33 Machine electric 818e build- Sold! Headed to China!

[Wayne Presley]

When ever you cut CF, have the shop vac running as the dust is really bad for you.

[ehansen007]

Agreed And definitely wear a mask. The problem with carbon is that the body won't reject it so whatever you inhale, you keep forever.

[Mechie3]

It's conductive too. Good way to kill a CNC machine by filling it full of conductive fine powder.

[Xusia]

Eric, I didn't get a clear sense. Is it a vinyl wrap? I'm interested in a good looking 3D CF vinyl wrap. I plan to use it on some body panels like the hood, on some interior parts like the dash, and some other small bits.

[Wayne Presley]

Not a wrap, that is sheets of CF.

[VD2021]

When ever you cut CF, have the shop vac running as the dust is really bad for you.

Agreed And definitely wear a mask. The problem with carbon is that the body won't reject it so whatever you inhale, you keep forever.

This should be applied to epoxy or poly resin and fg also.

[ehansen007]

That's correct. They are sheets and can't really fold or be used as a wrap.

[wleehendrick]

Hi Eric,

I got over to EV West to check it out today... looks great, when you going to put the tranny in and take it for a spin? The NRG seats are nice; I'll get in touch with you about ordering a pair.

[Canadian818]

Hi Eric,

I got over to EV West to check it out today... looks great, when you going to put the tranny in and take it for a spin? The NRG seats are nice; I'll get in touch with you about ordering a pair.

Which NRG seats? Any pics?

[BrandonDrums]

How's this for a logo...

This is an awesome logo. It's like if Yosemite Sam had an electric mustache. Will you be putting mudflaps on this time machine?

[Oppenheimer]

Plus if you live in San Diego, everyone will think you are a pro football player.

[ehansen007]

Hey Guys, time for an update. Yesterday was a day where we took all our steps forward and not one step back! So I was very happy. Swaps: Had to swap out the rear rotors as I found out that a 98 GC8 takes vented rears! You can't get GC8 Parts locally so thank god they are simply 98 Legacy AWD Turbo rotors and are semi affordable at $60 each!



Also, we swapped out the 2pc Pressure plate spring wedge collar after turning it into 3 pieces. After hearing of a horror story from Big E (Treves) at SEMA I decided to upgrade to this bad boy so I'd never have to replace it again (hopefully)

[ehansen007]

So moving more forward-er, we focused mostly on battery installation yesterday. I'm honestly amazed at the amount of detail and thoroughness the EV West team (Matt and Michael) pour into their designs. While I'm doing most of the hard labor they have given me guidance to provide the safest and most structurally sound set up imaginable. In fact, impact and rollover has been discussed several times when talking about battery security so you can tell they actually race EVs and intend to race this one with me!


These boxes are 3/16 aluminum and have become and integral part of the chassis as we have countersunk black hardened M10 allens in the bottom and used aluminum bars tapped for M8 Stainless button head allens to secure the batteries in the boxes. Couple that with routing for the glan nuts and copper coupling straps for the rear and we're talking about an incredible amount of work to secure batteries!


Pre-final tranny install


Matt also fabbed these great copper tie straps to connect the two boxes together and then shrink wrapped them to avoid any issues. You can see it in the right box


Top view


Battery bars connecting each cell. Funny thing here is that you need to be very careful not to touch the straps to each other! They showed me the various ways this can happen and I did my best to avoid arcing them however they failed to tell me that sometimes when threading the bolt in, the strap can sometimes grab the bolt and it will swing over. I proved this theory unfortunately but it just produced a small spark (Thank god). I blame them entirely as I am an idiot and have put my life in their hands and will kill myself if they do not intervene! LOL

[stack]

Great work Erik. Need to get back out there to check it out.

stack

[wleehendrick]

Which NRG seats? Any pics?

https://www.getnrg.com/products/inte...-seats/frp-300

(although the link says carbon fiber, that model is fiberglass) Erik posted pictures of the seats earlier in this thread.

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Funny thing here is that you need to be very careful not to touch the straps to each other! They showed me the various ways this can happen and I did my best to avoid arcing them however they failed to tell me that sometimes when threading the bolt in, the strap can sometimes grab the bolt and it will swing over. I proved this theory unfortunately but it just produced a small spark (Thank god). I blame them entirely as I am an idiot and have put my life in their hands and will kill myself if they do not intervene! LOL

Looking Great Eric.
I have a set of insulated wrenches just for assembling batteries.
Pay particular attention to wire chaffing possibilities. On rough roads every wire bounces.
I have even seen 2 wires tied together with tie wrap wear the insulation off.
Bob.

