I have a number of questions, but I think I'd best give some background to them. I bought my car from Christopher Roberts, in Sacramento. He owned the car for a number of years, and put a lot of kliks on it, mostly in meets and tours. I intend to use it much more for driving around the semi-rural community where I live, just north of Victoria B.C. From April to October the weather is pretty reliable here: we get very little rain and it doesn't last long, so I should be able to use the car quite a bit.

To the questions. Petrol is expensive here ($1.05/L, or about $4.20/gal) and electricity is cheap. I'd like to connect a 1500 Watt hot water tank element to a heavy duty extension cord and put it in the the water tank, through the hole where the water level gauge lives, before firing, and heat the water in the tank to 60 C. That should cut the firing time by about half. Comments?

Secondly, Christopher recommends filling the boiler to the top before firing,and then bleeding off steam/water to half boiler once the pressure starts to climb, on the grounds that it will save the superheater. I can see that, but it's a waste of fuel. Comments?

Finally, I live at the bottom of a gradual hill about 1 km long, rising perhaps 50 metres in that distance. Should I hook up at some point on climbing, or wait until I get to the top, or is that a matter of trial and error? The Stanley manuals says to hook up as soon as possible, but doesn't give any instructions as to hills, except that one should unhook if one is starting on a hill. (Along with holding the reverse pedal up so the car will not start in reverse, which would, I imagine, be exciting.) Thanks for your time.

Cold water pumps better than hot water. Keep your tank water cold as you can. Your feedwater heater and your economiser (if you have them) will easily heat your feed water up with wasted heat. I like to start with a full boiler and as it warms up, drain it down to a run level. That way you also can test your boiler level gauge by blowing it down. Also use your surface blow off to get rid of the floating oil. The water that is blown off will not be much higher than 150 F degrees at most. Well worth the fuel used. More damage can be done by a slug of water in hook up than out of hook up. Listen to your open drip valve on your steam chest. When it is blowing clear of water, close it. When you are going fast enough to put it into hook up and not loose acceleration, then do it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2010 11:52PM by SSsssteamer.

Dear Ian, Pull out your Stanley Dealer Bulletins that you purchased through the Stanley Museum. Bulletin Number 95 A dated April 23, 1919 has all of your answers to your "To steam up" questions except for how steep your driveway is for hook-up.

Dear Ian:

Pat Farrell is quite correct to recommend that you buy the Stanley Dealer Bulletins from the Stanley Museum. They have a second book of dealer correspondes and other material and I highly recommend that as well.

Every Stanley owner should have a set!

The late Clarence Coons put this material together and we are all permanently in his debt. The Stanley Museum website has an eCommerce section that makes ordering easy, otherwise, call Kim White in Kingfield. She is very helpful.

Best wishes!

Don Hoke
www.vintagesteamproducts.com

Wanted: Parts for 1924 Stanley Model 750 and 1925 Stanley Model SV 252. We buy steam car parts and literature. Visit the virtual steam car museum at www.virtualsteamcarmuseum.org.

For all your steam car needs, visit www.vintagesteamproducts.com.

I've got the Bulletins, and they are useful, but not perfect, mostly because so many of these cars have been changed. For instance, the bulletins say that my car should use a mixture of steam oil and kero, but my car has an oil pump that uses stuff with the consistency of tar, and Chris says it shouldn't be mixed. I believe him, since he ran tha car for a long time without hurting it. (Although I must say I'm tempted to heat the oil up a bit, so the winker will occult rather than turning black ten seconds after I start the car and staying that way until I shut it down.)

Hi Ian,

I’ve read with interest this and your previous posts and I hope that I can offer some useful information to you. I have a lot of experience driving my 1921 model 735 Touring in England, it has proven so reliable that I frequently drive it to work in the summer months.

Firstly, I have virtually no knowledge about forced firing a Stanley boiler, except take care! The fire produced from blown burners can be very fierce and may also give uneven heating of the bottom tubeplate; something the Stanley boiler is intolerant of. However it appears that the previous owner had success with the current arrangement.

