More Heater Work

It's been a while coming as I have been doing some work on the battery packs and restoring the heater blower (at least a new paint job) and other seemingly trivial stuff but here is the ceramic heater core "glued" into the Vogue heater box.
I had to get a big cartridge of the red high temperature RTV silicon and it's a pain. It doesn't come with a replacable tip (unlike cheap silicons and gap filler cartridges). I can't leave it for more than a week before the nozzle blocks up and I want to use it for other stuff (grizzle, grizzle).
You can see a new hole on the left side of the box that now takes a cable gland. That's where the 600 VDC power cable will enter the box. I have also added a terminal block and re-terminated the blower low-fan speed resistor - it was pretty rough the way Lord Rootes had his guys do it 43 years ago. They just tied a knot in the wires and crimped them to the resistor wires. You can see the power resistor peeking out in the foreground on the right.

The red arrows point to one side and the green arrows the other side of the 600VDC connections. The blue arrow lets me test it with 240VAC. To test it I join the red and green indication connections  together and apply power between the red/green and blue indicated connections.

I put some temporary wiring in and placed the top on the box, strapped the blower to the side and it works beautifully. Lots of airflow which I was a bit concerned about. It draw 7 Amps from 240 VAC which is about 1700W. It puts out at least as much heat as the fan heater that supplied the parts.
There was a slight puff of smoke when I first applied power (before putting the lid on) but it was just some thin silicon burning off the actual ceramic section of an element. Ceramic elements are strange things. If I apply 240 VAC across the sides (red to green) as I will do for 600VDC, it only draw 0.5 Amps - about 120 Watts. The elements appear to be quite non-linear with voltage. It will be interesting to see how it copes with the 600 Volt PWM (Pulse Width Modulated) power.
(Pulse Width Modulation is basically like a switch turning on and off repetitively at a really fast rate. If you have it off for the same amount of time you have it on, then you get half the effective voltage. If you  have it on for more time than it is off, then you get more voltage. It's kind of how light dimmers work.)

Heater Modifications

I have been doing a fair bit of work on the house so I have had to keep any car related jobs small for the moment.
Once I had pulled the heater out of the Vogue I discovered that the heater core I was planning to use was not going to fit. The Vogue heater is 230mm wide and 83mm deep. The extra depth I thought I had, is taken up with a duct that runs up the back for the window demister.
Here is the original water heated core in the heater box.

The ceramic heater core out of the Heller heater is 91mm at it's narrowest dimension so it doesn't fit. I played around with trying it on different angles but nothing really worked very well.
This is the ceramic heater core as it started life.

Enter my trusty hacksaw, then a tube of high temperature RTV silicon (red high temperature gasket maker from SuperCheap auto, rated to 315 degrees C). Now it's about 215mm wide and 45mm deep (I'm calling it deep because that kind of how it fits in the heater box). The aluminium section is 200mm wide - the lugs add an extra 7mm either side. This new shape lends itself better to the airflow through the heater box as well. I removed all the spade terminal lugs and remounted them 90 degrees to give better clearance to the sides of the heater box. I had to use the old ones as they were stainless steel and since they were mounting on aluminium, I figured that I shouldn't use copper lugs. The center (top to bottom) sections of aluminium are joined (left to right) under the silicon mess in the middle to minimize wiring.

Next I made up a little timber frame 228mm x 83mm (internal). An old number plate surround (strange the things you keep) provided a perfect profile for mounting the core once it's finished. I cut the surround to make 2 of 225mm aluminium strips.
Here, the core is ready to complete "potting". I will use a tube of clear RTV silicon I already have to finish it. The clear stuff is only rated to 230 degrees C but that should be fine. (Hmm, the tube I "had" is as solid as a rock. Seems it doesn't last 10 odd years - even unopened.) That will have to be the subject of another post.

 

I have the Battery Packs

This is a bit retrospective as I have had the packs for about a week now. They are the same as the one shown earlier in this blog except that they are black AND they are 48V, not 60V. I will be using 12 of 48V20AH packs making a 576V total.
I immediately pulled the lid off one.
Sorry about the poor phone quality photo - I'll update when I take my camera to work. That's where I'm storing them for now because it's pretty much always below 22 degrees C. The charger for one pack is next to it.
I have to modify the way the pack cells connect to the terminals on the pack. I won't document it here as I am already running a thread on it on the AEVA forums here. It's on the technical side so don't bother looking unless you want the gory details as it also involves changes to the BMS (Battery Management System) electronics boards. (Edit: 16 Dec 2013 Fixed link to AEVA post)

Motor Terminal Box Height Adjustment

I have a problem that the terminal box on the motor is too high, preventing me from placing the motor just where I want it (See Motor Positioning a few posts ago). I bought a diecast box from eBay but it really doesn't fit well - I would have to modify it.
Someone suggested that I cut down the terminal box I have by clamping my angle grinder. Off to Bunnings (large hardware store) for an aluminium cut-off wheel. The orange plastic let me slide the terminal box easily.