[ehansen007]

https://www.getnrg.com/products/inte...-seats/frp-300

(although the link says carbon fiber, that model is fiberglass) Erik posted pictures of the seats earlier in this thread.

[metalmaker12]

So moving more forward-er, we focused mostly on battery installation yesterday. I'm honestly amazed at the amount of detail and thoroughness the EV West team (Matt and Michael) pour into their designs. While I'm doing most of the hard labor they have given me guidance to provide the safest and most structurally sound set up imaginable. In fact, impact and rollover has been discussed several times when talking about battery security so you can tell they actually race EVs and intend to race this one


These boxes are 3/16 aluminum and have become and integral part of the chassis as we have countersunk black hardened M10 allens in the bottom and used aluminum bars tapped for M8 Stainless button head allens to secure the batteries in the boxes. Couple that with routing for the glan nuts and copper coupling straps for the rear and we're talking about an incredible amount of work to secure batteries!


Pre-final tranny install


Matt also fabbed these great copper tie straps to connect the two boxes together and then shrink wrapped them to avoid any issues. You can see it in the right box


Top view


Battery bars connecting each cell. Funny thing here is that you need to be very careful not to touch the straps to each other! They showed me the various ways this can happen and I did my best to avoid arcing them however they failed to tell me that sometimes when threading the bolt in, the strap can sometimes grab the bolt and it will swing over. I proved this theory unfortunately but it just produced a small spark (Thank god). I blame them entirely as I am an idiot and have put my life in their hands and will kill myself if they do not intervene! LOL

This is soooo
Cool

[flynntuna]

I'm really liking this build. The level of quality and finish is outstanding

[Cees]

I love your workstyle, build and result. Excellent.

Any plans for adding a getto blaster with V8 and V12 sounds?

[ehansen007]

That's the plan if I can only find a high quality source. I've tried everywhere too. Most guys that have started a business have had a hard time sustaining it because full EVs still aren't mainstream.

[rtz]

What's next? How soon till your driving?

[Rasmus]

Eric, I'm having a hard time understanding why you'd install a transmission when running an electric motor. Seems you get consistent torque from 1 rpm to about 5000 rpm. Why not install just a rear differential with a 2.4 or so final drive. On your 24.8" tall tires you've have a speed range of 0-154mph and no transmission at all. Plus the rear diff's final drive acts as a torque multiplier so you'd be putting a crazy (~175ftlb * 2.4) 420 ftlb to those skinny tires at every RPM.

No flywheel, no clutch, no trans, no shifting. Just tire smoke and the smell of ozone.

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Eric, I'm having a hard time understanding why you'd install a transmission when running an electric motor. Seems you get consistent torque from 1 rpm to about 5000 rpm. Why not install just a rear differential with a 2.4 or so final drive. On your 24.8" tall tires you've have a speed range of 0-154mph and no transmission at all. Plus the rear diff's final drive acts as a torque multiplier so you'd be putting a crazy (~175ftlb * 2.4) 420 ftlb to those skinny tires at every RPM.

No flywheel, no clutch, no trans, no shifting. Just tire smoke and the smell of ozone.

You want tire smoke:
175 ft-lbs motor x 3.454 (first gear) x 3.9 (diff) = 2357 ft-lbs to rear axle. That's over 1.2 G acceleration from 0 to 27 mph @5000RPM.
175 ft-lbs motor x 2.062 (second gear) x 3.9 (diff) = 1707 ft-lbs to rear axle. That's over 0.8 G acceleration from 0 to 44 mph @5000 RPM.
Bob

[ehansen007]

Haha. Good point bob. Put simply, I like to shift and with each gear I get the sweet spot for power to the wheels. From my understanding, for single gear applications you want a motor/controller combo that can spin up to around 10K. Also, the subaru tranny is cheap and it fits right into the car! The idea for this was to build something that could drop right in and be somewhat affordable. That plan flew out the window the minute I saw two motors stuffed into the same can. Now that the EV West guys are familiar with the kit, they'll put something together for those interested.

e

[ehansen007]

Things are moving along although with the commute and busy life schedule it's hard to get down there more than two days a week.




