DIY Hybrid-ing old cars with low budget, is it possible?

[Leo.IT]

Unfortunately it's quite hard to put a different drivetrain inside that car, it has a strange layout with longitudinal middle front mounted engine with gearbox in front of it, and to be honest i'd like to try something less "extreme". If I'm going to change the engine, I'd go for a full electric conversion.

Obviously an improvement of the engine with electronic ignition and maybe injection and of the car structure in order to rise the efficency are in the list.

The car is four speed manual, there is also a compatible auto transmission from the R5 automatic, but I think it's really terrible.

The use of the car isn't intensive, I can use and I use other modern cars, that's my toy that I can use whenever I want, it's practical, simple and it's not bad also as a daily drive.

I wrote here to know your opinion and look if someone tried something similar before.

[Bill the Engineer]

When I was first planning my Firebrid project, I considered dropping in the mild hybrid powertrain out of a Chevy Tahoe. However, a closer examination of that system demonstrated to me that the ease of installation of that system into the Firebird did not justify the marginal increase in mileage that would be realized. Soon after I determined this I also discovered how bad the floors and mechanicals were in the convertible, pointing me in the direction my project is now taking.(I also like the challenge my project presents.)

If you are looking for easy and lower cost, go the EV route.

Bill the Engineer

[freebeard]

Have you considered the Toyota MGR? It weighs ~100lb and puts out 68hp. That's 50 somethings in metric.

It would replace the transaxle and maybe half the batteries could go where the engine is.

I have one, but there are SUVs coming to market in 2017 that have a rear axle with twin motors and an electric differential, which enables torque vectoring. I'm no longer a fan of open differentials, since that incident on the black ice.

The good news about the Toyota part is that Paul M. Holmes' open source controller is characterized to work with it. It's called Open Revolt, so you can drive around with that in big letters in the back window.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

If you could manage to work around a homemade BAS-Hybrid setup to add some mild-hybrid capabilities to your car, that would probably be the lowest budget possible hybrid approach.

[oil pan 4]

Easiest way to do it is get an old diesel car and stick a turbocharger on it.
Turbodiesel is the original hybrid.

[elhigh]

I'm with the TD crowd. Old VW Golf, original diesel (install new head bolts!), add a turbo. Done.

Or follow a similar pattern on pretty much any older econobox. With just a little bit of know-how the older VW diesels are reliable, not powerful by any stretch but ridiculously thrifty. Add the turbo to fix the power detriment while retaining the long legs the rest of the time. I think hybrids are cool and all, but this approach retains all automotive-grade hardware and is more or less serviceable by any other mechanic.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

If you could find a suitable Diesel engine to swap into the R4, go for it. Anyway, since you're Italian and so are most of the gaseous fuel system suppliers, it's actually surprising that you didn't even mentioned either CNG or LPG as options.

[pete c]

I've given thought to this idea. I think a good way to do it would be to add a small electric rear drive to a small fwd manual trans car. Use a MT car because it can be placed in neutral to run in EV only mode. Also make it manual steering/brakes. Use the rear ends out of any small old 4x4 such as the old honda wagons along with a simple, small fork lift motor. Not sure if this would do much in the regen area, but it would greatly improve efficiency in stop and go urban commutes. I would really like to see such a system added to a first gen insight that could be tied into the battery pack. I would make such a system very light weight with no more than a 10 hp motor. It would be strictly for EV only stop and go/low speed driving. Stop and go is where the first gen insight fails due to its inability to move without its ICE. I think honda should have looked into adding another clutch on the other side of its motor to allow an EV only mode.

[freebeard]

Single speed electric drivetrains have an overall ratio of 6.78:1 (Toyota MGR) or 9:1 (Tesla). Your 4x4 differential will be ~3:1. Without a transmission it will suffer at low speeds.

[Frank Lee]

Or a belt drive.