66 mpg 2009 Totoya Prius, Champrius 4.0 Under Construction now

[ps2fixer]

I'm currently on Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop. I've used Ubuntu before but went away from it once they went to the unity desktop, or whatever it was called (icons on the left side of the screen) and a tiny bit of Raspian in a VM (PiHole).

Data recovery is always interesting. Kind of getting side tracked, but I'm dumping flash chips from car computers lately. Poking at things and changing how the computers were intended to work. Spinning drive data recovery is something I've looked into a little. Like I can manually find some file types like JPG's have a header signature to look for and it's pretty easy to extract them, just inside the JPG file is another JPG file for the thumbnail with the same signature lol. I did manual data recovery on a camera flash card before with a hex editor that could open the drive raw, the file system was gone.

The last pic is interesting, it looks like you could reverse it and have pretty good areo yet too lol. I'm sure the front end tapers down faster than I'm thinking. Either case interesting concept.

I recently had an idea from this thread about how to modify the front end, but my ideas didn't account for the windshield lol. Basically the way people make custom fiberglass bumpers, same thing but remove the stock fenders and hood and use those attachment points. Depending on the design there's probably more up front like around the bumper area too. In theory could hinge the whole assembly as a single piece and bolt it down, or some sort of latch near the rear.... actually that reminds me of a IH scout 2 hood. Here's a pic, clearly hinges at the front, latch is center firewall. There's a lever to pull right in the middle of the dash to "pop" the hood. There's no secondary latch either if I remember right.

[freebeard]

The last pic is interesting, it looks like you could reverse it and have pretty good areo yet too lol. I'm sure the front end tapers down faster than I'm thinking. Either case interesting concept.

It would be a typical aero kit, front and rear caps and side skirts. The front piece wraps to the B-pillar and would include front skirts. Here's a trailer that's similar in the rear:

[ps2fixer]

That's interesting, never seen a camper like that before. They could have done so much better by making that back section fold down and "pop up" when being used as a camper. Less reliable but if it's the areo/better mpg that's the selling point, it seems like they'd go to the max on it.

Kind of funny though, I think if you "drove" that camper backwards and made the rear (normally front) more the ideal shape for a boat tail, it would do better mpg wise. Either case it's an interesting concept.

[freebeard]

I suspect it was a field modification.

"Faster backwards" is a thing.


ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/interesting-aerodynamic-cars-mike-vetters-etv-also-avion-11732-33.html#post451244

[Talos Woten]

It turns out I got unlucky. There was a chance that my recent pair of trouble codes were just the temperature control valve, which was replaced and works fine. But the inverter coolant pump was also actually bad. It went kaput here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CgChQJ1rZaP/

So the next step is to replace the water pump. One is on order and I should get it soon.

I'm also thinking I should get serious about making sure the thermals are air tight before I do my front mods. I would hate to have to do a bunch of work... just to redo it all again if something else fails. On the bright side, everything seems repairable for the moment. While stuff needs replacing, nothing seems to have been irretrievably damaged. Yet.

[ps2fixer]

The job isn't bad, there's a vid on youtube that covers the process pretty well.

You could get a temp probe that runs on 12v and wire it up in the car, glue the temp probe on the aluminum part of the inverter housing and it would give a reasonable idea on temps. The engine coolant temp is readable on the scan gauge. I plan to do a similar mod on mine at some point.

[Talos Woten]

Originally Posted by ps2fixer

The job isn't bad, there's a vid on youtube that covers the process pretty well.

Actually, I plan on following your advice and doing it myself. It seems like the trickiest part is doing the coolant bleeding afterwards. But with the right plastic hose, it looks easy peasy.

Originally Posted by ps2fixer

You could get a temp probe that runs on 12v and wire it up in the car, glue the temp probe on the aluminum part of the inverter housing and it would give a reasonable idea on temps. The engine coolant temp is readable on the scan gauge. I plan to do a similar mod on mine at some point.

True. That could work. Or, I could just look at Torque Pro, which gives me access to every sensor in the car, including all the temperature readings.

I've attached the moment the pump failed. 215F is way too hot... especially when typical temps are 110-130F.

[ps2fixer]

I see, then scangauge should be able to read those values, just need the xgauge values worked out. Not messing with that stuff atm mine is factory reset, no more issues and trying to get a base line milage to see how far off the scan gauge is off vs real fill up values. 0% adjustment seems to be quite close.

For the bleeding process, I just turned on the ignition and broke the bleeder loose till no more air came out. It didn't take long at all in my case, but I did things as best as I could with out loosing fluid. I think most guides would say to drain the system, I didn't do that step lol. Pop apart, put new in right away and you loose a few oz at most, it's just messy and you need a catch pan.

[Talos Woten]

Originally Posted by ps2fixer

For the bleeding process, I just turned on the ignition and broke the bleeder loose till no more air came out. It didn't take long at all in my case, but I did things as best as I could with out loosing fluid. I think most guides would say to drain the system, I didn't do that step lol. Pop apart, put new in right away and you loose a few oz at most, it's just messy and you need a catch pan.

I would replace the coolant EXCEPT it's all new since they just did the temperature valve fix. And since it was around the 100k coolant service anyhoo, there's no reason to do it again.

Here's the method I'm going to use:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rXe9gGG9Yo&t=73s

That doesn't seem like it will make any mess. The hardest part was finding the right $10 plastic tube to order on Amazon.

[royo-floydo]

Your insta looks good! Will surely follow how you build the Champrius 4.0.