Drop What Your Doing!!!

So it was a clear fresh day about 23 degrees, classic rock playing on the radio, bird chirping in the trees.

Time to pull out the air compressor and vacate the entire engine, transmission, suspension and exhaust, what the hay I had twenty three minutes to kill before we had to go "THAT WEDDING".

So my wife said that that the newly weds would not, could not even in a boat, with a goat and even a poke needed or use a 1984 Pontiac Fiero 2.5 litre engine (rebuilt) as a wedding gift. I don't think she knows Dave the way I do, I think the two of them would have cried.

Actual time to drop motor 5 hours now comes the task of cleaning the entire engine compartment.

So Electric Cars Could Never Suit Your Life Style!

Some of the excuses that I get daily as to why an electric car could never suit peoples life style.

1. "I need a car that could go 300km at a time."

• Average daily round trip is less than 64.37 km (40 miles)
• Most electric cars can handle a 100km trip on a single charge.

2. "Electric cars cost to much to convert a car to electric"

• You can convert a car with off the shelf parts from $5,000.00 to $10,000.00
• Convert your next car to electric instead of buying another "Dino Drinker".

3. "My hydro bill will go through the roof charging a electric car"

• Charging a electric car costs $0.026 per km (0.016 miles)
• Oven 58 kilowatts per hour $0.638 per hour

Example

I have a commute of 133 km (82.64 miles) x $.026 per km is will cost us $3.46 per day, 4 days per week $13.84 per week, 4 weeks per month $55.36, full year $664.32

Presently I spend $60 per week on "Dino Juice" x 52 weeks = $3120.00 - $664.32 = $2464.88 saved each year.

So if a car cost $10,000.00 to convert will have a payback date in just over 4 years but your normal "Dino Drinker" would have no payback time. Our car will cost just over $2000.00 to convert having a targeted payback of just under a year.

4. "Electric cars are to slow"

• Words just can't tell it better than White Zombie (fastest electric car) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fmy4tWvr8c
• Or going faster than a Ferrari http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqqtJpfZElQ

5. "I don't know how to fix a electric car, what if it breaks down? it sounds scary"

• You probably don't know how to fix a normal gas car either.
• Instead you just call a electrician or replace a fuse.

6. "What if I need to go on a longer trip"

• With all that money you saved that you were going to spend anyway, rent a nice car, swap with a "good" friend or family member, I don't think that they will mind saving money and looking cool.

Pontiac Fiero Body Panels - Who, What, Where and Why

BODY PANELS by http://fierosails.com/index.html

The body panels are unique to the Fiero and were not used on any other cars. Outer '84 door panels attach differently and do not interchange with other year Fieros. All other body panels will swap, although the deck lid in '84 is a different style from other years.

Front and rear fascias vary with models. The '86-88 GT and all other '88s had round trim on the "belt line" and other years had ribbed trim. The trim piece is molded into the front and rear fascias. Use of a round-trim fascia on a ribbed-trim car is feasible but may look odd.

The '84 has an entirely different door skin (cannot be added to later doors) and dew wipe (not available).

Door skin compatibility is the same '85-'88.

Rocker panels interchange among all years although some vary depending on model. For example, one style rocker panel was used on 1984 Indy, 1985 GT/SE, 1987 SE, and the 1986-88 GT. Different rocker panels were used on the Coupes and Formula.

The "aero molding" or "ground effects" panels were used on the Indy, GTs, and '87 SE models. These panels swap among all years and may be installed on cars which were not so equipped from the factory. Mounting holes are required in the body panels to accommodate the ground effects panels.

The wing or spoiler on the Fiero is blow-molded Bexley resin made in two pieces and glued together. Spoiler cracks or breaks should be repaired with flexible epoxies such as those used for RIM or R-RIM (see below). Punctures or gouges should be repaired with epoxy fiberglass resin and glass cloth.

GM called the Fiero body panels "Enduraflex". There is no material known as "Enduraflex". This is a marketing term. Four different types of reinforced composite plastic are used in Fiero body panels:

SMC Sheet Molded Compound was used for the hood, roof, rear upper quarter, and rear decklid.

RRIM Reinforced Reaction Injection Molded urethane was used for fenders, door panels, and lower rear quarters. The rear lowers were later changed to injection molded nylon.

RIM Reaction Injected Molded urethane was used for front and rear fascias.

