", no. Even with a LARGE superheater you won't come anywhere near the potential power of gasoline.

You wouldn't have a need for a computer either. There is nothing in your system that requires computational power.

Look up flash boilers if you want to have a go at it. Much safer than a conventional one.

 

[Ranger61]

Here look at this first..... http://hytechapps.com/ or this http://www.angellabsllc.com/
try those before that steam one's but Id like to see a steam powered ranger. hmmm kinda like back to the futureIII is that were you got the idea?

 

[alaskan155]

you steam engine Idea to this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmnMIS08vuI

modifed to this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmqpGZv0YT4

 

[stegomon]

well what gave me the idea was the steam cars that jay leno has.....he takes his up and down the highway at highway speeds and faster

 

[Will]

Slow motion engine. Steam can not expand into a cylinder very quickly. Having the combustion occur inside the cylinder is a great boost in performance.

We still have external combustion engines though--ships and power plants.

 

[Will]

well what gave me the idea was the steam cars that jay leno has.....he takes his up and down the highway at highway speeds and faster

I assume he has a Stanely Steamer?

My family had one in the past. My great grandma's diary mentions them having a Ford and a Stanely Steamer. They had to tow the Ford up to the top of the hill they lived on with the Steamer because the Ford didn't have enough butt. I will post the diary page if I find it. I have it scanned somewhere.

 

[97BlackBetty]

Im currently prepping to take my steam courses next semester, so i do not yet gain all of the knowledge, but i will tell you this. Steam Rocks.
Water Expands 700 times when it flashes to steam. Ask any fire fighter they will tell you its true. This is where you gain all of the potential power in a steam plant. Aboard commercial vessels it is not uncommon by any means to find steam plants, they are capable of creating 50,000 horsepower efficiently compared to most diesel plants. The amount of fuel burn in a steam plant is relatively low compared to a similarly powered diesel plant. (once its up to operating temps.)

The down side is that they are enormous, the amount of components needed to effectively run a stream plant is a never ending list. Fuel, boiler, turbine, condenser, plus your gear box.

Benefits to a gas or diesel, you can effectively throttle and control the amount of fuel used. Steam plants you have to continue to make steam and move it through your lines.
I can go much farther into the subject of steam, but for the basics. Steam just dont work to well in automobiles.
Justin

 

[soylent_green]

I, personally, would love to see one of these in a ranger:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_Wankel_engine#R26B



woah.

 

[Sunk]

This is close, but not quite. Still damn cool though.

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/technology/c1609351d9092110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

 

[Danger FX4 Ranger]

Im currently prepping to take my steam courses next semester, so i do not yet gain all of the knowledge, but i will tell you this. Steam Rocks.
Water Expands 700 times when it flashes to steam. Ask any fire fighter they will tell you its true. This is where you gain all of the potential power in a steam plant. Aboard commercial vessels it is not uncommon by any means to find steam plants, they are capable of creating 50,000 horsepower efficiently compared to most diesel plants. The amount of fuel burn in a steam plant is relatively low compared to a similarly powered diesel plant. (once its up to operating temps.)

The down side is that they are enormous, the amount of components needed to effectively run a stream plant is a never ending list. Fuel, boiler, turbine, condenser, plus your gear box.

Benefits to a gas or diesel, you can effectively throttle and control the amount of fuel used. Steam plants you have to continue to make steam and move it through your lines.
I can go much farther into the subject of steam, but for the basics. Steam just dont work to well in automobiles.
Justin

True, Whenever a utility brings a coal, oil and even a nuke plant online, it can often take several hours from the time the boiler is lit or the control rods are removed, until the time the generator is synchronized with the grid. On the other hand, gas turbines are much quicker to start, and can often be online in as few as 10 minutes, making them ideal for peaking plants.

 

[MAKG]

Guys, before you go touting steam, you simply must understand that horsepower is not a terribly relevant statistic, and certainly not in isolation.

THE issue for steam, and the reason why it lost to gasoline (and Diesel) in the first place, was cold starts. If there is no pressure in the boiler, there is no torque. Steam does have a large standing torque (like electric motors) IF it has a "head." But gasoline engines can be driven cold.

 

[kunar]

I, personally, would love to see one of these in a ranger:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_Wankel_engine#R26B



woah.

a wankel rotary huh? i dont have any personal experience but i hear they get really shitty mileage, even in a car

 

[Will]

Guys, before you go touting steam, you simply must understand that horsepower is not a terribly relevant statistic, and certainly not in isolation.

THE issue for steam, and the reason why it lost to gasoline (and Diesel) in the first place, was cold starts. If there is no pressure in the boiler, there is no torque. Steam does have a large standing torque (like electric motors) IF it has a "head." But gasoline engines can be driven cold.

I think everyone here understands steam sux in a small vehicle.