I had several dumpy spim08 pouch cells in my batch. Some are good, others are shit. Test them obviously before mating them up.
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Have you tried cycling them a few times? I’ve seen some significant improvements from the shoddy one on the bench that has seen (I think) 7 cycles since I got them.
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BMS is probably going to be this unit from Zeva, an Australian EV products company: https://www.evworks.com.au/12-cell-lithium-bms-module
When used in conjunction with other Zeva products, you can monitor individual cell voltages from inside the vehicle, and use up to 16 BMS modules to monitor a pack of upto 192 cells in series. These products are also designed for long term battery storage for solar projects
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There are a few other components such as contactors (basically massive sparkless switches rated for 600V+ and 500A+), vacuum pumps (power steering, power brakes), a charger, fuse, DC-DC converter to keep the 12V battery charged. The motor can simply be coupled to the transmission or differential and so I plan on doing that. It will need to be connected to the transmission as the revs needed to get to speed will be too high for the motor. These large DC motors max out at around 5k RPM usually, if you go beyond the rated RPM the thing can explode spectacularly
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Can’t forget the throttle pedal!
These look super cool, but unfortunately are probably not going to provide the sort of power and flexibility I’m looking for. I’d have to completely rework the front assembly to be able to make it work, and its far more work than I could ever manage for a DIY project
Nope, noted. Thanks.
Car has finally been moved into its final resting place after sitting idle for weeks. The disassembly process will be started in the next few days, and I’ll post a link on this thread to the live stream that I’ll be doing of the process. I wanna educate as well as have some fun sharing this project with you guys and so that’s how I’ll be doing it
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I don’t understand why everyone calls these SPIM08HP pouch batteries “lipo” batteries. They are NOT lithium polymer batteries, they are lithium ion chemistry, from what I read. That’s why they don’t explode, I shorted out a 3s pack by mistake. My wires melted together causing a short. I started smelling plastic melting. They just got hot and puffy.
CHECK OUT THE SPECS BELOW, THESE ARE REAL SPECS.
- Material Li-ion
Typical capacity 8-9AH
Nominal Voltage 3.7V
Weight around 300g
Internal Resistance ≤0.8mΩ
Max Charge Rate 120A
Recommend Continuous Discharge Rate 200A
Pulse Discharge Rate（3 seconds） 400A
Fully Charged voltage 4.2V
Discharge cut off voltage 2.5V
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U can blow up ion cells too. There’s a couple different ion chemistries with some more risky than others. While the manufacturers do testing in all kinds of conditions and they don’t blow up they do the tests with single cells but if a bunch are together the heat combines. I’ve seen many ion fires.
In one way at least lipo seems safer in that the high amp ability will maybe blow apart any short which could lead to combustion temps if left connected.
mostly Lithium titanate is more expensive than iron but there’s some great deals out there and they have many more cycles than even iron cells and pretty much same of every other characteristic
You could use a field weakening controller for higher speeds. I’m dying to make a motorcycle w just the biggest hk motor…wonder if u hugely geared this motor it would work in a car. Could add a cooling system and field weakening esc and …be cheap
No speed demon though
Sell the car n get this maybe!!
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Spent all of Saturday beginning on the teardown. Not sure if I’ll be streaming it as that will slow down the project alot, we’ll see.
One thing I should have done is label all the wires and hoses that go into the fire wall so I know what I’m working with. I’m trying to get majority of the thing apart piece by piece so I can avoid using an engine crane. Have one, it’s just a pain in the ass.
Next stop in the disassembly is getting underneath and dropping the oil sump and removing the front of the exhaust. This will probably be the most annoying part of the whole process as it all needs to be done underneath the car.
Have been looking closer at the SPIM08HP cells and am slowly leaning towards it. I can get a 144v 8Ah pack built for under $200USD which is crazy low. I am going to mock-up what a 144v pack would look like, so I can figure out if these cells will work for me. If I go with these, whenever I wanna add more parallel packs I’ll just build another 144v pack and add it on.
