I used to make a lot of engines when I stilled played this game a lot (like 3 years ago now). I started with simple designs, but finished with what I consider my best work - using PUMP to simulate pressure in the cylinder. This was before we had PSTN, so this was about the limit of realism at the time.
Another idea was having the engine able to run at two different speeds - as seen in the engines I did for FDCC's cars. You should check out my saves, plus shikari_rock, mitto_mors and JoJoBond (this guy was great). Sparkjet was my inspiration to make engines in TPT, so you should probably check his saves.
This post ended up a bit longer than intended... Have fun.
@buggie00 I doubt it - all the files are on my old PC and I cba moving and reinstalling everything, plus it has a dud PSU so I can't boot it, and finding a replacement Dell BTX PSU from 2006 (because dell never fully followed standards, I probably need a dell one) for free is not an easy task, and besides, I'm too busy and lazy to do any modding any time soon.
I kind of just made a 'steam' engine. Although it's not WTRV but SMKE because I couldn't get the WATR to stay boiled for enough time to reach the DTEC(WTRV) so I changed it to DTEC(SMKE) and burned some BCOL beneath it, might actually publish a save...