Thinking along the lines, the motors used today, came from early 1800's steam engines. Thinking apocalyptic visions, can our engines be coverted to steam, with firebox and a boiler?
Some world war two movies show buses, and trucks burning coal or something for fuel. Can't find info on it.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran, deutschland deutschland uber alles uber alles in der welt

Coal or wood 'gasification', like the kilns they used to use to make charcoal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_gasification

COAL AND WOOD BURNING VEHICLES OF WWII

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"I applaud your elaborate system of denial"

If you can turn the coal or wood into combustible gas you can run vehicle on it. I'm thinking you could just pipe it to intake and vary flow to control speed. You have to "burn" the coal/wood in an oxygen deficient atmosphere to make the combustible gas.

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Jim

wow thats it.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran, deutschland deutschland uber alles uber alles in der welt

I’ve read that the last, and best steamer was the Doble. J Leno has one. It would probably take some serious machining to get a lot of running well and keep it running. I’ll see if I can find out how many are left and how many are running. Here is Leno’s:

https://youtu.be/rUg_ukBwsyo

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I thought they used charcoal in ww2. I suspect they may currently do it in places like India.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

I'm not a chemical engineer but I think somewhere during the process that wood becomes charcoal.

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Jim

The Electric Utility in TWalgamuth-land has an industrial size gasification plant. Its really more of a refinery with a small power plant attached to the side. Also - dont ask ratepayers how much it went over budget (it was serial #1 )
But yeah, heat up coal hot enough, and it will turn into Natural Gas. My understanding is that you get some kind of 'ash' when all the coal is gasified out.

My sons are going through their "I want a go kart" phase (and I'm too cheap to buy them one...) so I proposed that if they could design or at least give me some ideas on how to make a go-kart powered by steam, using only parts from Lowes/retail stores, then I'd fund that project.

They arent Mechanical Engineers, and from what I can find, Lowes is short on steam pistons, so the go kart is in limbo for now.

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2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

I built a couple of go carts when I was about 13 and 14. OMG they were crude. I somehow found a rear axle and I had some soapbox derby wheels. I put the wheels on the end of a 2x4. I found an old coffee table top, perhaps 2’ x ‘5. I mounted the 2x4 with front wheels to the top with a large bolt and washers. I used my feet to steer.

I attached a lawn mower engine at the rear, used a fan belt for drive on the axle (had appropriate 12 inch or so diameter knobby inflated tires). I operated the gas with the little lever on the carburetor. It definitely moved down the road. It helped that we were on the edge of a housing development, was only three houses on our street and another street parallel to that was only vacant lots. Nonetheless, it’s a miracle I didn’t kill or maim myself.

Forgive me, but you might be setting the bar a little too high with the steam engine. Bear in mind that Christian von Koenigsegg was first inspired to build autos by visiting a go kart track at age 6. I’m not entirely taken with his style of auto, seems an incredible and impractical luxury, but OMG the engineering is amazing. And it appears that his company has built the first working cam-less ICE.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K