it seems like a good idea has it been done? just thinking outloud and history on this technology? does it exist i would think so but uall let me know

 

Are you talking about supercharging a steam engine, or using steam to supercharge a gasoline engine?

Actually, when I think about it, a steam engine is already "supercharger" as the steam in injected into the cylinder under pressure.

Injecting steam into a gasoline engine? Kinda like water injection? The heat would be a bad thing, the higher humidity would be bad too. I guess it would be good for removing carbon from the combustion chamber. Other than that, it sounds like it would hurt performance. Or am I not understanding what you are proposing?

 

no , im saying using steam to push a turbine thats setup like a turbocharging setup. the steam is made by the heat of the gas engine block... so the steam would push a turbine that by a pully would spin a blower like setup to compress cool outside air and send it to the tb. the boost would be controlled by a computer that opens "blowoff valves" to regulate the steam... kinda like if you took a roots type supercharger and hooked it to a water wheel im not saying it would make anymore power but it would out cut parcidic losses of a belf driven system... just think 75% of the enegery a car makes is lost in heat why not use that heat to help power the car!!!! it seems easy enough just make a place in the block (perferbally the hottest spot) for a liquid. have it travle past a turbine in a confined area where after that it gets to a radiator that recools it to a lquid for re-use to controll the pressure just install bypass valves that work like electric cutouts to divert the boost arround the turbine, then have the turbine linked to a belt system that powers a supercharger to make thwe boost... its not a question of will it work its more a question of practibility and i guess if there can be enough steam pressure generated to power a blower... im not a phyicstist so i dont know but hell we got air tools that can creat hundreds of foot Lbs of Tq so i dont see this as being too changling for a ls1 engine hell i bet the system could even be adapted to work with all stuff thats in an engine bay like use the cars existing cooling system to circulate the steam the hoses and radiator might just need to be beefed up to take the pressure and corsion of water... but its definately dooable .. **** i would attempt it if i had a shop, adquate tools, time, and mechanical know how. its would be a cheep fun projest IMO just try it out with a old junked engine ...i dunno just a wild thought i had while working out the other night sounded good to share... anyone got comments??

 

you would need a big tank of water to burn up into steam wouldnt you? i dont think it would cut enough parasitic loss to justify all the extra weight

 

you would need a big tank of water to burn up into steam wouldnt you? i dont think it would cut enough parasitic loss to justify all the extra weight

 

not really beacouse the radiator device after the turbine would recycle the water so youd only need like a couple of gallons, but thats gewtting into the Physics and then i can only guess also who said you have to use water it could be done with another liquid, but if it were my GUESS i dont see you needing more than 5 gallons of water 10 MAX rember its a small closed circuit system so just enough to fill it up the only phisce that come into play os how big of a turbine is needed to generate the TQ to adaquately turn the pully system and i think it could free up like 80 horses if you apply this to all belt driven accessories in a car ie alternator water pump supercharger fans powersteering cooler

 

If your heat source is the engine block, you're not gonna be able to heat the water higher than the operating temperature of the engine. Since you've got a 160 thermostat, that's not even hot enough to make water into steam. To make steam you'd need a minimum temperature of 212 degrees, and higher if it's under pressure.
Even if you could get your water to boil, you'd be limited to a very low efficiency because the temperature difference between the heat source (engine block) and heat sink (radiator) is directly related to efficiency (Carnot engine from thermodynamics). With a heat source of 200 degrees and a heat sink at 100 degrees, you'd have a max efficiency of about 15%, and then you still have to account for losses from the pump, viscosity, compressor wheel, etc.
I'm not trying to flame, just trying to bring some physics into the picture.

 

Steam turbines operate at high pressures, and much higher than boiling temps. Your coolant would never generate the kind of energy needed to run a compressor, even if it could get to the temps (and it can't).

There is a lot of heat lost to the atmosphere, but its mostly through the exhaust, not the coolant. Now if you could only find a way to harness energy from the exhaust. I wonder how you could do that?