TPO Thermoplastic Olefin was used for rocker panels.

Bexley Resin Blow-Molded by DuPont This material (not fiberglass) was used for the spoiler or "wing" on all Fieros as far as we know. The supports are made of TPO.

Conventional "Bondo" (polyester resin) should not be used to repair any Fiero body panel. Repair products should specifically state they are compatible with the body panel material. I.e.: "Suitable for SMC repairs."

Any competent body shop can handle repairs to the Fiero body panels. Shops which specialize in body repair for Saturns would be particularly capable since the Saturn uses similar body materials.

Since new body panels rarely turn up on the market, the best source for them is a donor vehicle. Check the "Parts Sources" page for suppliers.

Engine Vents: The deck lid vents on the '84 Fiero were made of magnesium and were spectacular when they caught fire! Subsequent years used aluminum.

For those interested, the body panels of the Fiero were made in the following locations:

Front Fascia - RRIM supplied by GM Canada
Hood - SMC supplied by General Tire and Rubber
Headlamp Doors - SMC supplied by GTR
Front Fenders - RRIM supplied by Oldsmobile
Roof - SMC supplied by Premix
Door Panel - RRIM supplied by Oldsmobile
Rocker Panels - TPO supplied by G.P. Plastics
Panel, front of Rear Wheel - R. RIM supplied by Oldsmobile
Rear Quarter - SMC supplied by BUDD
Rear Deck Lid - SMC supplied by BUDD
Rear Fascia - RRIM supplied by Guide Division
Wing - Bexley Resin blow-molded by DuPont


Thank you Fiero Sails http://www.fierosails.com/

I Almost Feel Bad To Do It

While I was disconnecting wire harnesses and cutting this and poking that I spotted this cars last "White Flag" don't hurt me cry to be left alone zoom onto the oil cap. I guess if you drink "Dino Juice" long enough you begin to like the taste. I acted as if i was illiterate and kept on cutting.

Before striping the electric parts off the car the manual say to release the fuel line pressure buy removing the fuel pump fuse and try to start the car, the car did try to start and did sputter. Then disconnect the negative then positive then go to town.

Going Over the Data

I have been pouring over all the data I have collected, such as range estimations, AMP draw at different speeds, top speed and all these hills. I them made a conclusion and took it to the electric vehicle teacher and he agreed: my controller is way underpowered.

Actually, I learned that my K99-4007 was actually quite fine for the Civic with the blower cooler and proper gear selection. It was my controller limiting the acceleration and AMP draw to the motor. Which makes sense because my controller couldn't provide the continuous power required to maintain hills, and I only need to higher AMPS for a few seconds.

So now I know it's the controller, it's on the top of my EV list of things to buy. I am still working on getting a plug at school, but I really need the upgrade controller before driving it there. I hope to have the new controller by the end of August, before the semester starts up again.

More Tweaking

This week was spent gathering more EV driving data by my dad. I adjusted the vacuum switch on the brake pump because the pump would not turn off. A quick adjust of the setting screw and it now stays off for a lot less of time, but still works just fine.

I also took another crack at figuring out the whole hill thing. I temporarily hooked up my current meter and took some AMP testings and then went off to the hill with the worst grade (5.6 %) and did a few runs, with momentum and one starting from a stop, after getting the controller warm.

I found that it would draw 200+ amps, then drop down to 182 AMPs and wouldn't go any higher, even if I floored it. This means that the controller is limiting the current due to heat.

So I found the most powerful CPU fan I could find and planted it on the Kelly controller. Man, what a difference! I have a heatsink for the bottom of the controller, but the top also needed some cooling. After a 5 mile run the controller was practically cold and usually it's quite warm. And it's 85 degrees F out today, and humid and it's probably closer to 120F under the hood and the controller will start to slow down at 125 F. The CPU fan was designed to cool Quad Core Xeon processors, so cooling the Kelly isn't too far out of it's design specs. And I can always add another one.

Now it has to go through some real testing but my dad driving it to work again and see if it's any better. The motor needs to see 215+ AMPs to hold the hills at 30 MPH, which means it needs to pull 215 from the batteries, which hopefully it can do now for longer than a few seconds. 20-30 seconds would be nice just to clear the hills.

Dilemma

After a few days of daily driving, we have decided that we need to upgrade the controller. The Kelly just won't make some of the hills, dipping down to 5 MPH because the continuous power of the controller is 160 AMPs and I need more like 250 AMPs.