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Finally got the engine out, with the assistance of the engine crane. That was a pain in the ass to drag across the grass. I wish I had a better spot to do this.
So now I’m able to see the shaft on the transmission, which will allow me to begin deciding on things like motor coupler and motor mounts. I’ll be using the plate that was between the engine and transmission (visible in 4th image) to get an adapter plate machined that will allow me to attach the electric motor securely to the transmission. If anyone wants to do that for me that would be great. Funnily when the transmission is manually turned, it only spins one of the wheels. It sometimes spins the other but for now I can make do with one wheel and figure that out later.
The engine bay was sprayed down with degreaser and pressure washed once the engine came out. I’ll do this another couple times so that the majority of the components will be clean and I don’t need to wash my hands and face every 5 minutes. The 4th image contains all the items that I’ll be keeping from the old vehicle to the new. Most of it is just non-mechanical parts so nothing too important there.
I’ll slowly be adding more posts here going into more detail for the specific parts of this build.
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From my (very limited) knowledge of cars, this is due to having an open differential (the part that lets your wheels spin at different rates while still under power, i.e. while going through a turn), and is normal behavior. If I’m right then your wheels should both work fine when under load.
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Thanks for the info mate, that makes sense. I’m going into this project with zero mechanical knowledge besides the work I do on my own car (changing tyres, filling oil etc.) so I’m not fussed if stuff doesn’t work right away. Onwards we go!
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Ill be watching this thread closely, I really dig this project! Side note, I know your name is Kaleb from your profile, but that knowledge does not stop me from reading your username as “Kale Bludlow” every time I see it 
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Glad you’re enjoying it! You’re definitely not the first person to say that, maybe I should have gotten a different name 
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What Can be Done Now
Now that the majority of the disassembly has been completed, I can start making decisions about the vehicle that I have unable to do until I could get a better look at the innards of the car. While an electric vehicle is far simpler than an ICE car, it can still get quite complicated especially with how much vehicles can vary. One of my main aims for this car was to keep it as stock as possible. This means no battery pack on the back seat, which is very common for DIY EV conversions. This also means no unusual gauges glued to the dashboard. I want to be able to stick with the stock instrument cluster if possible. Being an older car everything is analog and mechanical so it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out. Now to lay out some of the decisions I have already made and some that I will still need to make.
Motor Coupler
To be able to drive the manual transmission that is currently in this vehicle I need to adapt the shaft on my electric motor to the shaft of the transmission. Doing so will be very simple, using the clutch plate from the transmission.
An electric motor often only needs one gear out of the entire range to be able to operate efficiently, so the clutch is not required for regular operation. Even if shifting while driving is required, this can be done without a clutch. In the centre of the clutch plate is a splined ring, which slides onto the shaft of the transmission:
I will be cutting this splined section off the rest of the plate and using that for half of the coupler. For the other half, I will need a steel collar that will fit the shaft that is on the electric motor. I can’t do this yet as I have not acquired a motor. Electric motor shafts usually also have keyways, the same as our esk8 motors. I’m hoping I can find a collar with a keyway, otherwise I’ll just drill out my own setscrew. I will then weld together the two pieces, depending on how much clearance I need between the motor and the transmission. But how do we mount the motor to the transmission?
Adapter Plate
Next up will be an adapter plate. This will bolt onto the transmission on one side and the motor on the other, allowing the two to line up. To make this process easier I already have a thin adapter plate that was wedged between the engine and transmission:
Using this I can create a model so that I am able to get a thick (at least an inch or two) piece of aluminum machined with the right dimensions and bolt pattern. I currently do not have the skills to model but might be happy to learn. I am also hoping to get someone here on the forum to help me with the machining aspect of this adapter. I am going to wait until I get my motor before getting the adapter made up, as I need to know how thick it needs to be.
