I had no time to go through all the pages of DAOX Prius mods, but for what I read, mostly is related to the "new" discoveries made in his great vehicle.
I had been modifying and upgrading mine since early 2005 and let me tell you that I did a lot, but this is not the purpose of this commentaries.
Daox, now that you will install the EV range extender offered by Automation Direct, the Enginer KIT, and in order to maximize your FE and mostly because you reside in Wisconsin, with a severe cold climate, you must install an Electric Block Heater, blocked lower and
upper front grills and a Thermostat hack, including a means of reading CAN values for engine temperature (Scangauge or CANView).
Now, abstract yourself and analyze what I just typed..............well, I will tell you.
Everything is temperature related, and if the ICE find itself in a comfort temperature zone, you will be able to maximize the turn on/off cycles of the engine; I'm not telling or suggesting you to defeat any warm up cycle that the ICE requires to keep a toasty Catalytic Converter and kill emissions with an ice cold engine, but after the fact of a successful ICE start you can control how and when to maximize your Forced Electric Mode, that's the proper way to enhance your "PHEV" conversion.
In my case, I been doing it successfully since almost 3 years.
Now, I have an approximate extra 6KW of NiMH in my conversion.