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Originally Posted by Ecky
Potentially, but the fabrication required to do so would almost certainly exceed the value of the van.
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That sounds about right.
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This makes me wonder if you've ever seen a freight train accelerate.
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I'm a railfan, so I know.
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My Insight weighs in at about 1850lbs, and has a 9kw electric motor in addition to the gasoline engine. Even in a vehicle this light, 9kw is not very much power.
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Not very much power. it's like a Geo Metro pulling a 2000 pound trailer. Imagine first gear, 0-60 in 15 minutes, and top speed of 10 MPH on a 6% grade.
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I'm getting the idea that you have no idea how much most of these things cost. You're coming in and saying, "I know that X is too expensive, so I'd rather do Y", when Y is almost certainly more expensive.
How would you plan to drive the wheels with your electric drive-train idea, anyway? There is going to be some serious fabrication involved, and anything that requires fabrication is going to cost more than off-the-shelf bolt-on components.
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This is why I came here, to ask experienced ecomodders the cost effectiveness of a gas-electric propulsion system, and the eMPG of such a thing.
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An EMP won't necessarily destroy all electronics, either. EMP generate charge differentials over an area, and so long conductors (e.g. power lines) and anything connected to them are what would be most likely damaged, and a simple fuse can probably protect anything connected to these. The smaller the conductor, the less it would be affected by an EMP, and the (very robust) computers in our (already quite shielded) cars are very small indeed. Pocket calculators and wrist watches would almost certainly be completely unaffected, regardless of how big said EMP is.
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The EMP will happen. An EMP happened in the 1800s, and life went on because the only electric technology around was the telegraph. When that same EMP happens in our era it will kill 90% of everybody in the first world countries. The people most dependent on electricity, modern medicine, communication and conveinences are going to be the worst off when those become non-operational.
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Originally Posted by Hersbird
In all seriousness, this is a great electronic distributor with built in ignition for the 318. You probably need a different coil as well but this thing is a vast improvement over the factory setup. I actually converted my 68 with points, condenser, ballast resistor to this and it ran great. Much hotter spark and simplified wiring. For the price you could actually buy and extra for the EMP and keep it in a Faraday bag in the trunk, then you have it as a spare part either way. The other problem with your van is all the alternator voltage is run through the harness to a ammeter in the dash (at least I think they still had that in 86). The bulkhead connector on the firewall is prone to failure.
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The problem with keeping a spare is that only protects if there is just
one EMP. Replace the part and the aftershock EMP(s) happen one is screwed. It's like replacing a fuse, good for one surge and that's it; a circuit breaker can be reset thousands of times no new component nessessary. It's like designing a building with the intial earthquake in mind but no thought to any aftershocks.
The best solution is the 'circuit breaker' soution, faraday the entire engine bay so no matter how many EMPs happen the electronics still work. This can work with todays cars as well.
Update: I now have a 2001 FORD E350 van with 7.3L electronic fuel injected DIESEL engine, with 18 MPG!! This is going to replace the DODGE van, need to dismantle the living space inside the DODGE and sell the DODGE.
Anybody want a 1986 DODGE B250 "Mechanics Special" van with an extended bubble-top body and 5.2L engine in the San Jose, CA area?