For as long as I can remember the Stanley has had a puffy blanket wrapped around its boiler. It is a hot water tank blanket to be accurate. The reason for it being there is to provide insulation for the boiler. You see, unlike an internal combustion car where over heating is a concern, Stanley's are much more efficient when they are kept hot. Although the blanket has been a loyal steed and survived many a blaze the time has come to part ways.
Beside the obvious fact that the blanket is not era correct, it also didn't actually wrap all the way around the boiler. There was a section of approximately 5" that was left completely exposed. This provides an area for heat to escape and thus made my Stanley less efficient than it could be. I will be replacing the blanket with two layers of high temp ceramic insulation then wrapped tight with FiberFrax paper. This will give the boiler a nice uniform appearance and increase the efficiency.
On another note, now that the blanket has been removed there is a lot more room to work around the boiler. Given this easy access I decided that it was time to replace the main and pilot burner fuel lines. My car has been running 5/16" copper tube for the main fuel and 1/4" copper tube for the pilot. These line are really overkill for a 10 HP car. I have decided to re-plumb the main fuel line with 3/16" Stainless Steel Tube and the pilot fuel line with 1/8" Stainless Steel Tube. I've also found a way to shorten the main fuel line by 18" which will provide much better control of the stray vapors released when the steam automatic cycles off.