Civic EPES: Alternator Delete Project (with additional lithium battery...)

[brucepick]

Of course if you charge your battery off the grid (or solar or whatever) and not off gasoline, you're actually doing better than a hybrid. In that a hybrid still gets all its energy from gasoline. With EPES, your car is actually partially an EV. Not very much, but just a little bit.

Kind of along the lines of the last few posts here,
though NOT turning it into a hybrid -
running an EPES system takes a certain amount of load off the engine.
So you can get up a hill with just slightly less throttle.

The way Honda's lean burn is set up, if you exceed the throttle limit, it goes out of lean burn. So with EPES you can stay in lean burn in slightly more demanding situations - such as a steeper hill or more headwind. Or if conditions are good with no hill or headwind, you simply need less throttle = less fuel.

[pete c]

Yeah, I guess trying to power an AC motor does get to be tricky.

Is there an reason not to go with a DC generator/motor/starter? I know cars used to use them during the dark ages. I assume they went to AC for greater efficiency.

I think the ideal setup would be a belt driven fairly high voltage DC generator/motor/starter and a Lithium pack to power it. I think it's reasonably simple to regulate it down to 12V for all the 12V stuff.

[tortillasoup]

Originally Posted by brucepick

Ask and ye shall receive. Though I think you first asked about 2-3 weeks ago!!

[If you're not logged in you won't see the pics; you could go here to see them:

View of battery and fusebox, with new cables and alt cutoff switch:

From left, clockwise:

• Purple wire entering main fuse box replaces the oem one that was connected to battery +. Trace through taped-over connector to red wire exiting right side of pic, it goes to the lithium pack. Small red wire at the connector powers MPGuino, and the headlights and horn via added relays.
• Ground cable
• Black wire at rear of brass plated switch, going to right and down: Via a fuse on firewall, it next joins the red wire via a switch located behind drivers seat. This is my "jumper"; connects the lead starter battery to the to the lithium's red output cable. If lithium's ground is cut via another switch, this powers the car via the lead "starter" battery. Mainly used to support charging the lithium with no load of computer/radio/clock/MPGuino on the lithium while charging. Also supports other functions; see the circuit drawing & notes in link in first post of this thread.
• Black wire at rear of brass plated switch, going forward + downwards: OEM starter wire. Note that OEM cable from starter to alt is removed at the alt so this wire does not go to alt.
• Purple wire at front of brass plated switch, exiting right side of pic: Goes to alternator + output terminal. This is normally switched off here; can be switched on if alt is needed for any purpose.

Closeup of alternator + switch area:


OEM battery cable (spare from junker) with new connector. Note notches cut in connector; these fit the fitting at alternator's screw terminal.


New connector prepared:

Note bend in connector; new cable approaches the alternator from above. This approach angle also makes for better access to remove the 4-wire alternator connector.

Two switches and the charging connector, located behind driver's seat on floor:

• Three-wire switch is the "jumper switch" mentioned in first pic above.
• Two wire switch is the lithium pack's ground disconnect.
• Not very visible, but the white charger connector has an unusual blade/slot configuration. I put a matching male connector on the charger's cables. These are from Home Depot; 15A rating exceeds my charger's 10A output. Enables quick connecting of the charger and no likelihood that either connector will be plugged into a 120V AC circuit in error, by anyone.
• I plan to mount the switches on a project box to keep things more neat, and to position the knobs upward for easy access.

Front view of the two switches:


View of the lithium power pack in trunk, with connections to its + and - cables, and the 200A fuse:

The white loop at top end of pic is a lift grip for battery; it has a twin at the other end of battery.
The fuse and holder are ANL size. These have much larger contact area and much better current carrying capability than blade type fuses of any size, to the best of my knowledge. Commonly used in high end car audio systems.

Looking at the pictures inside of your engine bay, I'd say you definitely should clean up your electrical grounds. Scrub the bolts, washers, eyelits, etc so they're shiny. You don't want dirty grounds otherwise amperage draw will increase and your measured battery voltage readings will be incorrect according to the car computer.

[brucepick]

I have to admit you're right. They need cleaning.