Barrett Steam Car - back in business

Engine is back running, after suddenly deciding not to play ball. It's down to an earlier failure, but took a while to figure out what was happening.

More steam showing than before because exhaust pipes are not connected - so steam exhaust is venting to atmosphere right next to the engine.

At 0:56 hydraulic relief valves were shut off - that makes running quieter & reduces steam flow rate.

Some time ago, I installed a new needle valve in the steam line to allow enough steam through for engine tickover. The needle of the earlier valve had gone awol.

Part of it, about 1mm dia found its way into a steam chest, & was preventing the inlet poppet valve from seating, but lift wasn't enough to allow it to blow through!

Hopefully it will be driving around the yard soon.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• steam
• car
• engine
• monotube
• barrett
• greg
• walker
• vw
• beetle
• bug

[pfun41]

whats the big vertical spinning thing in the middle?

[rtdgreg]

It's a centrifuge to separate oil & water. Steam leaks past piston rings & condenses; so we get a mix of oil & water in the sump. Liquid is drawn from the bottom of the sump & fed to the centrifuge. Clean oil is returned to the sump; clan water is returned to the water reservoir.

[ijerry1]

Great to see you're working on it again :-) Looking forward to seeing it!

Cheers

Jerry

[rtdgreg]

Ken, would that that were so, but I'm afraid not. I think steam car HP ratings were not a measure of mechanical power produced; they were a measure of the production rate of their boilers making steam. One HP was about 9800 watts.

My guess was the mechanical shaft power delivered by the engine. That was 50 bhp, where 1 bhp = 746 watts. So my 50 bhp = 37 kilowatts of shaft power. Mr Stanley's 30HP car had a 300 kilowatt kettle.

[KenMacMillan]

@rtdgreg If you're right that would make it more powerful than any other steam car except the Doble.

[rtdgreg]

Sorry, I really don't know, but my guess is about 50bhp.

[KenMacMillan]

@rtdgreg You can tell by the way it moves. How much power does it produce?

[rtdgreg]

Thanks Jason - work has been suspended for quite a long time. I'm back on the job.

Greg

[rtdgreg]

Spot on. Standard VW block & 2 cylinders. The other 2 were removed to make space for the steam plant.

The car started life as an aircooled beetle. Fiberfab plastic body was applied to that. Then Peter Barrett bought the coupe & transplanted steam plant from his Triumph Spitfire steam car. Converted beetle engine to steam - more robust than the converted outboard engine that came before.