Stirling engine water pump?

[hansj3]

anyone ever thought of using a Stirling engine as power for the water pump? throw an electric assist for added measure and use the heat off the oil, radiator, the coolant itself, or the block to run it. if it was calibrated to run at full speed at 210° and come on slowly before that... it could help reduce load and heat the block quicker, a double whammy


(edit) no, a triple whammy. seeing how it uses the heat out of the engine/coolant it would lower the demand on the radiator to cool thus reducing the the square area necessary, and be able to close off more of the grille opening

[ConnClark]

You still need cooling area to cool the cold side of the Stirling engine. The net savings there would be zero.

Back to double whammy

[Frank Lee]

How much is a Stirling engine and where do I get one?

[Wonderboy]

I think stirling engines operate at a temperature difference, and therefore with one end exposed to extreme hot, and the other end exposed to not-so-extreme hot, it may still work. Another idea would be to pass the water across the "cold" end of the stirling at the same time as doing it's ICE water pump job. I'm not ambitious enough to try it, but here's my support

edit: yay 100th post!

[hansj3]

yes, a Stirling is a heat pump that works on differences, not absolutes. 1-2º can make one run with no load very slowly. hot side could be the exhaust manifold and the cold side could be heater core out. i wonder how big a Stirling engine would have to be to put out the 1-3 hp needed

i always thought A Stirling powered light aircraft would be super efficient at high altitude, as the limiting factor would be how much air the propeller is actually pushing... the only engine that gains power the farther it gets from sea level ...

[theunchosen]

Not to be a pessimist but this is still born.

The problem with Stirling engines is. . .they come in 2 categories. toys and powerplants. You can have 10 mA or you can have 20 amps at 1200 volts. Nothing in the between.

Building your own. . .it works but they are heavy and not efficient at all. A home brew stirling to output the same as a lawnmower would be roughly 2x as big. I have a friend who is a machinist who built one for power output(its a toy but its designed for output) and it dumps like 1/5 of a horsepower but its the size of a medium cooler(not the wheeled kind like a small styrofoam one).

So if you have room to cram a cooler in your hood go for it, but the energy savings versus the weight gain will kill you.

If you could get your hands on an SES suncatcher recovery unit and blow your exhaust gases over it, preheat that with radiator air and expose the cold side to unattenuated ambient air you could produce about 10 kw(13 hp) but you're going to add like 3-400 lbs.

[Wonderboy]

This makes fleeting mention of what it may cost to produce a 1HP stirling engine, not to mention how big/heavy it would be. I don't think this idea will ever happen.

[Frank Lee]

No- not another dream dashed!

[theunchosen]

its my job frank