Toyota GT86 with Nissan Leaf Motor (Update 11/2022: 160Kw)

[Boxster EV]

Excellent project. I have battery box envy.

[Zapatero]

Finally the new adaptor based on the original Leaf Spline is finished. Unfortunately i don't know any shop that could replicate the Spline so i didn't have it scanned or something.

Old vs. New. here i found out that the original Leaf Spline has some play, too. Less than the clutch spline based adaptor, but still some play. In my opinion the reason why the Honda Clutch Spline doesn't work very well is the length. The Leaf spline is about twice the length as my first attempt with the clutch spline. If one would use two of the Honda clutch splines in a row it would be WAY better.


New adaptor mounted on the motor:





You've seen that before: The Gearbox adaptor


Here one can see my battery box under the motor. The cables arent routed finally as to the left one box is missing and i connected the cables together to have the possibility to drive the car. The switch gear will be put in it's own protective aluminum box, of course.


I connected the Tesla DC-DC charger and figured that it wouldn't charge. So i looked up another threat in the "general" section on this forum where i found a video. There someone explained that the Hardware-Enable-Pin has to be put on +12V. It's the red cable in the picture. I did so and now the DC-DC is working, too.


The former owner of the Toyota GT86 painted the OEM-Wheels gold. I Didn't like that and decided to put new alloys in the car. After a lot of thinking i came to the conclusion that "High Voltage Orange" would be an awesome color for an EV-Conversion. In a year i propably think "why orange" but for now i think it's great and i still can have them painted in another color.

[Zapatero]

After putting everything back together i had a tuning session with Johannes today. Thanks a lot, you where - as always - lot of help to me!
Now the car can drive but i still have to sort out minor issues:

• Pedal response is not as good as in an original Leaf.
  # Solved, just adjustet the parameter throtramp to 10
• Acceleration is to weak, worse than in an original Leaf. But i still have to charge the batteries and put in the 6 missing module, so that could make a lot of difference.
  # Solved: cranked up throtcur to 4,7 for the moment, expecting more here for more power. Also it feels better with 380 volts on a 80% charge than wit 270 Volts and 6 missing Modules.
• Regen is to strong, the rear wheels stopped spinning and the rear end started to slide. It was very cold and the car has UHP tires mounted, so that makes it worse. Still regen has to be less on an RWD car until you press the brake compared to an FWD car i think.
  ' Solved: brkmax reduced for off acc pedal regen, brknompedal reduced for brake pedal regen
• Still have to connect the Eltek-Charger and the Orion BMS and some other minor things. But i'm getting there
  # done that
  
  
  ### updated 31. January 2020

[Zapatero]

I think the GT86 will work best in third gear:



This is the Leaf. I have added the second gear to scale the diagram to a comparable size.

[langoo]

I think the GT86 will work best in third gear:

Picture

This is the Leaf. I have added the second gear to scale the diagram to a comparable size.

Picture

What's that for software/website/tool?

[Zapatero]

I think the GT86 will work best in third gear:

Picture

This is the Leaf. I have added the second gear to scale the diagram to a comparable size.

Picture

What's that for software/website/tool?

https://www.blocklayer.com/rpm-gear.aspx

[celeron55]

When you're doing highway driving, consider this:

Whichever gear in the transmission is 1:1 will probably give best highway range, albeit with sluggish low speed acceleration.

You get rid of gearing losses and also gain some efficiency in splashing the transmission oil around less.

In my conversion 4th (1:1) compared to 2nd (2.02:1) gains almost 15% in efficiency at 80-100km/h. My final ratio is 4.1:1 if I recall correctly.

The Leaf inverter and motor are perfectly happy at continuous 25kW at 3000rpm. Actually, they're perfectly happy when being floored continuously at any rpm, the torque just isn't very much. Well, it's similar in torque to a, say, small turbo diesel or some such. Those have very artificial torque limits these days.

[SciroccoEV]

Whichever gear in the transmission is 1:1 will probably give best highway range, albeit with sluggish low speed acceleration.

How many manufacturers use a layshaft transmission these days, they're nearly all 'indirect' 'boxes. Maybe a few legacy pickup and 4WD designs? Even in a layshaft 'box, all the gears are turning, it's just that none of them are transmitting torque.

[celeron55]

I'd imagine many older RWD conversions will have a transmission like that. Mine is almost brand new for a Toyota, being from 1992.

Who'd convert a FWD anyway, boring!

[Zapatero]

we've welded the last box and put it in yesterday. Now all 48 batteries are in the car. I also wired the BMS completely except for the J1772 of the charger. Will do that soon, so i'm also able to actually charge the car and finally drive it.



Last battery box in place:


New wheels in high voltage orange

[Zapatero]

Technical Update #25 January 2020:

• Motor Nissan Leaf 2014
• Estimated Power 140Kw, 400nm torque
• Connected to the OEM Gearbox by an custon made cupler and adaptor plate.
  
  
  Battery Pack
• 24 KWh Battery Pack with 48 modules and 96 cells out of the Leaf 2012
• Spread through the car in various places:
• Custom modified spare wheel well for 24 modules
• Custom made fuel tank boxes for 12 modules
• 2 Custom made boxes in front, one under the motor with 6 modules and one next to the motor with 6 modules
• If i like the result of the project i will invest in a 30KWh battery pack out of a newer leaf
  
  Battery Management System:
• Orion BMS 2
• Everything is fully CAN-bus controlled
  
  Inverter
• Nissan Leaf Inverter with Johannes Huebner main board, fully CAN-bus controlled
  
  GT86 ECU
• Arduino based replacement ECU for CAN-communication from Geraldjustprojects.com
  
  Charger
• ELTEK Valere 3Kw Charger, fully CAN-bus controlled
  [']Chademo-Charging will be available, Orion BMS does support it. Just have to implement it physically in the car, i already have the parts
  
  DC-DC converter
• First GEN-Tesla Model S converter, just needs an +12 enable signal

[Zapatero]

[johu]

German build quality Or Björn Nyland would call it: Bratwurst!

