twin motor z31

[BlueZ31]

im sure youve all read/seen/heard about hybrid electric/gas vehicles over the past years (such as the prius) and i remember seeing that the vehicle uses both motors under heavy acceleration which gave me an idea:wc:..

 

Lets first forget the problems of weight and providing electricity for the sake of debating this subject. My concept is a hybrid car electric motor attached directly to the crank pulley thats activated either by a wide-open throttle switch or rocker switch in the vehicle upon hard acceleration only

 

I found one suitable motor thats about 90-120lbs (give or take) and provides 35hp and whopping 258lbft of torque constanly up to 8,000 rpms (its a motor intended for vw beetle based kit-cars) operates off of a battery pack (relatively small too) could the two motors be used in unison effectively? i know the weight of the motor and packs would probably negate the added performance but the battery pack could be reduced in size since its not the main motor and possibly only be used for short bursts, Also, would it have any dire effects on the vg30(e) from prolonged use (or use at all?)

 

I know this is probably a strange (or stupid) idea but it just crossed my mind and i wanted to see what you guys think too. Oh, and the motor comes with the necessary controller and hardware/instructions(for vw use), i took electronics in school (only 2 semesters awhile ago but enough to give me a good grip on the concept) and this seems like something i could accomplish with a push in the right direction.

 

also keep in mind that electric motors are rated on a much different scale than gasoline or diesel motors which are rated at peak hp whereas the electric ones are rated at its constant operating voltage hp (they can provide up to 8 times their rating for short durations at the expense of battery longevity and motor wear). As i mentioned im no expert in either the field of electronics or Z cars, im just waiting for the Z guru's to wei gh in and share their opinions.

[BlueZ31]

just an update, apparently this is actually quite common in some hybrids, its called IMA or "intergrated motor assist" and honda's insight uses a 14hp pancake motor sandwiched inbetween the 3-cyl gas motor and transmission to act as what honda describes "electric supercharger" pretty much literally because it kicks in under heavy load and increases tq across the entire band by as much as 66%, and since its connected directly to the crankshaft this leads me to believe it could be done to a vg30e, its just a matter of how and how much motor (more hp means more batteries and more weight) but the good thing is that the motor/generator type could be used to recharge its own batteries when not in use, and if a torqueless 3-cyl 1.3l motor can constantly turn a large electric motor with no harm to the engine itself im sure the stout vg30e could too..

[240Zed]

I've also thought about this.

 

First obstacle is to find a motor the right shape. Most are the wrong shape, being barrel shape motors, not pancake style.

 

If you could find an electric motor to sandwich between the petrol motor and the gearbox. You'd probably want some sort of fancy clutch arrangement so that you could drive on electricity alone, petrol alone, or both at the same time.

 

If the pancake motor had a hollow drive shaft tube that the petrol motors drive shaft went through, and some fancy clutch that worked as described above you'd be half way there.

 

When decelerating/braking you'd want the petrol engine clutch to disengage, and the electric motor clutch to engage automatically for regenerative braking.

 

You wouldn't want the gas motor to charge the batteries via the electric motor, otherwise there goes your fuel savings (If you're doing it for extra acceleration, just get a turbo and save yourself a world of pain).

 

I'd ditch the 6 and use a 4 cyl engine, like an SR20.

 

It all sounds very complicated, and complicated = expensive.

 

You'd also need about 10 or 12 batteries to run the electric motor.

 

I dont think its worth the effort.

 

I have a more practical idea. You get a car like an 86-88 Mazda 323 AWD (not sure what they were called in the USA). They are all wheel drive. Transverse mounted engine in the front, with driveshafts from the gearbox to drive the front wheels, and a prop shaft to the rear diff.

 

You pull the awd engine/gearbox out, and swap it with a Front wheel drive engine from the lesser model. This frees up the rear diff to be driven by an electric motor, which you can mount near the front of the car in the transmission tunnel. then you just need to find somewhere to put 12 or so batteries, and make some sort of custom controller to control how the engines will work together.

 

That gives you an electric car you can drive around on 100% electricity until you run out of power, then you can switch over to the gas motor to give you the extended range, and the ability to fuel up at a gas station.

[BlueZ31]

We did have the 323 you described above, it was called the 323 gtx and is extremely rare and a bit of a cult car, so good luck to me finding one...

 

Im not really interested in fuel economy, just additional power, and boost or nitrous is not on my mind due to the (possibly) damaging effects to the high mile engine. This was really just an idea, seeing as how its been done to some gas motors with decent success, and the additional power without increasing fuel consumption other than the extra load of the motor would be nice.

 

As for the batteries i considered just using enough for a few bursts maybe 5-10 minutes max to uncomplicate things and reduce weight, and theres enough room in front of the engine that a barrel-shaped motor could be connected up front and it would be down low enough to not affect handling too much.

 

If it could be done i think it would be worth a shot, seeing as how mounting the motor to the crank pulley, wiring it and powering it would be alot easier than a turbo swap that involves different motor mounts, exhaust manifolds, injectors,ecu,(the list goes on...) and would be easily removable, especially compared to turbocharging or even nitrous.

[HowlerMonkey]

Why not just throw a rear motor from a Lexus RX400h into the rear of a small front drive car.

[Zmanco]

I found one suitable motor thats about 90-120lbs (give or take) and provides 35hp and whopping 258lbft of torque constanly up to 8,000 rpms

Something isn't right here: HP = (Torque x RPM)/5250.

 

253 lbft at 8000 rpm equals 393 HP.