Prius engine conversion

[merccom]

silly question.

has anybody installed a prius gas engine as there primary driver?

i'm just thinking its already atkins cycle and lean burn.

dont know what you would do about control, maybe you could get your computer reprogrammed or maybe convert to megasquirt.

just wondering if anybody has done it and if so the results.

[user removed]

I think the Echo engine is basically the same. Echo prices around here as astronomical.

regards
Mech

[merccom]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

I think the Echo engine is basically the same. Echo prices around here as astronomical.

regards
Mech

however prius engines are diirrt cheap right now

[kurzer]

the atkinson zycle has a relativ high idle and less torque in the lower rpms.

if you can deal with that, maybe its possible. at first attemp i would try to use the injection, header and throttle from the old engine. the atkinson stuff is a matter of compession and valve timing. but maybe a electric aktuator is involved with the timing stuff. if so, you will have to give the right input, to keep this engine running.

[jakobnev]

the atkinson zycle has a relativ high idle and less torque in the lower rpms.

Maybe you could compensate for that by adding a hybri.. umh, hybrid system so the engine would not need to idle (it could just die when not needed) and to boost the tourque at low rpms.

Wait, that reminds me of something..

[kurzer]

maybe thats the reason, why toyota did?

i´m curious, if anybody put a whole prius drivetrain into an other car. the engin bay is verry small, so the stuff should fit into many other cars. and the battery in the back is no problem at all.

[Ryland]

If someone wanted to try it, they can buy the engine, transmission and electric motor all from salvage yards for about $300 each, so less then $1,000 total.
But it seems like an overly complex project.

[Daox]

In order for it to make any sense you'd still have to put the drivetrain into a more efficient car (better aero and lighter weight). The only thing I can think of that would make sense is a first gen Insight, and I still doubt you'll see the king of hwy mileage the Insight does because of its lean burn (the Prius does not have lean burn). However, your city mileage would be amazingly high.

[merccom]

i'm more thinking along the lines of dumping the hybrid drive train all togeather and just repowering with just the gas engine.

sure it wouldnt be lightening fast. but if were willing to completely reshape the bodys of our cars which i've already done pretty heavily and some of us are willing to ride around with 30 an 40 hp diesels and others are willing to use forklift motors to power electric cars it seems like using an old prius engine would be within the realm of reasonable experiments and i'm actually pretty suprised it hasnt been done yet.

[kurzer]

it´s better to go for a complete prius, u will need the ecus and the harnesses and maybe the monitor.

a little car with narrow tyres ans less weight would be a dream, i guess. but not only.

@ merccom the simple engine swap is much less complex, i guess. just as i mentioned above.