Got the clutch line run and bled and it seems to be working well. What a PIA to bleed that was! Not sure I'm happy with the tension on this line though.


I also got the shifter and in and cables routed and I noticed I had the cables swapped earlier which was why one was short. So it all went in fine and I also bent the brackets so that everything was pretty straight on so there was no binding.





Last we got the charger in there which is the top of the line ElCon. Matt was a huge help in fabbing up some simple brackets so it was functional and looked good.

So now, I've the entire drivetrain working and just need to focus on wiring. I picked up a simple hot rod harness off ebay and what I need now is the plugs and schematic for the wires coming off the steering column. I'll start looking around.

[charkilah]

Attachment 23975Attachment 23972Attachment 23973

I absolutely love this build. I have dreamed of this ever since the 818 was announced, and now that HPEVS came out with the 35X2, its a perfect combination. A while ago I made a couple of charts that calculate the torque to the wheels and the acceleration. Obviously some approximations and assumptions were made, but they are generally correct. I hope you find them interesting.

The max tire traction is calculated for a rear wheel drive vehicle with a locked differential. The weight distribution and leverage from a raised center of gravity are in the formula.

[Frank818]

Nice calcs!

Do you think these formulas could apply for gas engines as well?
If yes I'd like to understand what you are using and how to calculate all this. In another thread would be great to present all this.

[ehansen007]

Decided to bring the 818 home for the holidays. The guys at EVW weren't ready to wire it and I can get so much more done at home it's great.

Before I left we set it up on the scales to see what we had. I guessed 1700.

[ehansen007]

Once I got it home I went right to work making the battery box covers.

I used Starboard with carbon Fiber for lightweight. First I built the frames.


Then I routered the edge to counter sink the lid into the box. This was a challenge. The first time using a router was a learning experience. I bought a nice Bosch router only to be thwarted by the $2 adjustment guide it came with. No matter what I did that thing would slide on me and screw up my routing on the lid. I managed to get through it though. You can see the offramp I took here on the way to cuss-ville.


Then I traced the carbon and bonded it to the frame.


All done! Need to secure them now.

[ehansen007]

Next I went to work building brackets to secure the radiator for the water cooling system.




Who needs a water jet? Me probably.

[ehansen007]

Last I said to myself "there has to be a better way to mount this shifter." With the magic of the forums I set off on task.

I started by disassembling the shifter and taking the shaft out. I heated up the shaft (after removing it from the housing) and bent it straight.


Then I built a platform and bolted it to the subframe using Rivnuts.




You can see the spacers I used. I actually got them from Ace hardware and doubled them with spacers inside for strength.





Look how much happier he is!
From my perspective, this is an easy thing to do and should be way better than mounting it to the top. It doesn't interfere with the seats and should make building a custom center console much easier.

[freds]

That's a great solution, i am definitely going to copy that...very elegant, thanks.

fred

[Frank818]

This is the lightest 818 so far. lolll I know, it won't stay like that.

How are you expecting the airflow to go through your small triple rads on top of the tranny?

[Junty]

Great job on customizing the stock shifter - thanks for sharing this. I really like the VCP shifter kit - however with so many extra bits we can keep adding, I need to draw the line somewhere on what the budget will end up becoming... I love this modification and sorry Wayne - but I can now use the VCP shifter budget on something more beneficial, like turbo, intercooler or ECU...

[Canadian818]

Great job on customizing the stock shifter - thanks for sharing this. I really like the VCP shifter kit - however with so many extra bits we can keep adding, I need to draw the line somewhere on what the budget will end up becoming... I love this modification and sorry Wayne - but I can now use the VCP shifter budget on something more beneficial, like turbo, intercooler or ECU...

My thoughts exactly!

[Xusia]

This is basically the same idea I got after seeing the other shifter mod that was mounted under the rails (but from underneath). Thanks for pioneering this mod!

[longislandwrx]

Very nice. What are the frames of those lids made of is it just black plywood?

This is basically the same idea I got after seeing the other shifter mod that was mounted under the rails (but from underneath). Thanks for pioneering this mod!

Alhough, he has the luxury of not needing room for 400 wires going underneath. If you are doing a traditional build using an aluminum bracket that mounts underneath like I designed might be a better fit.

[508wrx]

I'm a massive fan of this build. Keep up the sick work!

[David Hodgkins]

Hey Mr. Hansen,

Give me a call. I wanna see the build!

Mr. Hodgkins