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Simple to do is the wrong verbage so maybe least complicated is best but I think the GM E Assist is the way to do this. That does away with the Alternator and in its place gets an Alt-Motor that powers the shaft pulley with 79 LB/ft of torque at 130v. Tinkers playing with motor say it’ll tolerate 400v but I don’t know what that means in torque value. The motor weighs 16 lb more than the alternator and the battery pack from a buick hybrid weighs 65 lbs so I think both are acceptable. So is 79ft/lb on demand something worth the trouble?
Bin there dun that. I know for sure that dropping an LS into an RX chassis is going to be alot more complex than fitting an electric assist to the existing drivelive. As for voltages we routinely accept 120/220AC in our every day lives. Of course it helps to have Electicity/Electronics as a background. The complicated part of this conversion is controlling the power to the load.
Bin there dun that. I know for sure that dropping an LS into an RX chassis is going to be alot more complex than fitting an electric assist to the existing drivelive. As for voltages we routinely accept 120/220AC in our every day lives. Of course it helps to have Electicity/Electronics as a background. The complicated part of this conversion is controlling the power to the load.
The thing is that V8 swaps have got to the point that we have turnkey solutions. Hybrid is a very unexplored field, and not a lot of businesses have any incentives to explore that field because people who mod generally care about power, not efficiency. Alternatively, bolting a snail on is a lot easier to do than a hybrid system, and while the low-end torque benefit is limited, the high-end power potential more than makes up for it.
Yes, we deal with high voltage regularly in our lives... with well-regulated and safe designs. When you are trying to hack one into a car, that's a bit different.
Anyone can make a hybrid, but it's hard to make a good hybrid. You have to make the system work well with a manual transmission, figure out where to mount the battery pack without impacting handling or interior space, and figure out regen to make the best use of the system.
Would be cool to see one for fun, but again, it probably will stay as a one-off thing as I can't see a business case for it.
I think it could be a very cool exercise to do a hybrid on the car along the lines of how F1 cars do hybrid. Because the car is a manual the electric assist should be driver controlled too. Something along the line of a push to pass button and the same for harvesting energy for the battery. Right now my thoughts are leaning toward Supercaps as the primary power source with Li-on batteries behind those. I havent guessed at how much energy I want to store yet, but likely thats going to be a compromise between weight and power.
