Gas/Electric Hybrid Engine Conversion

[hardywo]

Well first off, has anybody done this? If not, does anyone have any ideas? Please post info or links to info both about how this system is setup as well as how we explorer owners would be able to take advantage of the technology and put it to use. Thanks so much for the help, and I'm really looking forward to figuring this out, then writing the walkthrough on how to do it. I'm always up for inventing new stuff. Thanks again for any help/advise anybody has to offer.

 

[BrooklynBay]

I was working on a system like this on my 88 many years ago way before hybrids started to become popular. The electric hybrid uses a high voltage electric motor. The OEMs use brushless motors which are much more expensive than the brush versions. They use high voltage battery packs. The way I was doing it was with a power winch 12 volt DC motor which is about 9 HP. It was the brush version. The secondary battery in the rear is used along with an isolator. You have to fabricate a bracket for this motor. Test the rotation of the motor before installing it to make sure that it's the same direction as the gasoline engine. Now here comes the tricky part. You need an electronic controller to make it switch between gas/electric operation. It's not that hard to design if you are familiar with electronics. Keep in mind that electronic timing circuits could false trigger from ignition noise, and spikes. One place which sells parts for electric car conversions is WWW.EVParts.Com. I would also suggest that you buy some books on electric cars, and conversions to get familiar with everything. You could always post a question on this site if you need help. There is a hybrid forum on this site.

 

[Hokie]

You think you're going to be able to do this by yourself?

Not to be a nay sayer.. but, yeah right, it ain't gonna happen.

For my senior design project we converted a 2006 Chevy Equinox into a E85 through the road parallel hybrid.

It took a team of 30 undergraduate students, 3 masters students, 1 PhD advisor, with GM (and a dozen other equipment suppliers) corporate sponsorship 2 years to build the vehicle (and everything was donated to us). We had to fly in a controls engineer from Sweden (Saab engine) and had direct communication/contact with the controls engineers at GM.

At the competition in June, 2006 Virginia Tech came in first place out of 17 schools.

Here's a few links you can check out:

http://www.challengex.org/competition/2006_competition_results.html
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2006/06/12/010902.html
http://autos.msn.com/advice/article.aspx?contentid=4024538

Not to sound negative, but unless you are willing to drop $100k and have access to patented automotive CAN logic systems, you aren't going to be able to do it.

Here's a pic of me in the engine bay mounting one of the 12V power distribution boxes that I made.

 

[hardywo]

Just looking to cut down on gas use...I've got some ideas now. I don't think I'll be going full hybrid...maybe I use the electric motors BrooklynBay was talking about and come up with a way for them to at least assist if I can't get them to fully power the wheels. And yes I do a lot of city driving so this should help a lot with gas (I hope). Thanks for the help and advise guys.

 

[Hokie]

Just looking to cut down on gas use...

Buy a Honda.

Seriously, you've got a '97 4400 lb 4x4 vehicle. You'll never break even on the investment it would take.

 

[97greenmonster]

I agree with Hokie, you dont buy an SUV for gas millage. Those little imports get about 50 MPG in the City. kicks the crap out of our 18.

 

[hardywo]

Fair Enough

Ok, fair enough, you've all crushed my X-hybrid dreams:roll: ...but either way I'm not even getting 18 mpg anymore. I only average about 10-13. What else can I do? I've changed the oil, oil filter, and fuel filter recently. I plan to buy new spark plugs and wires, but I'm still searching to find the best ones to get. I've even been looking into getting an electric fan, but I'm still researching that whole idea. What else is left? K&N air intake maybe? Any other ideas? The best solution is that I might be taking a motorcycle safety course and getting one of those too. That would def cut down on the wasted city gas. Thanks again for the help.

 

[dcarp]

you might do better to do a full on EV conversion. evparts.com is a good resource. I dont' know of any explorers specifically, but there have been S-10s & Blazers that have been converted.

Most homebuilt EV Conversions are good for commuting to and from work (likely less than 100 miles round trip) and not much else, so if you plan on putting any weight into the explorer or towing anything, you might be better off doing something else.

 

[kert0307]

why not find a totaled out hybred escape, or something similar and do a motor/ecu swap.

I agree with others though, just buy a different car. I'm in the same boat you are right now, I'm driving like 45miles one way to work. I'm currently looking for a used small car with a 4 cylinder for the cummute, and keeping the ex when I need it for towing, and winter driving.