I plan to use my current vehicle as a test platform, a 454CI engine should be a great heat generator. For the mode of energy generation I will experiment with copper coils and water to make steam, the universal energy generation medium.
Using waste heat of car engines to quickly defrost and warm a car.
As a Minneapolitan, I'm interested to see how your testing goes. Seems like you'll need to handle a pretty wide range of temperatures--manifolds get hot!