If you're interested in having your mod interact reliably with heat sources, you may want to browse
@Reika s code. Rotarycraft and Reactorcraft have a number of blocks that introduce and/or react to heat to accomplish goals. Even time of day (direct sunlight) can affect a reactor build, and Biome choice becomes very important for a number of machines and processes.
Similar to your example, Rotarycraft uses fire to heat Steam Engines (to which you supply water) to achieve rotational force. Also, a Friction Heater can be used to add heat to a Vanilla Furnace, replacing the need to stock it with fuel. If these principles exist, I'm sure you could have your mod do a block update of some kind to change itself to another block (similar to Botania's Livingrock/Livingwood).
Hope this points you in the right direction. I like to see new ways to approach old tricks.