Here is a top down view just to show another angle. Still plenty of room in here for other things later such as batteries. You can see the original two motor mounts that we need to eventually tie into. Here is another closer shot to show what we have to work with. The top center bolt of the adapter plate to transmission turned out to be perfectly balanced for the setup. I knew this would be a two man job even with the hoist so I grabbed my neighbor again for some help.
First I needed to hoist the motor and transmission down into the car so I could start measuring things and figuring out how to build the motor mount. I'll take this time to work on the electric systems of the car and hopefully have things ready to go when the cells arrive.Īfter taking a nice vacation to Oregon for some quad riding in the dunes and getting over a nasty cold I was finally able to get back to the project. So now that I finally committed to this purchase I get to wait for 5 to 9 weeks for them to arrive. If I used flooded LA and got 200 cycles out of them I would still break even if I only got 800 cycles out of the lithium cells so I shouldn't have any trouble getting my moneys worth if the cells hold up.we'll see. Cycle life of the lithium cells start at 1000 and go as high as 3000 cycles for 70% DOD. Some of the higher end cells can go as much as 400 cycles. Lighter will also mean faster acceleration than with the LA and also less power required to accelerate.Ī standard LA battery last around 200 charges. This compared to most EV conversions needing the suspension beefed up to support the extra weight. of lithium to the car which should keep the overall weight of the build at or maybe slightly below the original weight. First off I can get about four times the capacity out of them as LA pound for pound.
The amount of money up front for this setup is scary but after doing the math the investment should be well worth it in the long run.
The full setup was ordered from Elite Power Solutions. On top of that the charger and BMS system added another $3,000. I ordered 45 of the ThunderSky LFP-160Ah modules at $264 a pop, not cheap. After doing the math and seeing what other EVs range seemed to be it didn't seem LA could really get the range I was looking for, at least not without making my car weigh in a 4,000 lbs. I originally started this build with the idea of using the typical LA(Lead Acid) battery as the power source. I was hoping to avoid that.Īfter months of debating which batteries to buy the deed is done and there is no going back. This really wasn't that much more work but meant the refrigerant needed to be evacuated. The blower and condenser needed to also be removed to get to the heater box. From the middle to the passenger side you can see the heater box, blower assembly and condenser unit. Here is a picture after removing the dash. Of course also not shown is the full dash itself. There are a few things in the picture to give some perspective.
Here is a pile of plastic trim, air bags, steering column, etc which is well over a foot tall. I won't go into boring details of the dash removal but figured I'd still post a few pictures to give you an idea.
As I've mentioned before, get the service manual for your vehicle as it will really save you time during your build. The first part in building a ceramic heater is removing the heater core and this is not an easy task, especially with newer vehicles.
Mine, however, well be quite different from the typical basic ceramic install as you'll see later. So, as many others have done, I went for the ceramic heater setup which replaces the water heater core with an electric version. Last I figured this gave me a fluid that could leak, and therefore something that needed to be checked from time to time. The hoses also get very hot on the outside which again means energy lose. I figured if all that heat was on the outside it was wasted energy especially while driving if air was passing over the heater. The second reason was the amount of heat I noticed on the outside of the heater unit itself. A few people recommended a pump that was very quiet but after further thought I didn't try it out. First and least important was the noise I could hear from the pump circulating the water. I decided not to use this setup for a few reasons. It used a 1500 watt engine block heater and pump to circulate the water. I first built a water heater utilizing the existing heater core. This is technically the second heater but I will only fully document the final design. Money has been tight after ordering the batteries and the holidays so progress has been rather slow lately.