1971 Corvette EV Conversion

[AmpEater]

Originally Posted by TheSGC

I found in my conversion, that the adapter plates and the coupling was the easiest, only second to removing the engine. The hardest part was waiting for the parts and wiring up all the little electronics, finding out that you need a few trips to Radio Shack for relays and connectors, then wiring up more.

About battery prices, 24 Optima's is about $5.1K and the same amount of lithium to get the same power as those Optima's is about$ 5.9K, so why even go with lead? You get about Half the useful power from lead acid batteries, and with lithium you get most of the power. So, in theory, 144v 120 Ah LiFePO4 is better than 144v 200 ah lead sled, due to the difference in Puekert's Effect and the difference in weight.

First of all, weird. I'll bet your background is more in machining and/or auto work, whereas mine is electronics. Guess its all relative.

And excellent point about the cost of lead....gone are the days of "cheap lead now, lithiums later"....if you're dropping 5-6k on batteries anyway......

[TheSGC]

Originally Posted by AmpEater

First of all, weird. I'll bet your background is more in machining and/or auto work, whereas mine is electronics. Guess its all relative.

And excellent point about the cost of lead....gone are the days of "cheap lead now, lithiums later"....if you're dropping 5-6k on batteries anyway......

AmpEater, my background is Electronics! Machining was quite simple enough, using AutoCAD to design up everything took a bit of time, but not much.

What killed me about the electronics was that most of the connections were not compatible with each other, and having rewire chunks of the cars electrical because they were old and would quit out on me.

Wet lead acid batteries are still cheap, but AGM and sealed cost nearly as much as lithium. My next pack might be 8 volt floddies, then Lithiums, unless lithium prices drop like a stone next year, which is possible.

[Clev]

If you go with 2 motors, I like the inline mounting idea better. A belt system is going to be fragile (think 500+ lb/ft of torque) and inefficient, and, unless you build a bearing carrier, will wear out the bearings on both motors. If you got two 9" motors, one double-shafted, you could mount them inline and really take advantage of that long engine bay.

I'd have to second the lithiums (if you're looking at two motors, monster controller, custom digital dash, etc., what's an extra $1-2k to save 900 pounds?) If you absolutely must go with AGMs, look at the Exide Orbitals. They can dish out more current than the Optimas for a similar price, and there have been quality control concerns on the EVDL about recent Optimas.

Good luck, and keep us posted!

[Christ]

nice project.

If you mount 2 motors inline, make sure one can freewheel while the other is turning.

Basically, put a sprag (high torque, obviously) between the first and second motors, so your constant drive motor is the one closest the transmission, and the motor further from the tranny (the "1st" motor), is used for extra torque when necessary, but won't drag down the first motor (it's not much drag, but it's drag).

You'll want to regear to take advantage of the excess torque that these motors produce, and the relatively low RPM's that they can work in. Probably better to keep the same transmission ratios, and re-gear the rear-end, to lengthen the final drive ratio.

Lighten up anything you can afford to. If you can afford a 1 piece fiberglass front end, go for it. Anything to save weight, or offset the weight of the new components.

BTW - Regarding the Ford Truck... That cap is definitely not helping it's range... LOL.

[Clev]

With most of the inline motor setups I've seen, both motors share the load full-time. You could disable one motor to up the efficiency slightly, but I imagine you'd have to do some fancy contactor work to switch the controller from a two-motor setup to a single motor setup.

[Frank]

I would put 2 motors in-line; this seems to be the most popular setup. You can change gearing and run w/o a transmission (assuming you will use a powerful controller.)

Typical issues with 3rd gen vettes is rust in the trailing arm area and windshield pillars. They're interesting to work on and great looking!

[TheSGC]

Jim Husted actually sells a Dual motor setup, the Jimpulse 9. It has a single armature so there is no need to couple the motors together and even looks insanely sturdy.

http://www.evcomponents.com/ProductD...ode=Jimpulse+9

Through one of these in your Vette and you will be worrying about killing your transmission instead of not having enough show off power.

[adamj12b]

High Guys,

To answer a few things, The trailing arm area of the car is in very good condition, as well as the windshield pillars.

It is not likely that the funds will be available for a 2 motor setup. But if we were going to be putting in 2 motors, We would probably couple 1 warp 11's instead of buying a dual prebuilt 9" for 5,750.

I haven't had much time to work on the car this week. Were hoping to get it up on jack stands and some more stuff removed from the underside this weekend. Maybe get the engine out if we can find a place to store it while were waiting for it to sell.

The transmission that is going in the car I believe is rated to 500Hp so I dont think it will be destroyed too easily.

-Adam

[Christ]

Originally Posted by adamj12b

High Guys,

Not the last time I checked...

To answer a few things, The trailing arm area of the car is in very good condition, as well as the windshield pillars.

This is excellent to hear... at least you got a good one!

It is not likely that the funds will be available for a 2 motor setup. But if we were going to be putting in 2 motors, We would probably couple 1 warp 11's instead of buying a dual prebuilt 9" for 5,750.

Why not use a dual motor setup salvaged from something else? Like a couple big forklift motors? Or, if you can find it, a small train tow-rig motor. (Small is a bit of a misnomer, there. :Wink:

I haven't had much time to work on the car this week. Were hoping to get it up on jack stands and some more stuff removed from the underside this weekend. Maybe get the engine out if we can find a place to store it while were waiting for it to sell.

Shouldn't take too long to sell it, someone with an S-Dime surely will want it.

The transmission that is going in the car I believe is rated to 500Hp so I dont think it will be destroyed too easily.

The OEM tranny can handle quite a bit, IIRC. Don't know what tranny you're using, but hopefully it has enough gear to keep the motor low, where it's most efficient.

-Adam

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[adamj12b]

Hi Guys, (I typed the right thing this time )

So the car got put on jack stands last night and we set into the underside. We unbolted the exhaust from the engine. We started taking apart the existing power steering box, and got the transmission lines disconnected. We also got all the engine mount bolts out and all the wires and hoses disconnected. All we need to do now is lift the engine out!

Tonight, I was able to finish removing the exhaust system. I had to cut the exhaust in the center where it goes through the frame. Then it came out in 2 pieces. Not too bad for 15 Mins of work.

Tomorrow we hope to make room out in the little garage so we have a place to put the motor and transmission when we pull it out. If we can make some room, We will be pulling that out tomorrow. I think if we can get that pulled we will be making real good time on the removal of all the ICE components. 2 weekends.

I will upload the 2 time-lapse videos and all the pics from this weekends work, either tomorrow or monday.

I also hope to bring home a shipping scale on monday and weigh all the components except for the engine to get an idea of how much it weighs.

-Adam