The tuning sessions have been fun! Everybody who has bought a support package from me: make sure the ESP wifi module is logged into your local Wifi and you have a (temporary!) port forwarding from the internet. That way I can see all your parameters, plot values, run firmware upgrades. Almost like I'm physically standing next to you

Can you get a better camera? One that pays tribute to the build quality. And maybe use a tripod sometimes.

[Zapatero]

German build quality Or Björn Nyland would call it: Bratwurst!

The tuning sessions have been fun! Everybody who has bought a support package from me: make sure the ESP wifi module is logged into your local Wifi and you have a (temporary!) port forwarding from the internet. That way I can see all your parameters, plot values, run firmware upgrades. Almost like I'm physically standing next to you

Can you get a better camera? One that pays tribute to the build quality. And maybe use a tripod sometimes.

You're absolutely right the camera is terrible. It's an Samsung S7 camera. This was actually the first time i did a video like this, so i only can get better

Once the car is finished i'll do a complete video with more effort!

[Zapatero]

What have i done so far the last few days:

• adjusted throtramp to 10 for better pedal response
• cranked up throtcur to 4,7 to get more power. I'd like to turn it up but i'm getting overcurrent and desat errors. Will solve that with Johannes. Also it feels way better with 380 volts on a 80% charge than wit 270 Volts and 6 missing Modules.
• Had to reduce brkmax for off acc pedal regen, brknompedal reduced for brake pedal regen - Feels wierd when the road is icy and the wheels stop rotating because of the regen (and also is dangerous)
• Orion BMS is expensive but worth every cent. Great product with perfect functionality. Love it!

After the second test drive my coupler moved on the shaft, alltough i had it fastened with an allen screw.


to prevent this from happening again i decided to use a real quick solution and MIG weld a washer in the front of the coupler so the gearbox shaft will adjoin on the washer and it can't move further back. Though it's MIG-welded quick n dirty it looks rather terrible but it serves it's purpose.



Finally i went out for some more testing. Acceleration is better. Still getting tons of invrerter shutoffs, but i will sort that out with Johannes. I'm registering the car on monday, so then the real road testing and tuning can begin.

[johu]

If you getting desat errors you've probably reached the hardware limits. Or are you only getting them under certain conditions?

[Zapatero]

Thanks, Johannes, for chiming in on this!

I'l figure out the exakt failure codes this afternoon and then i'll post them. in 99% of the case the inverter stops working while decelleration, not while accelerating!

[arber333]

After the second test drive my coupler moved on the shaft, alltough i had it fastened with an allen screw.
to prevent this from happening again i decided to use a real quick solution and MIG weld a washer in the front of the coupler so the gearbox shaft will adjoin on the washer and it can't move further back. Though it's MIG-welded quick n dirty it looks rather terrible but it serves it's purpose.

Yes i had the same problem on Mazda. I made a small cap in front of the recepticle in the same way you did. Nice work. I am sure every spider that nests inside your transmission will look upon this with admiration . By spider I meant that you will not have to dissassemble the coupler so spiders will not be disturbed much.

[Zapatero]

Yes i had the same problem on Mazda. I made a small cap in front of the recepticle in the same way you did. Nice work. I am sure every spider that nests inside your transmission will look upon this with admiration . By spider I meant that you will not have to dissassemble the coupler so spiders will not be disturbed much.

Thank you, seems like it's working now

[Zapatero]

So far i added the Torque PIDs in my cellphone to see the state of charge of the car and how much Kw it produces. With the new firmware and settings from Johannes it's at 87 Kilowatts at the moment. Johannes ment i'll be able to reach at least 120 Kilowatts. Let the tuning begin




So far the maximum Amps drawn from the batteries at 87 Kw was 336A. I've set the regen to a real low value to not have blocking tires with the summer tires on the cold and wet road while regen is active.





Also i can manage charge status and state of charge, of course. There are like 100 more PIDs to observe, but for now i think those are the most important.




Some fun with ev-power




THANKS JOHANNES FOR THE NEW FIRMWARE! It's a game changer!!!

[SciroccoEV]

If the couplings can move on the shafts, they will move on the shafts.

Even if you've stopped it moving back, it's going to fret on the shaft and wallow out the key and keyway over time.

[johu]

Nice!
Wet road doubles the subjective power output. Snow quadruples it
What throtcur are you running? How cold was it? I reached a 110kW peak with throtcur 4.5

[Zapatero]

I had 7 degrees celcius outside and my throtur was at 4.41

So i'm wondering why my peak KW is way lower?

[Zapatero]

Found this Information on mynissanleaf.com, what do you guys think about that state of discharge and the percentage?

On the Leaf 3.6V (345v) is pretty low SOC.. somewhere between LBC and VLBC? maybe 20% SOC? The differences between 3.6V and 3.8V in regard to battery longevity is probably not that big of a deal.. more important (by far) seems to be to keep it cool.

So 3.6 Volts is the lowest i should go? Does this mean under load or open cell voltage?

Any opinions on that?

[Kevin Sharpe]

So 3.6 Volts is the lowest i should go? Does this mean under load or open cell voltage?

Here's a useful guide from DIY Electric which AFAIK is accurate for both Gen 1 and Gen 2 Leaf batteries. I would assume these are measured under minimal load.