Datsun 240z becomes Electric/Diesel Hybrid

[Lazarus]

Originally Posted by RH77

Next on PINKS...

Ben Nelson and his 92 Geo Metro faces Bob Schmelding and his 71 Nova...

Trash talk is exanged, as per show guidelines.

Meanwhile, the shows producer is amazed at the 9-second pass...

Ben later goes home with a 71 Nova

Hrm. Sounds like a good way to finance a build project

How would they handicap that. Bob is on the spay and Ben you get one lenght and need to run a 800 amp invertor with no battery recharge

[MetroMPG]

Nice vids, AmpEater!

I'm afraid the closest I could ever come to that would be spinning the front tires... in gravel. That's what 400A @ 48v nominal gets me.

[RH77]

Originally Posted by Lazarus

How would they handicap that. Bob is on the spay and Ben you get one lenght and need to run a 800 amp invertor with no battery recharge

LOL -- that's when the sandbaggin' comes in (personally that's why I like the all-out version of the show -- lift and you're out).

Still, I have to add that the burnout vid was awesome. Any idea what kind of torque you're making?

RH77

[AmpEater]

Originally Posted by RH77

Still, I have to add that the burnout vid was awesome. Any idea what kind of torque you're making?

RH77

There aren't any torque curves available for my motor, but based on the curves available for the warp 9" and the ADC 9" at 1000A it looks like about 240 ft-lbs.

I have heard that the kostov is a little more efficient, which I'm pretty sure can only mean that for the same torque production is uses less current. So it may even be possible that it makes a little over that figure. Either way its more than the tires can handle.

[Cd]

So minus the purchase of the car, how much would you say that you have invested in the car right now dollar wise ?

How many man hours ?


Could a single person duplicate most of what you have done in their garage, or did you rely on lots of friends and outside automotive shops ?

I'm assuming that you have worked on cars all of your life, and know a lot about mechanics. You also seem smarter than average.
Could your average person off the street attempt a project such as this ?

Thanks for sharing your project with us. It is very inspiring.

[AmpEater]

Originally Posted by .Cd

So minus the purchase of the car, how much would you say that you have invested in the car right now dollar wise ?

How many man hours ?


Could a single person duplicate most of what you have done in their garage, or did you rely on lots of friends and outside automotive shops ?

I'm assuming that you have worked on cars all of your life, and know a lot about mechanics. You also seem smarter than average.
Could your average person off the street attempt a project such as this ?

Thanks for sharing your project with us. It is very inspiring.

I've got about $6k in total invested, it will be a little over $7k with the generator.

Hours....hmmm....

I can't estimate design hours, I've been thinking about the conversion for years, and I drift off thinking about the best way to build parts, the next steps, etc on a daily basis, so there are hundreds of mental hours invested.

Probably 10 hours of physical work per major component. The transmission adapter plate (lots of hours drilling holes, measuring, measuring again, conceptualizing the finished product to make sure its all going to fit together when done), the battery racks, vehicle prep, electrical, and drivetrain assembly probably has 50-100 hours invested. Component selection and purchase involved probably hundreds of hours scouring the web for the best deals, staying up late to snipe ebay auctions (lots of very good deals this way).

You could most definitely accomplish a project like this entirely with a garage and plenty of free time. The only component I outsourced was the transmission to motor coupler. You could even do that yourself, but I do not trust my welding on such a critical piece, nor do trust that I could achieve the center-to-center tolerances required for long bearing life. I don't even have an impressive tool collection, most of what I use is cheap chinese stuff from harbor freight. All the welding was done using 2 of the traction pack batteries wired to an electrode holder and ground clamp (I wouldn't recommend this, much too hot an arc and no current control...invest in a good welder). My 10 year old cheap drillpress, sawzall, and angle grinder are responsible for 95% of what you see.

I'm actually not familiar with cars much at all; I understand how they work fundamentally, but that is about it. I just changed my own oil for the first time last weekend. I have, however, been obsessed with electricity since I was an infant. I actually had a length of wire I carried everywhere. I'd buy motors out of surplus catalogs with my allowance money just to watch them spin. Even still, most of this is very new to me. The biggest motor I'd ever played with could fit in my hand, and every circuit I've ever built was a tangle of alligator clips. The idea of pumping enough power to light a whole block through this contraption I built is still majorly spooky. Its also the most fun I've ever had.