 

We use both boilers and three x-15 rocket engines to create steam which is then injected through a venturi to create vacuum. You need several hundred psi steam pressure and a huge mass flow. You will need a pretty huge tank even if you recycle the some of the condensation, something to create the steam (it is not going to happen with a automobile engine). It is not to feasable on a car, unless of course it runs of steam to start with.

Gary

 

 

of first off i do belive certain parts of the engine reach temps way beyond 212 like th exaust mainfolds.. seccond this is just an idea so all you who come in just to flame can blow me , hell at least i thought of something orginal, what ideas have you brought here lately, i mean god dam its not like i said this is a new proven inventiopn i was just bring it up out of general curisoty for u'alls enjoyment not for scacastic remarks (bTW thanks p mac thaks for the info) like i said above i am under tha assumption that certain engine parts reach into the hundreds of degrees NO ONE SAID TO USE THE COOLANT AS THE SOURCE OF STEAM

 

of first off i do belive certain parts of the engine reach temps way beyond 212 like th exaust mainfolds.. seccond this is just an idea so all you who come in just to flame can blow me , hell at least i thought of something orginal, what ideas have you brought here lately, i mean god dam its not like i said this is a new proven inventiopn i was just bring it up out of general curisoty for u'alls enjoyment not for scacastic remarks (bTW thanks p mac thaks for the info) like i said above i am under tha assumption that certain engine parts reach into the hundreds of degrees NO ONE SAID TO USE THE COOLANT AS THE SOURCE OF STEAM

 

of first off i do belive certain parts of the engine reach temps way beyond 212 like th exaust mainfolds.. seccond this is just an idea so all you who come in just to flame can blow me , hell at least i thought of something orginal, what ideas have you brought here lately, i mean god dam its not like i said this is a new proven invention i was just bring it up out of general curisoty for u'alls enjoyment not for scacastic remarks (bTW thanks p mac thaks for the GOOD info) like i said above i am under tha assumption that certain engine parts reach into the hundreds of degrees, also NO ONE SAID TO USE THE COOLANT AS THE SOURCE OF STEAM. assuming the exaust manifolds reach a couple hundred deg. you attach a revsour to them thats a closed system it heats to say 500 deg. wouldent that provide some engery? i mean hell at first glance your avg ls1 should be able to support roughtly 900hp of pulling devices if all the xs heat was used as enegery (which i know would NEVER happen) but 15 % of 900 hp is still 135 hp of power to pull i guess the question is how much of that is lost in the conversion processes also who said you have to use water im no expert for sure but there might be another substance that boils at a lower temp than water i mena hell we've got coolants degsined not to boil im sure we could degsin something to boil quicker... like i said before JUST A THOUGHT for your enjoyment so if you are just TOO SMART FOR THIS DISCUSSION AND FEEL YOU HAVE TO FLAME IT BEACOUSE IT INSULTS YOUR VAST INTELLGENCE PLEASE JUST LEAVE! ANY-OTHER USEFUL COMMENTS , DO THE MANIFOLDS OF OTHER PARTS OF THE ENGINE GET AS HOT AS I THINK THEY DO? IF NOT THEN WHY DO YOU NEED 1200 DEG PAINT FOR THE ENGINE BLOCK WHY NOT JUST 200 DEG PAINT??????

 

WELL **** IT POSTED 3 TIMES! SORRY

 

It’s not a bad idea, but like someone else said, most of the unused energy is going out the exhaust and we have already seen the turbo approach (which is quite good).

There is something that I have wanted to try and research. I’m sure it’s already been tried, but I think it would be very interesting to experiment with.

The idea is an isolated gas turbine engine that would run the compressor. It would obviously produce very poor fuel economy, but you would have unlimited boost control at any RPM without any parasitic drag on the motor. I’m not sure what kind of materials and weight it would require, but the basics of a turbine engine are really simple and trouble free. The trick would be the proper electronics to control it and spool it properly when high performance is desired. It takes a while to spool up a turbine engine and you would have to running before you demanded boost.

Talk about sounding cool as hell. Can you imagine the look on peoples face as you spooled up at idle.