Someone found a steam corvair in a junkyard.

Someone found what looks like an old corvair with what might be a steam powerplant in it. I directed them to our contact page.

[www.reddit.com]

[imgur.com]

[imgur.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2017 10:58AM by zimirken.

After looking at this I highly doubt it was the work of Bill Besler and have to question whether it is even a steam car.

The only Belser conversion of a GM product, of which I am aware, was SE-121 --- currently owned by Tom Kimmel. The other car, just prior to that, was the Kaiser for Henry J. himself. Jim Crank talked of Besler often and never mentioned a Corvair.

I can't imagine Besler leaving fins on air cooled cylinders if converting to steam ... too much wasted heat.

The Joe Ellison conversion was for a straight up Corvair, an opposed 6 and not a radial.

The machine is interesting but there really isn't anything in there that I can definitively state is a boiler. The steam generating tubes and burner might be long lost but it's hard to tell what is really going on from the photos.

The last link, if you click the button to show the rest of the pictures, has some sort of boiler and what is definitely a burner attached to it. The burner looks like several propane turkey fryer burners.

Picture of the burners.

Picture of boiler tubes.

Hmmmm....OK, I can't pull those photos up from the site but can see them in your link. Looks like a steamer but not a Besler and certainly not a conversion by GM. Besides all the above, the burner and boiler are pure Not-Besler.

Someone on the original posting mentioned it might be a besler prototype. It's certainly some sort of old steam car though.

Fins on a steam cylinder? Nope, unless they were being re-heated somehow. I seriously doubt that is Besler's work. In the late 50's early 60's there was a large movement of steam enthusiasts trying to make all sorts of steam boats and vehicles. Some of the reasoning I've heard is there were many Retired Navy guys with steam experience and wanted to dabble with it at home. And also heard, because of the tightening clean air standards at that time, some folks thought then and still do that a clean running steam vehicle may become a viable product. Anywho, that is my understanding why a lot of these type projects are seen from that era. There is no telling who did that Corvair, probably a lone wolf type that got tired of sketching it on a napkin and took the plunge They were very cheap cars back then, after Ralph Nader made himself famous by testifying and writing books on how dangerous they were. A lot of hysteria about nothing.

-Ron

I'm seeing what look like hydraulic components in this thing....strange arrangement. I agree with Ron....not steam...unless we are missing something. Looks like someone's crazy radial engine that is driving a hydraulic pump underneath it. The plumbing close to the wheels look very hydraulic....as if there are hydraulic motors on each wheel, like a forklift. What looks like a boiler may actually be for cooling fluid instead. Just my observations...the thing needs all the rust and crud cleaned up to see more details. Very cool find though, no matter what it is.

Jamison



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2017 05:29PM by Arch-Tone.

This is a bit old now, but the PS/77 project printed in many Steam Automobile quarterlies used a converted VW flat engine with bash valves and a monotube steam generator. This arrangement was reported used on a Corvair conversion. This is a possible match.

Karl Petersen

This association with the engine and Besler appears to be a bit of misreading. I found a reprint of a copy of the old Steam Automobile Quarterly somewhere in this thread and, on the right-hand side of the spread, it showed Bill Besler's obituary --- on the left-hand side it showed Joe Ellison's Corvair conversion. I think someone didn't read carefully and juxtaposed the two articles into one conclusion.