Daox's 2004 Toyota Prius Build Thread

[groar]

Sad that your PHEV kit is only additional weight in your car... at least the glides are longer I do hope your kit will be alive this summer, I do like the concept.

In France a small association imports these kits and can help you to install them, or can do the install for a little fee. Damn I want an old Prius and a PHEV kit. Sadly French electricity is 80% from nuclear plants and price will increase by 5%/year during next 5 years...

Denis.

[Daox]

Most of the time I've had it out of the car actually. For the past couple months it has been in the car though.

[bwilson4web]

Originally Posted by Daox

Most of the time I've had it out of the car actually. For the past couple months it has been in the car though.

Has this been an unusually cold and snowy winter? The reason I ask is I noticed this past winter was especially hard on your mileage. Living in north Alabama, I've had my annual hit but nothing of the magnitude you're having.

In my case, winter mods consist of:

• bumper grill block using a water noodle
• engine block heater at temperatures under 40 F

I was wondering what sort of winter mods you've been using.

Thanks,
Bob Wilson

[Daox]

The mods I have installed are:
Tires @ 50 psi
EV Switch
Lower Grill Block
Enginer 4kWh PHEV conversion
Block Heater
Bridgestone Ecopia EP100 Summer Tires
Pirelli Winter 190 Snowcontrol Serie II Winter Tires
0W-30 Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil
Smooth wheel covers

For most of this winter I did not have my garage available, and thusly while my wife was driving she didn't like to plug in the car's block heater. So, that there is a big one. The winter tires also hit the mileage a fair amount. I have not blocked my upper grill yet. I'm sure it would be worth it, I just haven't done it.

I am very much looking forward to being the only main driver of the Prius to see what can really be done with the car. As of right now, I've been hitting high 50s and its still been pretty cold out. I can't wait for summer.

[bwilson4web]

Originally Posted by Daox

. .
I am very much looking forward to being the only main driver of the Prius to see what can really be done with the car. As of right now, I've been hitting high 50s and its still been pretty cold out. I can't wait for summer.

That makes a lot of sense so I'd like to share something I've recently found with both our NHW11 and ZVW30:

There is a 30-40 second interval when the car is first started that it supports substantial power drain from the traction battery while holding the fuel consumption to a very efficient, fixed rate of 0.60 gal/hr. This allows reaching speeds of 35-40 mph from traction battery without burning more than 0.60 gal/hr.

To replicate the phenomena, park the car where you can safely accelerate to 40 mph within 30-40 seconds. After a cold soak, ~3-4 hours, get in the car and after making sure there are no traffic conflicts, start the car and gently with authority pull out and accelerate to 38-40 mph while listening to the ICE. If it races, back off and then reapply the accelerator.

My testing indicates you can reach 35-40 mph with instantaneous MPG in excess of 40-50 MPH. If once the engine 'races,' shift into "N" and glide at more than 100 MPG.

I had found this notch in the control laws last fall but it wasn't until recently that I was able to quantify the effect.

Enjoy,
Bob Wilson

[Daox]

Interesting. So, how would you suggest taking advantage of this?

[bwilson4web]

Originally Posted by Daox

Interesting. So, how would you suggest taking advantage of this?

I park my car as close to the parking lot exit as possible with a clear view of the traffic. Then I get everything ready including iPad podcasts and wait. When I see traffic is clear, I use deliberate speed to:

1. When parking, setup "energy flow display"
2. Clear indicate MPG since you'll be interested in the next trip
3. Do something else for 3-4 hours
4. Make sure everything is ready, radio, seat-belts, and traffic clear
5. Start car
6. Smoothly pull out, back off if ICE 'revs'
7. Get to 38-40 mph before ICE 'revs'

When the 30-40 seconds is up, the ICE will 'rev' and at that point, shift into "N". Then while you glide, the ICE will be burning 0.30 gal/hr., you'll see the instant MPG peg out at +100 MPG.

Bob Wilson

[Daox]

Do you need to shift to neutral to drop the fuel consumption down to .3gal/hr, or can you use the pedal?

[bwilson4web]

I use "N" because it does not distract from steering the car and if needed, braking. I don't fault folks who prefer to 'feather the pedal' but it isn't a skill I have much interest since to do it right, I would need sensitive instrumentation. Shifting to "N" works every time and is so much easier to master and keeps my eyes out the window on traffic.

Bob Wilson

[orange4boy]

I've observed this too. If you leave it in D it will commence to charge the battery at a penalty to your mpg. It's going to do that anyway on your next pulse so it's better to let it use some high load bsfc power than low load cruising power.