Removing the ICE Pt 1

I purchased a new 12volt accessory battery and a couple pans for emptying the oil, coolant and transmission fluid. Between downpours I tried to run the car until the gas was gone so we could begin removing the Internal Combustion Engine. At one point I started to see steam coming from the hood, so I shut it down. The coolant reservoir was empty. My buddy James was coming over in a couple hours, so I just let it sit and waited until he came by. He said we can start removing components and he'll empty the gas tank when we get that far. OK, let's get started.

Air filter assembly was first then some air hoses and electrical. Next was the radiator, more hoses, more electrical, throttle cable, clutch cable. Not sure what its called but it is a vacuum system that feeds air to various parts of the motor to open and close valves. Its the black box sitting on top of the engine in the picture below. James knew exactly what to do and did a lot of it. I took mental notes and bagged up bolts and parts. We left the oil in the engine and will remove that at a later time. The manifold was unbolted from the exhaust system. One side of the engine is missing the hook for chaining it up and removing the engine, so I don't know what we are going to do there. James is incredibly talented, so I am confident he will figure out a way to make it work. All we need to do now is jack it up, disconnect the drive axle from the tranny, hook up the engine to a hoist, undo the mounts, and pull it out. I need to order the jacks, so this will have to wait until either some evening this week, or next Sunday afternoon. Also, James removed the fuel pump and manually pumped the remaining gas into my oil pan. Luckily there wasn't much left, maybe a half gallon or so.

We started talking about the transmission and clutch and how it would interface with the electric motor. I told James that I need to get an adapter plate made, and he said he could do it. Really? He said he has access to some sort of plasma cutter? or something like that...not sure what it does but I am guessing it cuts metal. Well, if I can get a design from someone who already has one made, then he could make it and that would save 7 or 8 hundred bucks.

After much thought and buggin the heck out of people on diyelectricvehicles.com I think I have concluded that my battery pack will be more expensive then originally planned, but it will make for a much better car. I think I am going with (45) CALB(formerly known as Prince... I mean Sky Energy) 100AH LiFePo4 batteries. I have seen a couple graphs that show they hold up a bit better under larger current pulls which is what I will be doing when going 70mph for most of my commute. I will be charging at home and at work so I will only use about 50% of the batteries on a regular basis. If I need to run some errands, then I have more juice available. My total range at 70mph will be about 32 miles. I don't plan on ever pushing it that far, but if it didn't charge at work for some reason and I needed to limp home I could do it. Top speed should be....well over the speed limit(probably triple digits). Since these batteries can handle 300-400 amps for extended periods, I should have pretty good acceleration as well considering my car will only weigh about 2150 lbs. with me in it.

Starting to organize

No takers so far on the engine, so I may have to lower the price. I would really like to start removing it this weekend. Hopefully the weather will be decent. I took some video of the engine starting, idling, revving and stopping so I can send that to potential buyers if they want to see it once we start dismantling the car.

I started my build notebook and also downloaded the Honda factory manual for a 1987 Civic. It should be pretty close to what I need for ERX. I also have a Haynes manual. I wanted to do something this weekend, so I pulled out the passenger seat, and took off the hood and grill. A friend is letting me use a solar charger and so I hooked it up to my dead battery and it started charging right up. It worked great even though it was partially cloudy. It got enough juice in there to start the car up a few times at least. I wonder if I can make due without a DC/DC converter and just bring the solar charger in the car and put it in the dash during the day. Hmmm

ICE and Controller

Looked at the car again last weekend. The engine seems like it is running well. Not sure what we heard last time. My buddy James says there may be too much oil in it and the oil is a bit old. Maybe I'll change the oil before showing it to anyone to sell. It is exciting though that I will be listing it tomorrow or Friday on craigslist. Hopefully I'll get a few people to come by this weekend and check it out, then James and I will pull it the following weekend.

Also, I ordered the Open ReVolt controller from Paul and Sabrina yesterday. I asked Paul about a higher amp version so the controller will be able to handle upgrades I may do in the future and he said it was another $50 for the 700amp version. So, for $690 I will have a 144V 700amp controller which saves me about $1000 on the controller budget. I am about to buy a soldering iron on ebay and I ordered a heavy duty soldering gun and a multimeter from Harbor Freight. This project is starting to get some legs. Once the soldering iron arrives I can practice a bit on some cheap Fry's boards before starting the build on the controller.

First look at my future

Last weekend I spent some time with ERX (pronounced "irks" by my wife,) and discovered there are a few things I need to deal with. It is a 23 year old car after all. Mike, the guy I bought it from said I may need to get some new front fenders as there are some cracks. Well, I pulled off the bra on the front and I will definitely need to find new fenders. Unfortunately they don't sell them anymore, so I will have to spend some time at Pick-a-Part. I pulled the carpet out of the back and it looks like there is a leak somewhere. It rained quite a bit last week so there was water around the spare tire. Also, either the battery died or I am out of fuel, cause the the car won't start now. When it did start, it sounded like the timing was off or a spark plug wasn't firing or something like that. Very uneven sounding idle.

I pulled some of the tinting off the back window and will probably scratch the rest off this weekend. I also pulled off the pinstripes because I didn't like them. ERX is gonna need a new paint job eventually, but not sure if that will happen right away. First I need to get the engine running smoothly so I can sell it. This weekend I will be cleaning as much out of the garage as possible and hopefully my friend James will be able to come over at some point and we can try to figure out the engine trouble.

It has officially begun

The CRX is in the backyard. Now I need to clean out the garage just to think about beginning as I don't think my wife will like a half disassembled vehicle sitting in the backyard. I am still trying to figure out a lot of stuff and where to begin. I have one EV conversion book and am thinking about getting Gavin's EV manuals and DVDs. I'll ask around and see if its worth it. I am also planning on asking many questions in the various EV forums.