Anybody off the street could accomplish this as long as they believed they could. Just start with the basics; amps, volts, how does a battery work, etc and go from there. There isn't anything in this car that you wont find cracking open a $20 RC toy, just way bigger. The biggest obstacle is pouring thousands of dollars into a project when most people will tell you it wont work, can't work, don't bother. How are you going to do something that GM couldn't? I've had people tell me "you're not an engineer". As if that alone was proof that its not possible. My girlfriend expressed her skepticism that it would ever move constantly. My mom laughed it off, and then changed her tone to "you're going to kill yourself" as it became clear I was actually going to do it.

A word of advice to anyone trying anything like this: visualize. You've got to imagine the end product, then work backwards. You're driving your car with an electric motor. How is it connected to the wheels? How is it mounted to the car? It can be easy to overlook important details when you're only thinking about the big picture. Advice #2; sketch. Draw it. Draw every detail. Remember welds, bolts, wires. It doesn't have to look perfect, it just needs to include every feature. Its amazing how easy it is to design a battery rack that doesn't leave room for the battery cables, mounting bolts, etc.

[Cd]

I would really love to see you submit your car to a magazine such as HotRod / CarCraft / Importracer/ and so on.
Can you imagine the change that you could have in the mindset of todays youth?
( Since you started with a car that is already considered 'cool', this could only help.)

A decade ago, electric cars were symbolized by the media as something a sissy would drive.
Just recently, cars such as the Tesla and the Volt have begun to change that image, but it is guys like you and John ( plasmaboyracing.com ) that really are on the cutting edge of changing peoples perception of electric cars.
( " If a normal guy can do this stuff, I can too " )

The fact that you are not only making an electric car, but making one that has a clean burning hybrid engine as well just blows me away.
I have been dreaming of just such a thing for years.

( And as I mentioned before, I too owned a Datsun Z car)

[AmpEater]

Originally Posted by .Cd

I would really love to see you submit your car to a magazine such as HotRod / CarCraft / Importracer/ and so on.
Can you imagine the change that you could have in the mindset of todays youth?
( Since you started with a car that is already considered 'cool', this could only help.)

A decade ago, electric cars were symbolized by the media as something a sissy would drive.
Just recently, cars such as the Tesla and the Volt have begun to change that image, but it is guys like you and John ( plasmaboyracing.com ) that really are on the cutting edge of changing peoples perception of electric cars.
( " If a normal guy can do this stuff, I can too " )

The fact that you are not only making an electric car, but making one that has a clean burning hybrid engine as well just blows me away.
I have been dreaming of just such a thing for years.

( And as I mentioned before, I too owned a Datsun Z car)

I can't tell you how much it means to me that someone out there gets it.

I didn't start out to change anyones minds. I had a really cool car and I was bummed that the engine exploded. In my web surfing I encountered several EV conversions and began to realize that what I really had was an opportunity to build something cool and practical. (I love building stuff, if anyone didn't guess). But in the process I encountered so much skepticism, negativity, and straight up ignorance my aim has gradually been changed from do it to prove it can be done to show them why they want one too

Lets say I made a video titled "electric vehicles - cars of the future"...how many people are going to want to watch it (not including you guys). Now, lets say its titled "how I commute 50 miles for $1 a day"...I bet I'm going to get alot more interest, but mainly cheapskates and the likes. But lets say its called "how I blow away corvettes, porsches, vipers on my way to class...without a drop of gas"...who wouldn't want to know how. I've realized the best way to appeal to someone isn't through logical argument, its through emotional demonstration. Through jealously. How many people are going to let me cheat the system without getting a piece of that action themselves?

[AmpEater]

So I've added forced air cooling to the motor:

And I'm etching the steel battery racks with zinc phostphate before applying a coating of rust proof POR-15. All this stuff is bare steel and will rust very quickly if exposed to the environment.

I'm working on the headlights. The high beam and low beam each have their own relay controlled direct link to the battery. Its not routed through the switches anymore. (should be much brighter and more reliable). All connectors were replaced with double gasketed weather pak connectors.

[AmpEater]

All newly added steel has been painted with 3 coats of POR-15 rust proofer. I have also welded in an additional battery tray for the 13th Hawker Odyssey, bringing the pack voltage up to 156v. Now I just need to finish wiring headlights, turn signals, and horn and it'l be legal to drive on the road!