Condenser fan – if you can find a 12V unit that will fit then I think it’s a great idea. I am currently restoring a model 740 roadster (see homepage of www.steamcar.net) and I ultimately intend to do something similar myself. The sort of roadspeeds you can achieve when the engine is working hard are usually in the 10 – 20 mph range; at this speed the condenser airflow is seriously inadequate.

Water tank heater – bear in mind that the water in the boiler will still be cold when you first fire up (unless you fill from a hot source of course) even if your feedwater is electrically preheated, so your firing up time will be unaffected. Assuming your car is configured for condensing, you’ll find that the water in the tank very quickly gets quite hot when driving. On one very hot day I had to flush the water tank with cold water because the pumps were less effective with hot water.

Boiler fill level – When firing up I slightly overfill the boiler then use this excess water for a major blowdown when steam reaches about 50psi. There is considerable agitation and mixing in the boiler at this time, and it’s a good opportunity to get rid of some of the debris from the bottom of the boiler. Use the surface blowdown liberally too. Remember that water expands substantially when it is heated, so no need to fill to the top.

Hook up – Firstly, whatever you do, don’t be tempted to put your foot under the pedal at any time! Flesh and bone are softer than reverser pedals. I take great care to ensure my pedal return springs are strong enough and in good order. There should be two VERY substantial springs that attach to the actual pedal and one similar but slightly lesser spring on the hook-up button. On my cars these springs are very strong. I am able to drive up a 1:8 slope and unhook on the slope without fear of slip-reversal; the pedal positively jumps up to full forward gear. In my experience, always start unhooked, then once you’re doing 5-10 mph, hook up.

I even generally negotiate hills hooked up as it uses far less steam and I can maintain a higher steam chest pressure, thus exploiting expansive work in the cylinders to the maximum. However in your situation with an immediate hill to negotiate when you set off, you’re probably better off staying unhooked to the summit. Take Pats advice and keep the chest valve open for as long as it blows wet.

Oil – If your car has the Stanley bronze bodied oil pump (like a miniature water pump) then you’ll need to thin the oil. Depending on what oil you’re running, you’ll need to experiment a little. I use 3 parts 1000 grade mineral oil / 1 part kerosene, and I set the pump plunger to move about ˝” on each stroke. It’ll pump the oil at all reasonable temperatures. If your car has a mechanical lubricator (the pump mechanism is submerged in the oil reservoir) then it should handle straight oil. The discussion of how much is right for a condensing car is a bit outside the scope of this thread (!). As I am uncomfortable with the possibility of oil getting into my boilers I currently run my cars non-condensing, but this means I can over-oil without worry.

A bit of an information overload I’m afraid, but I hope it helps give you success.

Best Regards,

Mark Drake

Not an overload at all. Thank you very much. I fired the car up today and at about 150 psi got a loud knocking from the rear driver's side of the boiler that I haven't had before. I have to figure out what did it before I go any further. Any thoughts? (The only change I made was to hook up the condenser, and since the throttle was open during firing there was some steam going through to the condenser; not much, as the drip valve was also open, but I don't see what that would have to do with it.)

On a condensing car with a full tank of water, when you open the throttle, it blows bubbles in the water tank making a lot of racket. When the water tank level drops a bit, it will be quiet once again.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/2010 03:15PM by SSsssteamer.

Re 17March post/3rd paragraph,,Do not hook up a cold engine,,Don't doooit,,#2,,, Pedal will pull down only while rolling BACK w/pressure in the chest,,,,ie roll back at a r-r crossing and try to hold it w/throttle instead of brake,,maybee,,maybee not,,If she goes back it will be w/pressure in the chest,,DO NOT STALL a steam car on a grade,,Think abouttitt,,,NOW,,looking at things,,the eccentric straps have nice lil ball bearings,,so there should be little friction here,,,and it should not happen,,There are some myths we refuse to accept,,,,,Cheers,,,Ben

Try going on the Eastern steam car tour in ME in July. There will be cars like yours there and a lot of experieced operators you can thumb a ride with and gain first hand experience. Allen

Also might try the NW tour in Stanley Idaho in July, a bit closer!