I've read about the motor/alternator that was being marketed to replace a stock alternator to make a mild series hybrid and I think GM is doing something along those lines with the new Buick's and people have talked about building their own that would work the same way, but so far I haven't seen anyone do it, one complexity would of course be getting enough power out of a 12v motor and fitting a 12v motor in the location of the alternator that was powerful enough to do any usable work, so it seemed kind of pointless, of course you could use a higher voltage motor/alternator but then you need a dc to dc converter too.
Then today I was thinking about how my Civic has a large empty spot where the A/C would bolt on, it's right at the front of the engine with threaded holes for the compressor to bolt to the engine block, so why not make a bracket to allow a motor like the E-tek or a Perm PMG 132 to bolt on in that location?
specs on the Perm PMG 132 seem to say that it can handle over 12,000 RPM (red line on my Civic VX is 6,000 RPM) to a 2 to 1 reduction would work, spinning the motor at 4,000 RPM while the gas engine was puttering along at 2,000RPM.
My thought for throttle is to try to keep the engine in lean burn, so low load and that is measured by manifold vacuum, as vacuum drops power to the motor increases, when vacuum is high, as in when the ECU is told to cut fuel to the fuel injectors then regen braking should start to ramp up, I haven't yet worked with programming speed controllers, but as I understand it, you can program how fast things like regen ramp up and how strong, if possible it seems like two regen settings would be ideal, one for when engine vacuum is high and another for when the brake lights come on, I don't think most speed controllers are set up to work like that, but that is an area that I need to check in to more.
A lot of speed controllers also have a half power setting, for going in reverse or for letting someone else use the vehicle, it seems like this half power setting could be used as a "long trip" setting, where you want the battery pack to last longer.
I of course thing this would be best as a plug in hybrid, 72v is the max of what those motors are rated for and because it's not powering the car all on it's own that seems like enough to give it an added boost to keep it in lean burn all the time.
Am I missing something? it seems like a project that could be done for a few thousand dollars and have it work well or cobble it together for a grand.
Anyone care to pick it apart or steel the idea and build it?