Building my own hybrid

[Patrick]

Saw a straight DC chevette here for sale a year or two ago, put the dc motor where the 4 cylinder gas used to be, back end full of batteries. As far as I could tell, he still ran the 4 speed trans the car came with.

[burnt_servo]

i was thinking about doing something similar awhile back ......

with out going into detail , something a guy could do is build a 2nd turbo  that powered a modifyed alternator  instead of pumping air  , to charge up the battteries faster  on  exhaust gasses that are nothing more than wasted energy .

[burn_your_money]

That sounds like a lot of back pressure to me. Has that been tried ever? If so it'd be good on a regular old diesel. Alternators put a lot of drag on an engine.

[znate]

i was thinking about doing something similar awhile back ......

with out going into detail , something a guy could do is build a 2nd turbo  that powered a modifyed alternator  instead of pumping air  , to charge up the battteries faster  on  exhaust gasses that are nothing more than wasted energy .

BMW has something like that, i cant find the link right now to the article i read but if i find it i'll post.

*edit* found a link, might not be the one i read before though

[idgtd]

It's called an electrically coupled turbo-compound engine. Been done before. Cat has done a bunch of research on it.

[burnt_servo]

the other thing i was thinking of doing , if i was going to build a jetta hybrid , was modifying a front subframe to fit into the rear , to fit a  front suspension in the back , and directly conect 2 motors , via modded cv shafts to the rear wheels .

[burnt_servo]

That sounds like a lot of back pressure to me. Has that been tried ever? If so it'd be good on a regular old diesel. Alternators put a lot of drag on an engine.

if done right it shouldn't put anymore back pressure  on the motor than a set of compund turbo's , except one turbo would be making electricity .

[burn_your_money]

How would you connect the two motors?

The more I think about this the more I like the idea of the electric motor in the front and the diesel in the back.

Conveniently for me my brother (znate) has already done this. It's a go cart with no front engine, but it's still half the battle

[burnt_servo]

How would you connect the two motors?

The more I think about this the more I like the idea of the electric motor in the front and the diesel in the back.

Conveniently for me my brother (znate) has already done this. It's a go cart with no front engine, but it's still half the battle

2 completely seperate drive systems ........

pop the diesel tranny into neutral when on electric , turn the diesel off .

when using diesel , drive it as normal , and i beleive that electric motors can then be used to charge the batteries .


or use both together for rapid aceleration .
it would take a bit of fiddling  ,  but i think it would work  well .




ohh wait , or do you mean how would i conect the electric motors ?

since i'de be using a modded front suspension , and drive system ,  id take the stub axle that fits into the fron wheel , and either attach it directly to the electric motor , or mount it farther in and attach a plate that is similar to what is on the tranny , and attach the whole cv shaft to that .

not sure if i'd wire the motors in series , or paralell .

with a bit of work , both motors should fit nicely in the rear  .

[CoolAirVw]

I've been chewing over this idea myself.   Here's some pics I found.  This is the rear of a ford aspire.





I'm a professional transmission tech and have recently taken two classes on hybrid theory, operation, and repair.  I myself drive a 85 TD jetta and am considering the same thing.

With regards to your questions....

MK2 Golf/Jetta, probably 1.6 TD

Might be better with non-turbo.  Idle stop (engine off at stops) accounts for a large part of the fuel savings in a hybrid.  Sometimes I would like to shut my car off coasting downhills then pop start near the stop.  Problem I keep having (I drive pretty light so this might not really be an issue) is whether I'm "coking" up the bearings in my turbo.  For extra boost in those passing situations you could turn on the electric motor.

Use a rear axle from a RWD but rotate it so that the axle comes up into the trunk (90 degree rotation)

Wont live.  I garentee it.  Lube passeges to the pinion bearings route lube downhill.  Change downhill and you will remove lube from the pinion bearing.

......a couple of deep cycle batteries

Deep cycle would be better than auto batteries but you can buy real EV batterys.

.... a couple solar panels

Dont waste your time putting them on your car.  Put them on your house. (see below)  

Will the stock Vw tranny be able to survive being pushed around by the rear motor? I understand that since the input shaft is not turning gear lube will not be pumped/splashed to all the gears

 

I think it would be ok. I totally disaggree with whoever said it would starve of oil.

I don't plan on charing the batteries other then through the braking and solar panels, plus possibly plugging it in(preferably to a windmill, solar panel, hydro electric dam etc)

Put the solar panel and windmill on your house then use a process called "net metering" (google it).  That energy would end up powering your car.  

Am I crazy?

NO!  Do it!  

Oh, one more thing.  My big negitive with this idea is that regen braking would be not very effective in the rear.  Regen really needs to be front wheels!

Here's some links

General explanation of EV terms.
http://wiki.evtech.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

General Ev parts, controllers motors, DC-DC converters ect (some for small stuff like golf carts motorcycles ect)
http://www.evparts.com/

High performance controllers for fast Ev's (6 month waiting list.  Yes they're that good)
http://www.cafeelectric.com/

Oh, and here's some how to build an EV videos on you tube.
Watch all in the series.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NebLkPulpNg&feature=related

This link goes to a great video series on building a EV in 18 episodes!  Watch them all!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83_Zig2vZlQ

[CoolAirVw]

One more thing.  

I think we should side step hybrids and go right to electric plug in cars.

[burn_your_money]

One more thing.  

I think we should side step hybrids and go right to electric plug in cars.

I like to travel long distances, quite a bit and having two cars is not finacially feasible.

Many thanks for all the advice so far.

What text books did you use for your course CoolAirVw?

[Mark(The Miser)UK]

i was thinking about doing something similar awhile back ......

with out going into detail , something a guy could do is build a 2nd turbo  that powered a modifyed alternator  instead of pumping air  , to charge up the battteries faster  on  exhaust gasses that are nothing more than wasted energy .

Sounds like a good idea...
But even better would be to stick the hot side of a Stirling engine into the exhaust post turbo and convert the bulk of the heat remaining into power for the charging system with no back pressure at all IMO :idea:

[diesel smoke]

Heres an idea...

http://www.mrsharkey.com/pusher.htm

[914turboford]

I had a similar idea awhile back:
http://www.vwdiesel.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=11733&highlight=