Thanks. What you describe makes sense. Of course the simple code I used to demonstrate isn't what I'm really trying to do. I want to do something like this which probably won't work outside of SystemModeler based on your comment. It does work just fine within SystemModeler so it's not a complete loss. It was my hope I could drive models like this using WSMSimulate and I frequently need to initialize to steady-state, but not always. 
model Volume
  parameter Boolean steady = false;
  Real p(start = pinit, fixed = not steady);
  Real h(start = 300);
  Real t(start = 500, fixed = not steady);
  Real rho(start = 1.5);
  Real mass(start = 3);
  Real u(start = 100);
  Real U(start = 300);
  parameter String fluid = "O2";
  parameter Real Volume = 10000;
  parameter Real pinit = 500;
  MyConnector myConnector annotation(Placement(visible = true, transformation(origin = {137.82, -0}, extent = {{-10, -10}, {10, 10}}, rotation = 0), iconTransformation(origin = {90, -0}, extent = {{-10, -10}, {10, 10}}, rotation = 0)));
  MyConnector myConnector1 annotation(Placement(visible = true, transformation(origin = {-136.911, 0}, extent = {{-10, -10}, {10, 10}}, rotation = 0), iconTransformation(origin = {-90, -0}, extent = {{10, -10}, {-10, 10}}, rotation = 0)));
equation
  t = Props.pht(fluid, p, h);
  u = Props.phu(fluid, p, h);
  rho = Props.phrho(fluid, p, h);
  mass = rho * Volume / 12 / 12 / 12;
  der(mass) = myConnector.m_flow + myConnector1.m_flow;
  U = u * mass;
  der(U) = myConnector.m_flow * actualStream(myConnector.h_outflow) + myConnector1.m_flow * actualStream(myConnector1.h_outflow);
  myConnector.h_outflow = h;
  myConnector.Pt = p;
  myConnector1.h_outflow = h;
  myConnector1.Pt = p;
initial equation
  if steady then
    der(mass) = 0;
    der(U) = 0;
  end if ;
end Volume;