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One thing to bear in mind when that converting ice vehicles to electric is that they are constructed with a vertical firewall between engine and driver with lot
by olivermarks 7y ago
One thing to bear in mind when that converting ice vehicles to electric is that they are constructed with a vertical firewall between engine and driver with lots of protection around location of fuel tanks and fuel lines.
EV's are typically designed with a horizontal fire wall to protect the occupants from the batteries beneath them, which become unstable in a violent impact and often burn repeatedly. The centre of gravity in an ICE vehicle is very different to an EV. It is therefore arguably better to build some sort of EV kit car with a crate motor than to attempt to convert an ICE monocoque imo
- Skunkleton 7y agoMost of the time a crate engine enters the equation there is some sort of hideously unsafe car waiting for it. Its safe to assume that if you are the kind of person installing a crate engine you have some sort of idea of what you are doing, and are capable of taking informed risks.
- anon1m0us 7y agoYour reasoning assumes people don't skip steps in the process of learning things. There are cliches to support my case. "Only knows enough to be dangerous" "More dollars than sense" That itself is dangerous. You're basically discouraging someone from offering advice to the general public because you think the knowledge is generally known, but that's just not the case. I have a general idea of what I'm doing but reading that comment changed my perspective of what is and isn't dangerous in a car and those dangers shift from ICE to electric. Frankly, I'm glad he opened my mind to the ideas.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago>That itself is dangerous. You're basically discouraging someone from offering advice to the general public because you think the knowledge is generally known, but that's just not the case. And if you don't discourage it all discourse gets drowned out into a bunch of "hurr durr don't forget your jack stands" type virtue signaling (in the technical sense, not the politically loaded sense) about safety and you get Reddit. You can't please everyone.
- jbottoms 7y agoIIRC the earlier work on roll-overs made the point that all cars have a resonate roll-over frequency that plays a part when drivers over correct a swerve. I wonder if anyone is taking a new look at that isdue. Also, whdn a bunch of combustion engines get displaced, what is therd to do with them beyond recycling the metal? Looks like the cost of these freed-up motors is about to drop. Motor futures; shorting anyone?
- linsomniac 7y agoReminder: Kevin Hart is suing the builder of his Hellcat 700HP Plymouth Barracuda.
- Skunkleton 7y agoNot to be rude, but you would have to be real thick to not understand how unsafe that car would be. I know it's a harsh thing to say, especially because Kevin Hart was seriously injured. Still, when you take risks, sometimes it doesn't work out.
- Gibbon1 7y agoOne of my college professors said there are things that are intrinsically unsafe. Where layered defenses don't buy you much. A fuckup means a high risk of being injured.
- emmelaich 7y agoSadly yes. There's a reason that e.g. Shelby Cobras are so rare. Very easy to spin out a short wheelbase car with a V8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_Cobra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_Cobra
- olivermarks 7y agoIt is a disgrace that Hart is suing the car builder.He had someone build a high performance show car and then allowed a friend to crash it. He is now wrecking everyone's right to modify and build cars because of his own stupidity.
- rasz 7y ago>The driver, Jared Black, lost control of Hart's 1970 Plymouth 'Cuda while driving with Hart and Black's fiancé, Rebecca Broxterman, in the back seat. The car plowed through a wooden fence and careened down an embankment, where it came to rest in a heap. Reminder: dont let your cool friends drive your race car. This is how Paul Walker died.
- tashoecraft 7y ago
- deelowe 7y agoHow is that any different than adding a fuel cell to an ice which has similar constraints? Couldn't an aftermarket battery pack be made that has all the requisite fire protection built into the case (again, similar to fuel cells)?
- therealx 7y agoOr have a battery that's shaped like a fuel tank? Maybe you won't get the same range as battery all over but it's prob enough for most people?
- Hamuko 7y agoYou're probably get an awful range out of a fuel tank shaped and sized battery pack.
- newnewpdro 7y agoNot sure why you're being downvoted. In the future when battery energy densities are a multiple of current gen we'll definitely have gas tank form factor batteries for restomods. Today the range would be pretty bad though, but probably fine for a classic car grocery getter or trailer/show queen.
- deelowe 7y agoI think the bigger concern is fire protection, which is already a solved problem with fuel cells. Shouldn't be too different for batteries.
- phs318u 7y agoI suspect the aversion to a more blocky shape (higher volume/surface-area ratio), has to do with heat dissipation, which if I recall correctly, improves with surface-area. EDIT: hence the flatter/thinner batteries we see in EVs.
- chipsa 7y agoThat actually mostly doesn't matter for most batteries. Most EV batteries are actively cooled/heated with fluid moving inside. So the heat dissipation occurs in the radiator for the battery, not at the surface of the battery. We see flat batteries because sticking the battery at the bottom of the car helps with weight distribution and handling.
- the_cat_kittles 7y agobut... its cool. and fun.
- Obi_Juan_Kenobi 7y agoWe're (mostly) talking about classic car conversions for something like this. Safety is way down the list of concerns. If you prioritize safety at all, you won't even consider riding in a classic vehicle. I don't see how the nuances of a battery fire vs. much more likely ICE fire would enter into any reasonable consideration.
- braythwayt 7y agoExactly. This is for converting that 1971 VW “Thing” that is a deathtrap just standing still. You would drive in a relaxed manner it from your garage to the nearest coffee & cars meetup on Sunday morning, then back again. Nobody is buying these with the intention of building an electric hyper-car to use at the track.
- anon1m0us 7y agoWhy wouldn't something like this crate engine be great for a Prius? The Prius has a 90hp ICE. Replace that with a 110hp crate electric and now you have more power in a 100% electric vehicle.
- throwaway1777 7y agoDoubt the extra horsepower will get you much gain once you add batteries
- domlebo70 7y agoNot this particular motor, no. But you can bet people will be swapping these into racecars all the same. I'd love an electric powered track car.
- TylerE 7y agoFires in car crashes are actually quite rare. That's very much a Hollywood-ism.
- freehunter 7y ago
- linsomniac 7y agoThe CG isn't likely to be considered in the sort of vehicles this crate engine is going into, it isn't usually even from the factory. This is a 100HP motor, most cars with a 100HP motor are far from a 50/50 weight distribution. :-) I'm more concerned with integration with safety features like airbags. I'd love to do an EV conversion of some fairly pedestrian car with my daughter for her first car, but I'm likely to take a fairly pedestrian donor car, and even a couple grand is going to get a car with airbags that need to integrate with the various sensors (including, as I understand it, ECU and engine sensors) to say when to fire.
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago>This is a 100HP motor, most cars with a 100HP motor are far from a 50/50 weight distribution. Honda Prelude and similiar have ~100hp and pretty decent weight distribution.
- linsomniac 7y agoWhich Honda Prelude? The H22A engine puts out more like 200HP. Not at all in this class. Grassroots Motorsports corner weighed a Honda Civic Si, still performance oriented, still way over the 100HP, and found 62% front loading. The Honda site lists the 2011 Civic Coupe as 60/40 and 140HP.
- andrei_says_ 7y agoI imagine a whole ecosystem around the conversion process, with modular components designed to replace the functions not directly provided by the engine. However airbags and similar systems may be too risky litigation-wise.