I thought it would have been fine because the other controller that was recommended to me was a Curtis 1221c, which is similar to my Kelly with 400 AMPs peak, but instead only 150 AMPs continuous.

I was going to build the Open Source EV Controller, but I planned on taking my time slowly building it over a period of a few months to iron out any kinks and give it a thorough testing. So now I have to research production controllers and I am currently looking at either the Curtis 1231C, Logisystems and the new Synkromotive controller. Right now my eyes are set on the Synkromotive controller since it has the highest continuous current of 400 AMPs and a peak of 650, so it would be a HUGE performance increase.

I also have put up my spare parts for sale on Craigslist and DIY Electric Car Classifieds to fund this controller upgrade:

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/ev-parts-lot-sale-33926.html

I am hoping anyone out there will pick up these parts since it's a great deal, and a great way to get started on an EV project.

Here are the links to the Open Source EV Controller:
http://ecomodder.com/wiki/index.php/ReVolt
And this is the Forum Post on Ecomodder, a good read and a must read for anyone wanting to learn about this controller: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/paul-sabrinas-cheap-144v-motor-controller-6404.html

Who needs to go backwards in Life

Well before ripping out the ICE Dino drinking motor we wanted to make sure all the gears worked good. Well up and down the drive way a few times and we lost reverse. The reverse linkage came off we threw a nylon tie on if and continued testing (linkage in the picture with the tie wrap on it).

Next we placed the Fiero on blocks to test the transmission, bearings and to have documentation of the Fiero's running rebuilt engine in case someone needs a "2.5 litre 4 cylinder engine with no shakes".

Also a 1 minute video of the the engine running. This is the last time this ICE motor will run in this car. Maybe we should keep it as a back up generator for our of grid system?

Next we removed the deck lid and deck electric remote control release plug located at the left hinge under left deck plate. Scribe or paint alignment marks around the edge of both hinges to allow for ease of installation.

Now start chopping, well very carefully! Its a good idea to pick up a Haynes Workshop Manual and take your time unplug pretty much everything from the engine including throttle cables and think twice and cut once.

Nothing Wasted, Everthing Gained

Waste not and want not, to fill you house with all the items that are to be added to your final dream that is and oh ya bother your neighbours. My wife is amazingly patient with my, our and her dreams. If you only need a few items off something and the rest can be "thrown out" preferably recycled do so. Having all the pieces apart and ready to add to your puzzle is easier when the time to assembly comes, no child labor here, well our son dissected 2 boxes he thought it was cool to break stuff (example 50 power boxes @ 30 min each = 25 hours). No time is saved just aggravation later, about $2000.00 saved on things needed at a later date, just for asking do you guys need those broken power boxes that Quality Engineering is done with. The battery wires red and black inside these power packs will wire the strings together.

Inside these power packs are also battery discharge indicator (see below) to show the remaining charge left inside the battery, these meters will be used later in the conversion process as battery string monitors (6 strings 12 volts each = 72 volts total system voltage).

Each power pack also has a 250 volt dc fuse, Anderson type battery plug in, heat sink with 12 volt mini fan, shunt connectors, 12 volt work light, 12 volt accessory socket plug in and as a added bonus lots and lots of screws.

Screws for free free, free, free

I will have extra amp meters as seen above for free and can ship you one or two, you pay for postage or I can drop them off to you if you are local. If you need any email me ecosteve@rogers.com

Free All You Can Eat Batteries

So here starts the next chapter removing the batteries out of 50 600 watt "Power Boxes", the kind people use for powering 120 volt items up to 600 watts in remote locations where there is no power or in their home in emergency situations and if your thinking 50 wow!! was he garbage bin jumping? No they were all donated to the project, the 12 volt 28Ah batteries (1400 Ah combined Ah) inside are fine, the power inverter that changes the 12 DC power to 120 AC power are damaged. Our son (age 10) helped removed these batteries and other components and has now learned his dad's art of extended product re incarnation. We also received 9 free Deka 8A22nf 63Ah (567 Ah combined)batteries for a total all batteries 1967 amp hours.Here is a video of the battery inside each of these boxes they measure (in inches) 6.5"x6.5"x5"

Battery Watering

Yesterday I checked the water level off all my batteries after getting the suggestion from my PakTrakr to "Check Water in Battery B1". I found that most of the batteries needed little to no water, which is excellent. Nothing was dangerously low , which is quite good after 230 miles of EV driving. I have read that watering is needed every 200 or so miles and it only takes about 15 minutes to check the levels and add new water if needed, so it might become a Friday night thing to do since the EV will be doing close to 200 miles a week, hopefully starting tomorrow.

