3 Responses

1. You can’t-You can only buy them from places that sell them, and you need special pieces. To make a steam engine, you require a boiler, which must be over 1000 degrees c! this has coal inside, and together they produce the steam needed, an awesome amount of power. to power a propeller, theres a screw shaped piece of metal with a propeller on the end, put in a tight casing. The steam then goes through the casing, pushing at the screw-like thing, making it turn. I think you can get small model engines that are steam powere but I don’t know how they work and they are not good.

2. If you want to have a efficient engine that will be actually used you probably have to buy some specialized equipment. There are turbines for power generation from steam. There is a company called Capstone that produces small turbines. Or if you want it just for demonstration or education you can take a turbine from a turbo car and turn it with steam.

3. You really need an engine that will work under the steam’s pressure and temperature conditions, otherwise you risk rupturing the engine. I can’t think of an existing engine that you can “convert” that will stand up to the steam conditions you have specified. You need a steam turbine to do this job, there are a number of manufacturers for this, many times they are used to drive a pump instead of a generator. I have worked on a small turbine called a Terry Turbine used to drive a pump, they are now serviced by Dresser-Rand.