Uniflow Steam Engine

[pusstjulio]

great build i need one about 8hp for my boat

how much steam "cuft" does it consume

[accordeon]

The steam car we built uses a hydraulic cyl for the piston. We mounted it to the top if a air compressor with the same stroke. The AC served as the crank,flywheel ,and cross head.

[hibraisil]

I have an old hydraulic cylinder....I think it has a 1.75 inch bore....any way to turn that into a steam cylinder?

[hypnofan35]

You know i think the steam engine was made artificially obsolete because it doesn't throw away the heat like an internal combustion engine. You can collect the heat after it's done pushing. That means the waste heat does not go flying out the exhaust manifold. If anyone want's to talk about it. or read about it, i'm pretty sure a moderized steam engine could be twice as efficient as internal combustion.

[accordeon]

@hypnofan35

Engines do not throw away heat, the heat left over is what is too difficult to extract energy out of. I did a lot of reading and personal study on this. The one idea that has not been exploited much, and can extract energy from the waste heat of gas/diesel engines is to use the exhaust heat to produce steam and run a "extra" piston on steam. This was used with good results on ships , but the added cost of having to employ a diesel engineer and a steam engineer was the problem.

[hypnofan35]

@accordeon I am pretty sure that if you had a closed system you could get an expansion of steam on one stroke at which time it would lose most of its heat while being converted into power. The remaining heat would be left in the condensed water. which would be staged for more power strokes, Hence most of the heat lost could be between the flame and the boiler. If it goes out the back in the form of vapor and N2 and Hot CO2. If we could use it, and we are not that means "throwing away".

[accordeon]

@hypnofan35

the exhaust on a simple boiler will not be much above the boiler water temp, most boiler use this heat to raise the temp of the incoming cold feed water, each 11 degrees of preheat of this water gives you a 1 percent increase in efficiency.

You can get more efficiency out of an engine by condensing the exhaust ,and in effect sucking the piston back on its exhaust stroke.

The steam engine exhaust is often used to pre heat the boiler feed water.

[porpoisefathom]

@accordeon its not rocket science- most people could leanr to run things on steam in a dya or so...once the principles are grasped its pretty simple--three main things about steam- steam volume, temp, and pressure. thats about it...

[fizzguts]

What  do you use as the circulating pump on your Lamont boiler?

[accordeon]

I use a cast iron centrifugal pump. I added some bolts to the flange on to increase its pressure rating.

[fizzguts]

Thanks for the information it is much appreciated. Any problems with the shaft seal on the circulating pump?

[accordeon]

@fizzguts

The seal has not been much of a problem, Viton, and even Buna-N seem to deal with the heat ok.

[eelpieandmash]

Surely the big disadvantage of the Uniflow engine being that there is always a large amount of compression on the exhaust stroke,thus reducing its efficiency.

This was the problem on the early Derr steam cars.

[accordeon]

Thats why I added an exhaust valve, they work ok if you run them with a exhaust condensor.

[manfromalaska]

Nice looking rig. It would be easier to see what is happening with the video not laying on its side though.

[accordeon]

I have some better videos posted since this one.

[WWBZT1]

you can not turn an internal combustion engine into a steam engine. The iron rings would rust and seize to the iron cylinder sleeve the first time you let it sit for awhile+ the valves the same to their bores or seats.

[accordeon]

this is not so, a tiny amount of oil is mixed wit the steam, covering all the parts with a thin layer of oil. Pretty much all steam engines are made with iron and steel, and the rings are steel. If you were planning on letting the engine sit for awhile, you would want to shut it down hot, and open the drains to let the moisture evaporate. The engine in the video has a secondary exhaust valve that is of a automotive type that has yet to seize or leak.

[WWBZT1]

I was talking about an automobile engine being converted to steam. Water and oil do not mix, and I beleive the rings would seize +

the moisture would more then likely end up in the bottom end and there goes your bearings.

[accordeon]

WWBZTI has a good point. A system I am using in my next project (and this would work well with a converted gas engine, provided it had a forced oil lube sys)is to not allow oil to accumulate in the crankcase (something like a Harley Motorcycle dry sump) but scavenge and dry it with the incoming steam through a heat exchanger, before sending it back through. This would also serve to keep the moving parts hot and dry also. There are several vairations of this that would work.

[fizzguts]

Steam engines have iron rings pitons and cylinders iron bores. You have to lube them with heavy oil 600wt. Go to a steam boat meet and ask around lots of iron engines with iron pistons and rings. Check out a good technology museum. Listen and learn.

[WWBZT1]

Yes, can you do that with a gas engine

[marshall9doom]

er...what do you use it for? mean, ya got your steam engine..why not patenting em'? you can make lots of money=)

[eddiequest2]

cool(hot) idea... but does anyone realize the camera position(sideways)?

[CSilva76]

for woot is dat made?

[accordeon]

I have seen two stroke engines turned into bash valve uniflow engines, and I saw a lawn mower engine turned into a steam engine. The valve timing had to be changed (4 stroke cam runs at 1/2 the speed of the crank) you could add lobes or change the gearing. I am working on building a engine using either a truck compressor or a two cylinder air conditioner compressor.

[djbAnks]

Do you have any videos of this new build? I want to follow suit and convert an a/c compressor into a compact steam/gen set. I found one place on the net of the idea.. I need a little more info. If you could please. :) thx in advance

[straker1999]

very impressive. i suppose it might be possible to turn a petrol engine into a steam engine without too much modification.

[NightFlyyer]

Fantastic. 5 Stars.

[accordeon]

You can see this engine running on steam at about 500rpm , search "DorkBot - Steam Engine" or low speed close up at "uniflow steam engine 2"

[pauloz386]

Your are genius, how did you construct the slide valve or ports, as my head is hurting on how to accomplish it. I brought an old compressor thinking it would be easy to convert it to steam, this hasn't been the case. My e-mail is paul_R_hayes @ hotmail . com any more details would be very much appreciate in gaining what pride I had before I took on this challenge.

[accordeon]

The trick with this engine was to not have to make the valves. I used a steam whistle valve (about 35$ from Mc Master Carr) I put a eccentric on the shaft and used it to open the valve (the brass thing on top of the engine) through a linkage you can see. I was able to use the return stroke to operate the exhaust valve (was the intake disk when it was a air compressor). A cam and a roller follower would be much better.

[NutsandGuts]

how much did it all cost?

[accordeon]

It cost about $100 in parts and about 20hrs of work.