The electric car is here! If you are not familiar with The Smart Drive’s electric car, check out the post on The Electric Car Experiment.
For a quick summary, The Smart Drive’s electric vehicle was built in 2001 and competed in two road rallies in the Northeast in 2001 and 2002. Since 2002 it has been used continuously as a commuter vehicle in New Jersey and an every day vehicle at Virginia Tech.
While the car is at its new home, it isn’t quite ready to use. Over the past 8 years the car has traveled about 30k miles on two traction batteries packs. Electric vehicle lead acid traction batteries have a limited charge and discharge cycle lifetime and the current battery pack, installed in 2005, is at the end of it’s life. This means time for some new batteries! This weekend my father and I spent a good deal of time removing the old batteries, cleaning up the battery brackets and installing the new pack. The new batteries are 6 volt deep cycle golf cart batteries with a capacity of 225 amp-hours. The specification and form factor of the cells almost exactly match the T105 batteries from Trojan Battery however rather than costing $125 and up these batteries cost $71.28 and can be purchased off the shelf at Sam’s Club almost anywhere in the US (The Costco I checked didn’t have them, sorry). The model is the GC2 and the new set I got for the car were Energizer branded. The batteries used in the old pack we removed were also purchased at Sam’s Club and performed at the same level as an OEM supplied original pack.
Check out the gallery for some pictures from the upgrade. Take a look at #9 then #8 for a before-and-after under the hood!
Here is an interesting article about the efficiency of converting biomass into liquid fuel, vs using it to generate electricity for EVs. http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/05/biofuels-can-power-more-miles-if-used-to-charge-batteries.ars
So in the order from The Dub Doctor I got a new set of injector nozzles to replace the ones I am sure are all gummed up. Before putting in the new nozzles I decided to take the injectors to a diesel shop up in Loveland to get the pop-off pressures tested. The pop-off pressure is the amount of fuel pressure the injector holds until the mechanical resistance from two springs in the injector is overcome and the fuel shoots through the holes in the nozzle into the cylinder. Take a look at this image of injectors to get a better idea of what happens.
The injector is a crucial part of the engine, an accurate pop-off pressure and a specific spray pattern are required to ensure the fuel fills the combustion chamber and burns evenly. For those who have been reading, if the fuel is sprayed into the chamber haphazardly it will burn incompletely causing smoke and carbon deposits. Well, about 10 minutes into the ~30 minute testing procedure I got called to the shop to see the injectors. Normally when an injector is tested on a manual tester the fuel pops-off a number of times and chatters like the video below, well three of the four injectors were so gummed up there was no chatter, just a dribble out of the nozzles. In addition to the gummed up injector internals, all the nozzles were spraying in random directions, even up! These injectors are really, really bad; I don’t even know how the car was running. The Doctor thinks they can be cleaned, so tomorrow I get to pack them up with the new nozzles and ship them off to Ohio.
In other news the engine shop should be done rebuilding the engine and tomorrow or Friday it will go back to the VW shop to be put back in the car. It should take a week or so to get everything back together. I just hope the injectors get back so it isn’t waiting too long. Also, the messed up injectors make me worry the injector pump is gummed up…lets hope that isn’t the case.
Check out this page for more on VW TDI VE and PD injectors : http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q_how_to/multi/TDInozzleFAQ.htm
Take a alook at this video about plans for a US “Smart Grid”
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Parts and Dates
The latest round of parts came in Friday (4/24) and are down at the engine shop. Now is when the fun begins and the end nears.
The guy at the engine shop said the engine should be back together by the 6th of May. Then the VW shop gets it back and puts it back in the car. My estimate is that the car should be done about May 13th. Between now and May 13th I have to find a diesel shop that can replace the injector nozzles with the new ones. Check back for updates on that later
The engine rebuild of the 2001 Golf is well under way and today I placed the order for the remainder of the required parts. Here is the list of new stuff:
- VR6 single mass clutch – $330
- Rod Bolts – $ 40
- Oil Pump – $ 130
- Injector nozzle set (4) – $300
- Head gasket – $40
- Rear main, front main , Oil filter, oil cooler, oil pan gaskets/sealers – $65
- Glow Plugs – $80
Clutch and oil pump I decided to replace since the engine was out of the car anyway… hey why not? Over the past few weeks it has become clear the cause of the damage was the SVO used in the car before. Most likely the injector nozzles became clogged, thus causing the carbon deposits, heat damage and finally loss of compression. Because of that I decided to replace the injector nozzles. Now, to find a place that can rebuild TDI injectors. I’ll let you know how that goes :-/
For a little humorous educational reading, check out this blog about a guy who does just about everything wrong with a new PD style VW TDI: http://getoffoil.blogspot.com/
Well the carbon deposits on the pistons and cylinders were not the only damage done to the engine of the Golf. When the engine shop removed the head and pulled the valves they found major carbon deposits in the exhaust valve ports! The carbon soot was caked about a quarter of an inch thick on both the valve and exhaust ports! Here is a video of the damage
Also, check out the gallery images of the damage
The engine for the Golf is still in the shop but I got the pistons today. These pistons are made by an OEM supplier to Volkswagen and are bored 0.5mm oversize to fit the new cylinder diameter. Take a look here. Also, pictures 5 and 6 are of the head after cleaning, almost brand new!
On my quest to find some over sized VW pistons for a reasonable price, I visited tons of online shops. One supplier that I found on the VW Vortex TDI forums was The Dub Doctor. What I thought was going to be a quick phone call about pistons turned into a 20 minute conversation about TDI engines and what would be required to rebuilt my engine.
Needless to say I ordered the pistons from The Dub Doctor and plan to get most of the other parts from them. I highly recommend you talk to them if you need VW parts for a TDI conversion of your own.
Well the Golf is down at the VW shop and the engine is in the engine shop!
About a week ago the engine was pulled from the car and delivered to the shop to get the cylinders bored. If you remember in the first post about the SVO Golf, the previous owner said the scoring on the cylinder was due to a detached filter…well that isn’t really the case. When the engine shop disassembled the short block they found large carbon deposits on the pistons. A little research in my new favorite book SVO: Powering Your Vehicle With Straight Vegetable Oil by Forest Gregg, I found that carbon deposits are the result of oil that is too cold or hasn’t been filter adequately. My guess is that the oil used wasn’t warmed well enough. I made a few videos of the pistons with deposits for others out there. (Yes it says poorly filtered, but now I think was too cold)
Next is to get some 0.5mm oversized pistons!
While you are here, take a look at the SVO Car Project page and the Electric Car Project page!
This video demos the latest developments from Chrysler in their electric vehicle hybrid R&D. I have to say I agree that a hybrid with secondary gas engine (rather than electric as secondary) is the next step in hybrid evolution.
Also, check out the Chrysler ENVI site for another overview. ENVI Site and More about the ENVI Fleet
