openinverter forum

Found this for sale on Facebook with a very blown head gasket for £450 so conversion number 2 will begin. It'll be a GS450h, Zombie, Outlander Charger / Heater / AC compressor. Will have a UHI based CCS.

Have you decided which batteries?

Might take the VW modules from the beetle, but will see when I get to needing some

I taken can logs of the PT can from the DDE (BMW speak for ECU) https://github.com/jamiejones85/E91-320d-canlogs I think I'll take a few more logs, car in reverse, AC on, traction control off etc just to be sure I've got enough, then get the AC dude round to drain me (for the environmental and legal reasons) and begin ripping out the lump

good to see one of us taking can logs before taking it apart completly forgot with mine had to beg borrow and steal

Started disconnecting the coolant hoses and wiring. Compressor now unbolted so that's not holding me up, but the AC people coming Monday to evacuate anyway.
King Kong has put the wheel bolts in, my impact gun will not loosen them so can't get the front bumper off easily. So tomorrow, I'm going to try drop the gearbox off and get that out of the way before going round to my mates and taking his engine crane for a walk round to mine.

Would be a shame to take the batteries out of the beetle and loose one ev to build another

Will see what happens when I get to the batteries stage. Initially, I'll just be pulling out the 3rd pack from the boot, but I don't need multiple cars.

Trying to plan what I need to do to have AC, I've got a HV compressor, but my concern is how I go about cleaning out the oil from the evaporator, condenser, and lines. Then need to workout the EV friendly oil to put in and find someone willing to fill it up, obviously they've have to trust that the PAG oil has been cleaned out sufficiently as to no contaminate their equipment. Or somehow drive the current compressor with another motor.

Could convert the alternator from the bmw engine to a motor to drive the bmw compressor,

Fairly sure gen3 prius used r134a refrigerant, also you’ll be stuck with using r134a anyway regardless of what compressor you fit as the filling fittings are different size to r1234yf

I think the refrigerant is still r134a but the PAG oil eats the coatings of the windings and will problems.

I have flushed an a/c system before using pressurised aft and then compressed air, did involve taking the condenser off the car and doing that separately, used a new dryer on reassembly, if you used Toyota ws atf it would definitely be winding friendly!

Engine still not out yet, but only needs lifting out now, all stuff disconnected. My GS450h gearbox here now. Still need to source an inverter. Sellers asking too much on eBay for them.

Bigpie wrote: ↑Fri Nov 03, 2023 10:01 am Engine still not out yet, but only needs lifting out now, all stuff disconnected. My GS450h gearbox here now. Still need to source an inverter. Sellers asking too much on eBay for them.
IMG_20231102_140637233.jpg

I've got contact details for a guy who was willing to sell me a whole inverter, gearbox and oil pump for a gs450H for £750 delivered. I'll try and find him. I think he was called Zu Motors in Peterborough. He's probably worth a try.

Smoke free BMW

Trying to document in video form this build
https://youtu.be/j_ZVcMrLy8E?si=995k_zeiZD4I1nLh

A spot of lunchtime welding, working on locking my shaft

Bit more work on the input shaft lock and also just getting the wiring information together.

the only issue with bolting through box section is it has a tendency to crush down over time and the bolts will become loose so I tend to drill the hole bigger and weld in steel tube then grind it flush to prevent this

That's a good idea.

Got the gearbox sort of positioned on bricks. Need to tweak the angles and spacing a little then start on making up some mountings.
Also managed to get hold of a butchered loom from ebay cheap that includes the unobtainable connector.

My GS450H gearbox is arriving on Monday... I'm a little apprehensive about moving it around tbh. Just picked up a massive engine stand for cheap but I've still got to get the bloody think onto it... Any tips?

Lift with your legs not your back. It's heavy AF, get help if you can. I can just about move.ot on my own but it's not fun nor easy.

Current progress in bad video form.

Still working on the rear mount, taking ages. Transmission isn't quite level on the jack, also need to adjust the height a little before getting the brackets for the rubber thingies made up and then adding triangles everywhere possible.
Once it's roughly mounted I can send the propshaft in for surgery, hard to tell if the angles and height is ok will a propshaft that's too long and wrong flange.

Bigpie wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 1:31 pm Still working on the rear mount, taking ages.
IMG_20231116_131754509_HDR.jpg
IMG_20231116_131955550_HDR.jpg
Transmission isn't quite level on the jack, also need to adjust the height a little before getting the brackets for the rubber thingies made up and then adding triangles everywhere possible.
Once it's roughly mounted I can send the propshaft in for surgery, hard to tell if the angles and height is ok will a propshaft that's too long and wrong flange.

I made up a tube with the right ID to go over the gearbox output shaft and the right length to ensure the correct gearbox position and that it aligned with the spline of the rear half of the propshaft, rubber couplings and UJ's can only compensate for limited alignment errors