Motor Mounts
While an electric motor isn’t as heavy as an ICE, it still needs to be supported by the frame of the vehicle, as the mount to the transmission will not be enough. I will be reusing the mounting point that the ICE used, to keep things simple. You can see it and where it mounts here:
While from a manufacturing standpoint this is probably enough to hold up a ~60KG motor but I think I will also create another mounting point from below, to lower the stress on the rubber mounts that the transmission uses. This is where I will probably have that mount come out from:
I will weld a new bar across from the front back towards the steering rack. This will give me a lower mounting point not only for the motor but also any batteries that I might be able to squeeze into the front of the vehicle, as well as any other components I may need to add (water cooling, motor controller, pumps etc.).
Water Cooling
I am hoping to integrate the original car’s radiator into the cooling system for the new components. While most electric motors aren’t built to be water cooled, they can be modified and so I hope to do so. Motor controllers are quite commonly water cooled and so it will be nice to be able to reuse original components in this build. You can see the radiator here:
I chucked out the old fan that was on it as it was quite rusty. I will replace it eventually with two more efficient fans.
Power Steering
So I’m 99% sure that this car has power steering, but I haven’t yet tapped into that system as it feeds into the firewall, as can be seen here:
If someone can confirm if it is power steering then that would be great. I will be powering the steering with an electric power steering pump from a Holden Astra, as has been stated above. I will be waiting until I tear the interior apart before looking into this, as I also need to decide on the heating and cooling solutions for the cabin based on what I already have available to me.
Cabling
The tunnel that was originally used for the exhaust will be reused here for the cabling that will be used to transfer power from the rear batteries to everything in the front. I will probably be using 4/0 cable for this as well as some heavy duty sheathing to protect the cable.
Any smaller cabling for other components will also be routed through here.
Charging
For the charging cable I will be reusing the original filler location as the location for my charge port:
The wires will then be run down under the car and routed to the charger boards, which will be placed in the cavity left by the exhaust muffler:
The charging situation is something I’m still trying really hard to wrap my head around, especially as faster charging options for the DIY community are very scarce and poorly documented. I will pen a more detailed post for this issue in the future.
Batteries
Just today I managed to drop the fuel tank, which I unfortunately didn’t realise was still full! I need to figure out a way to dispose of this safely. This is hard as I don’t have a singular container large enough to transport a couple dozen litres of fuel. For now this will be staying under the car while I think of a clean solution.
This tank is over 45 litres in volume and I plan on utilising all that space for batteries. Once I can empty the tank, I will be prying it open and figuring out how many cells I can safely fit in here. Because of the irregular shape of the tank, I should be able to use the upper portion for extra wiring and other components, such as the BMS. I believe that between the fuel tank and the engine bay I should have more than enough space for a fairly long range battery. Using both the front and back of the vehicle allows me to evenly distribute weight between the two halves of the suspensions. The plan will probably be to stuff as many batteries into the tank as the suspension will safely allow, and then even it out with the weight of the stuff at the front. This is one of the most important aspects of this build so I want to get it right.
There is still a lot of though that needs to go into this, but I hope some of you are able to see my thought processes as well as what I hope to achieve. If anyone has any questions or is able to provide any discussions or solutions to my problems please shoot away.
From here on out progress will be a lot slower but I will aim to provide regular update posts.
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Somehow block the now spinning wheel from spinning and the other one will spin when you turn the transmission axle
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Awesome update! Love seeing the progress on this. I had a couple of thoughts while I was reading.
On my volvo, I can easily downshift and (somewhat less easily) upshift without using the clutch, but putting the car into 1st from a dead stop is basically impossible without the clutch. The reason for this (to my knowledge) is that if the position of the motor and the gear do not line up perfectly, then the motor is putting resistance on everything so you cant force them to mesh together unless you disengage the motor and allow the transmission to spin freely so the gears can mesh. Not sure if that will be a problem or not in this case.
When you were taking the engine apart/out, the power steering pump would have most likely been a belt driven component off the motor, with a small reservoir for fluid, so thats something you can check for to make sure.
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I think mounting batteries under your car might not be great idea. Since it’s small space(small range) and they can be easily damaged 
If you don’t need luggage space but want siting space, maybe use the trunk for batteries
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