A couple of quick engineering notes to aid your discussion!
Heat transfer is accomplished through 4 principles: Convection, conduction, radiation and Mass Transfer. Your purposes only need the first three. Radiation decrease by the square of distance. For the cooking your talking about, convection is the most powerful in the engine compartment.
Cans can easily be heated to 100-150C, as the retort process generally takes the cans that high. Thats what the accordion "bellows" are for on a can.
Carbon Monoxide used to be used regularly in meat processing. Ever get hamburger that was bright red on the outside but grey on the inside? The stuck it in a CO chamber to freshen it up. Used to be pretty common. So I wouldn't worry about that.