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.