Also, after my video run I checked my cables to see how they were and I noticed that one was quite warm so I removed it and found that is had high resistance. So I removed all the cables and gave them a good corrosion sanding. The resistance went from 0.4 ohms to 0.0 ohms after some instense cleaning, about 15 minutes per connection and I have 16 connections.... do the math... I watche Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and I still wasn't done with the cables....

I haven't driven the EV since that, but I should expect cooler cables and possible an increase of power. Since that resistance was limiting me to 240 battery AMPs (V=IR) now I should be able to pull more, but I really don't want to in order to preserve battery life.

You Can't Do That!!! (the day the dreamers "grow up")

Changing our world one kilometer (or mile) at a time.

After people tell me,

"You can't do that for next to no money, made from a recycled
car, recycled batteries, recycled wires and recycled dreams."

It kind makes it hard to just let it go, knowing how easy this converting process is. A couple weeks ago deer hit me on the way to work and destroyed our car, we were going to replace the car with another "beater" as a commuter car but thought this would be a perfect time to realize our dream and convert a car from gas to electric. We started looking more intently for a car which would make a ideal donor car and found Brian.

Below is a picture and video of Brian Sauve the person who donated our first donor car, Brian dream originally was to convert this same car to electric but time does run away. Here he had just drove the car onto the car trailer for us (Uhaul rocks). It was a sad moment for Brian but he was very happy that his car will have the second life in the manner he dreamed of. When this conversion is operational Brian will one of the first and few to drive this reincarnated "Lean Mean Clean machine"

The car now in our drive way after searching for this model and year for over a year and a half now safely in our drive way. The planning and time lines start, six weeks the goal to have the car "operational" may be harder to adhere to as working on the car out side with no garage dancing with mother nature (she always wants to lead). The full range target to work and back is 150 kilometers (93.21 miles), down hill to work and uphill back its like a 12 hour roller coaster, 12 hour slow roller coaster.

Plugging in at work would not only reduce my need for full range from 150 km (93.21 miles) to 100 km (62.14 miles) it would also lighten the vehicle thus placing less stress on bearing, joints, suspension and other mechanical items.

Lightening the car would also allow it to maintain what little cargo space is has and allow "a passenger" other that bobble heads.

Adding solar panels on the roof unfortunately will not add much generating capacity (except maybe to charge the 12 volt operating system. You need a lot of amps to charge batteries and a couple of 100 watt solar panels only generate about 16 amps, I think the car would have to be parked in the sun for about 3 days straight to charge the batteries up to full, but I still learning this whole amps, volt and watts language. But I think a couple of peel and stick solar panels as racing strips up the hood, across the roof and down the tails might be a nice touch.

It does make the mind, body and spirit work harder, to improve and prove that dreamers are the ones most planted firmly, success is in my dreams and reality. Only you have the right to deflate your dreams.

EV Driving Video

Well, here it is, the first driving video! Proof that one can make an EV with an automatic transmission.

There is no commentary by me because I was sort of tired and I did another whole commentary but the the camera fell over at the first corner and I didn't realize until partway through so I scrapped it.

Anyways, it's a 1.1 mile run around my neighborhood doing 25 MPH speeds. You can clearly hear the 12 volt Thomas brake pump and when that is off, the hum of the electric motor. I am going to get another video one of these days with a bit of 45 MPH highway, but that will have to wait until I can get a passenger to hold the camera for me.

Tweaks

I have about 75 miles on the EV now and I am getting ready so some tweaks. I am going to adjust the controller settings for a smoother start and I am researching a new suspension system. I am also looking at the pulley system for hooking up the AC and Power Steering, but the new suspension is on the top of my list. I think I have found a system I like

I am also development my own Battery Management System. While wet deep cycle batteries don't require it, I figure it would be a good system to caring for the batteries and making sure they are properly balanced and don't get overcharged. I do have the PakTrakr but it only monitors the batteries, but doesn't actually manage them or balance the batteries.

I still haven't made the EV driving video but I am hoping to do it this weekend if the weather ever lightens up.