Steam powered Landy

[Flat4]

Anyone seen this yet???

Fabulous thing but completely impractical lol Love it tho. What a legend Frank is!

[sutty2006]

That’s quite “frankly” awesome.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

Remarkable, thanks for posing it.

[goosey]

Totally unrelated, but the title reminded me of a guy I used to work with who swore he fitted some system to his land Rover that used to spray steam into the carburettor to make more power.

probably bullshit but he was a very clever bloke 

[Three Speed]

Spraying steam will increase power -marginally - and not by enough to compensate for the power lost to generate the steam.

Saw the steam powered Landry thing yesterday. Amazing! Quite slow though!

 But guy that made it - raised £1.1M for charity rowing across the Atlantic. Aged 70. Singlehanded. And going to fo it again. 👏

[Liggle]

Thats a great vid! What a bloke Frank is 

[HMC]

The thread title made me expect a Freelander 1.8 K series. 

[Soundwave]

Excellent stuff. I somehow knew the owner would be from Oop North before I even heard him speak.

[warch]

That's excellent, amazing that the steam conversion hasn't noticeably affected the performance either.

[timolloyd]

Is it ULEZ compliant?

[PhilA]

9 minutes ago, timolloyd said:

Is it ULEZ compliant?

With a Q plate can it get historic class still?*

If not, no! (Still cleaner than a wood burning stove in a trendy apartment, or did those go out of favor now?)

 

*Displaying 2 reg marks, naughty

[timolloyd]

They’re banned in lots of urban areas.

 

[LightBulbFun]

27 minutes ago, timolloyd said:

Is it ULEZ compliant?

19 minutes ago, PhilA said:

With a Q plate can it get historic class still?*

If not, no! (Still cleaner than a wood burning stove in a trendy apartment, or did those go out of favor now?)

 

*Displaying 2 reg marks, naughty

its registered as an agricultural tractor, which are exempt from the ULEZ

 

however im trying to work out why its on a Q plate in the first place

it really should not be, "all" he did was change the engine

that should not necessitate a Q plate, AFAIK he did do any major substantial changes to the vehicle otherwise, its still the same body and still the same chassis and axles AFAIK

so it really should not be on a Q plate....

just in the same way when you stuff a Rover V8 into something it does not get a Q plate

 

I do also wonder if it could be made to go faster given the suspension/steering etc is all still Land Rover should be good for at least 50 I would imagine if you can get the gearing right and get enough power from the steam engine

(I can understand why all those scale model traction engines only do about 5Mph because you would not want to go any faster with something that has chain steering and no suspension, but a Land rover is a little bit more advanced then that, just mind! LOL)

 

but that aside,

Loved watching the video, I had read about it, but never seen any videos on it so, that was pretty awesome to see, especially with how enthusiastic and energetic the builder is  

top marks to that chap  

[PhilA]

Cut the bulkhead. Who knows what other mods lay under the front.

So it falls into ag, makes sense. 

Chocka chocka chocka whieeeeet

[barrett]

Seems a bit pointless that it can only do 12mph, when steam cars from 100 years ago could do ten times that speed...

 

Lots (well, several) cars were converted to steam power right into the 50s, but virtually none of them have survived into preservation. Those that have tend to be 'restored' back to IC power which strikes me as a bit of a shame. There was a big 30s Wolseley Viper discovered recently with a full steam set-up but the new owner is going to put it back to factory spec. Does anyone know if any steam conversions have actually survived intact?

[PhilA]

I can hear him now

T'weren't ment t'be practical. 

[LightBulbFun]

9 minutes ago, PhilA said:

Cut the bulkhead. Who knows what other mods lay under the front.

So it falls into ag, makes sense. 

Chocka chocka chocka whieeeeet

I dunno, its a Land Rover its a body on a chassis, what you do to the bulkhead is a bit inconsequential aint it?  (unless thats part of the chassis on a Land Rover)

I mean the Identity of a body on frame vehicle goes with the chassis in the UK 

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-registration/radically-altered-vehicles

if he could score more then 8 points then he is in the clear

9 minutes ago, barrett said:

Lots (well, several) cars were converted to steam power right into the 50s, but virtually none of them have survived into preservation. Those that have tend to be 'restored' back to IC power which strikes me as a bit of a shame. There was a big 30s Wolseley Viper discovered recently with a full steam set-up but the new owner is going to put it back to factory spec. Does anyone know if any steam conversions have actually survived intact?

thats interesting to hear, its a shame some of those dont survive

I wonder how they where built back then, as there where no off the shelf steam engine kits like there are today for scale Model etc where there?  was each steam engine/conversion unique in itself and built entirely from scratch?

[barrett]

11 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

thats interesting to hear, its a shame some of those dont survive

I wonder how they where built back then, as there where no off the shelf steam engine kits like there are today for scale Model etc where there?  was each steam engine/conversion unique in itself and built entirely from scratch?

A combination, I think. I'd guess most engineers could knock up a decent boiler set-up, and there were enough old Whites and Stanleys in hedges in the 30s and 40s to pillage bits. Remember that Stanley, at least, was building steam cars right through to the end of the 20s, maybe even later, so old steam car components would have definitely been knocking about in most scrapyards for a while after that. The Wolseley mentioned has a white rear axle/drive unit and a home-made boiler, for example.

[sierraman]

2 hours ago, timolloyd said:

Is it ULEZ compliant?

Yes I believe. I saw a steam powered truck type thing a few years ago registered on a 52 plate and it came up as exempt. Way forward perhaps. 🤣

[wuvvum]

I remember reading in a French car book from the '60s about an experimental steam car that had been built using a standard Ford (IIRC) four-pot converted to run on steam, using a diesel-fired boiler.  It was quite sophisticated really, with some kind of mechanical variable valve timing setup and a steam recirculation system which meant it only had to be filled up with water every 150 miles or summat.  It'd do 0-60 in 10 seconds using just one gear.  Was deemed to be too high maintenance to be put into production though.

[SteersWithThrottle]

9 hours ago, goosey said:

Totally unrelated, but the title reminded me of a guy I used to work with who swore he fitted some system to his land Rover that used to spray steam into the carburettor to make more power.

probably bullshit but he was a very clever bloke 

Fuel-water injection is a thing. I remember seeing adverts for it in car magazines in the late 70s and early 80s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_injection_(engine)

[83C]

3 hours ago, barrett said:

The Wolseley mentioned has a white rear axle/drive unit and a home-made boiler, for example.

There’s a phrase to strike fear into the heart of anyone involved with pressure vessels! Mind you, having seen some examples of truly appalling ‘professional’ boiler work (rivets with multiple layers to the head, barrels with gouges in them) it might not be so bad...