rustymon

Thanks for the props, alpine... wish you were closer to go for a ride when it was done! Otmar just published a youtube video explaining how he got the gages working... also fun to see some shots of the car in his garage...

KrazyK

If you dont mind sharing, whats your total conversion cost up to now including initial car cost?

rustymon

Good question... unfortunately it is much more than an engine rebuild... was hoping to find a way to convince more people on here to do a conversion themselves!

Car: $19,000 (E-bay purchase 2 years ago, was a decent deal at the time... now I see similar cars for $15K-$17K)

Conversion to date: Approximately $40,000. I'm sure I'm off on some numbers here, but the larger purchases were batteries ($11K), Zilla 2K motor controller ($4K). I'm guessing about $13K in labor thus far, and then all the other parts/pieces make up the rest.

Not that it is truly part of the conversion, but I also put in about $4,500 into a new stereo system in the car which includes the Parrot Asteroid Smart, which is the Android based head-unit that lets us read information from the OBDII sensor and show lots of cool data via the Torque app.

So, all-in, I'm closing on $65K... but I sold the motor and parts for about $5K, so $60K Net. Was initially planning on it being more like $45K, but you know how it goes... good thing I've had almost two years to slowly pay it out...

rustymon

As we began more drive testing, we started to have a feeling that there might be a battery cell misbehaving... so we never buttoned up the rear end and finished a few things, as we'd have to undo it all if we did have to replace a bad cell. Now that we've finished the gages, we're once again focused on the drive testing. We now have data showing cell 9 is being "reported" as having the worst performance of all cells in the system by some margin. I have quotes around "reported" because it is entirely possible the cell is fine and we just have a loose wire connection. Kirk is going to trouble shoot that before any more rear assembly is done. He believes he can access the connections (to test them) without dropping the battery box - here's hoping!

Other things left to be done: heater reservoir, the back-up cam (is wired, but not on since the rear bumper/body panel isn't on yet), motor cooling blower needs to be mounted and wired, wiring for the air conditioner needs to be finished and refrigerant plumbing for the air conditioning pump has to be moved (we'll have an A/C shop do this).

The list is certainly getting shorter!

alpine003

Just curious as to what the life expectancy of the batteries will be with your specific batteries/usage and does that company have some sort of recycle program?

rustymon

The batteries are expected to have a 75%+ charge capability in 8 years, somewhat standard in the industry now. I'm actually hoping that I'll be able to upgrade for double the mileage and a little more power in 4-5 years... I think everything about this car is going to be just want I want from a long-term keeper car, with the one exception that I'm looking at 100mi range now - would love to extend that to 200 some day and maybe up the pack voltage some to get as much power into the motor controller as it can handle!

Calb, the maker of the batteries, is in China. I don't know of a recycling program for them, but there are certainly a few places around me that recycle things like this. They are also very good for power storage in homes with solar panels, etc. Saw a video once of a battery like this being disassembled and virtually the entire thing is recyclable. The exterior plastic casing is recyclable and inside is just a stack of thin metal sheets which can also easily be recycled. Or at least that's what the video was trying to demonstrate...

rustymon

Some good news... it took a bit of doing, but we finally figured out what was wrong with the cell... nothing! It was a loose connection and was easily solved... but this means the battery box had to get pulled out. More drive testing should help flush out any other loose battery management connections. More testing to be done... hope to have another update this weekend.

rustymon

Not much sexy for this update, but as we found one connection which was slightly loose, we decided to go through all battery packs one more time and torque things up again to be sure we didn't have any surprises elsewhere. The top photo below shows the battery pack which resides in the area vacated by the gas tank... It’s lowered as little as possible to reduce the number of cable & surrounding plumbing connections to unmake and remake. The actual torque check is maybe 15 minutes. Getting to it, and putting it back… priceless. The second photo shows the right rear battery box while dropped, with lid off. Also, lowered minimally, just enough to gain access.





A long time ago, Cpt. Obvious asked for more info about the electric power steering pump pulled from an MR2 - with the car back up on the lift, I can finally deliver on that request. First two images show the pump and I've circled the isolators we added after finding the initial install caused a good bit of NVH. The final photo is of the pump controller. Pump and controller were purchased used online, so I don't know the exact year of the Toyota MR2 which was its donor, but believe it was '92. These items are mounted beside the transaxle, the pump is on the driver’s side, in a pocket directly under the rear seat, controller mirror install on the opposite side.

rustymon

Going over what remains to be done...
- Torque final cells (battery pack across the top of the motor)
- Install heater reservoir & test
- finish air conditioning wiring
- get air conditioning pumps "low pressure" exit modified
- purchase & install A\C belt
- install motor cooling fan+filter
- fix pwr steering coupler slow drip
- drive test... drive test some more...
- adjust settings for calm & power modes (valet switch)
- monitor finish battery charging & balance
- put bumper body panel on
- put fender flares back on
- put frunk trim panels back on

Some of this is quick, some not easy to predict.... here's hoping I finish before the end of the Summer (September 22nd is the official first day of Fall, so I think I have a chance...)! Funny, this whole build I keep thinking I'm 6-8 weeks away from being done... and it's no difference now, nearly two years in!

philooo

With all the hype on electric and the bad 996 engine you may be onto something selling a package to replicate your build !

Did you add up the list of parts dollar wise?

Might be just as good a conversion as the la engine for a lot of people

rustymon

Fun idea, philooo - but I wonder - is anyone else out there crazy enough to do this? Crazy in a good way, of course! I'll put it out there now - I'm happy to assist anyone, and Kirk, the engineer who is working on my car, is the owner of shiftev.com where he sells most of the main parts that are going into my build.

As this project is coming to a close, we've been discussing ideas for new projects. Anyone else interested in a conversion like mine? Is there any one out there with the enthusiasm to buy a complete package of equipment and instructions to do this conversion yourself? Some of the parts that have been custom engineered for this car are simply amazing - and it would be nice to be able to share the knowledge gained from this project and make it easier on others.

Seriously, is there a market for this kind of thing?

Imo000

Those crimp connectors in the last picture are anything but weather proof. They will corrode pretty fast if you make this car a DD. Might want to reconsider using something more weather proof like for example the GM style connectors.

chamilun

I built an electric car a few years back. had about a 22 miles range due to non lithium batteries. There is a market for 'kits', but its VERY small.

For me, the joy of the build could not be duplicated

rustymon

Imo - I'll check into maybe changing the connection - it is for a ground so it may be OK... I'll mention it to Kirk (engineer/partner on the build who is the one that actually knows his stuff) and see what he thinks about it as well.

Chamilun - I agree - the build is the fun part. A kit would only take out the guesswork in the design and make the build easier without some of the more complex fabrication. I figured the market for kits would be quite small, but with all I hear is *crickets* on that post, maybe the market is slim to none. What did you build?

chamilun

was a 04 mits. eclipse. 144 DC setup. At that time, AC was much less common. Fit as many batteries in trunk as possible, and had to put 3 in the engine compartment.

Heres a rough implementation.

Not nearly (by a mile!) as sophisticated as yours. Everything did work, down to the gauges. Used a clutchless setup, which worked really really well. Vacuum brakes. etc etc