The bucket in the background is because the terminal box got VERY hot. I had to dunk it in water after each side. I left the corners slightly intact until the sides were cut through. I made a huge mess - aluminium shards and dust everywhere. (I cleaned it up before taking this photo - sorry!)

 

  

The lid will be too large now so I will get some 2-3mm aluminium sheet and make a new one.

 

 

 

 I will have to fill the old cable entry gland holes with epoxy and drill & tap new holes for the cover (and make a cover) but at least the really messy part is done.

Battery Update

They hadn't arrived - my mistake - it sure sounded like they were sitting on the dock. They arrive Monday the 1st of Feb.
They will be moved to the Customs broker's warehouse and after AQIS inspection, I can pick them up from there. I am informed that there is no duty on these batteries - hooray!!

Heater Control

I plan on making an electronic control box so that I can alter the heat coming out of the ceramic heater element. I may be suffering under a delusion that I can get too much heat but it is almost as easy to make it variable as it is to have just on and off.
Here is the original cable-operated control. The cable goes to the hot-water tap under the bonnet - which no longer exists. The other (lower) cable is the vent control and the choke cable is on the left of the photo.
I'm kind of looking forward to losing three out of the four cables that connect to the dashboard. The speedo, choke and heater tap cables are gone. Pulling the dash out is going to be dead easy in this car.

Here is my new control. The linkage now goes to a potentiometer with about 120 degrees of rotation. The pot gives me 0 to 8K Ohms variable resistance which will be the input to the heater variable control box (PWM control). The pot is mounted on a piece of aluminium which is held using the old cable outer sheath securing bolt.

For the technically minded, the little pieces of linkage metal are from the strain relief of a DB25 connector I had lying around at work. One vice and a pair of pliers...
I will seal up the gaps in the pot before installing it to ensure that dust doesn't cause problems.

Motor positioning

I have been messing around for a week now with the motor mounting within the Vogue body.
I always knew that the terminal box on the motor was going to give me grief but I was hoping that I was being pessimistic - I wasn't.
Here is a near final drawing of how I intend to mount the motor and 2 of the battery packs. The front of the car is to the right.

Now here is the problem.
I have overlayed a line diagram of the Vogue chassis with the body to help with visualisation.

The terminal box on the motor is around 80mm high. On this drawing I have dramatically reduced it's height - maybe about 20mm. You can see it will still hit the transmission tunnel roof. I can move the motor further into the engine bay but that is a comprimise that I would like to defer if nothing else can be done.

My current investigation involves removing the end caps and rotor from the motor and reversing the whole lot. That will place the terminal box on the other end of the main body of the motor. Curiously, that's how the motor looked in the original diagrams sent to me before the motor was made.
This image tells it all.

I have emailed the motor manufacturer basically asking if it is within my capability to do this and whether the end caps are "reversible".

My Batteries are in Australia

I was notified by Global Logistics Melbourne P/L yesterday that the battery packs have arrived in Melbourne.
I had to scurry around finding a customs broker.
I really should have done that before the packs left China.
The other issue is that the packs were shipped in a wooden crate without the correct procedure for fumigation so that has to be done here.
You live and learn. I should have known as this was an issue with the motor crate as well.
With any luck I may have them within the next few days.

Steering Box Pitman Arm is FREE!

This may not seem a big deal but it has taken me a couple of days to get the dang thing off! I bought a "Pitman Arm Puller" off eBay (seller was very near my work) and removed it last night.
A Pitman Arm Puller (the steering arm is called a Pitman Arm).


Even with the arm puller on very tight (my socket spanner arm was flexing with the strain), I still had to give it a couple of taps with a hammer to get it to release. Now I can remove the steering box.

Cardboard Motor and Removing Steering Box

We made up a cardboard motor with the same basic dimensions as the real one. That way it's easy to play around with mounting positions.


The first thing I found is that I can't have it as far back in the transmission tunnel as I'd hoped. It fits OK but the rear cross-member gets in the way. I need about 50mm clearance from the motor to the cross-member.


I have wasted an enormous amount of time trying to remove the steering box. The reason that I want to remove it is that the lower seal leaks and it will make it a lot easier to clean around it if it isn't there. I am unable to get the steering arm off the tapered spline on the steering box. I may give up and leave it to a professional once the car is on the road.

Last of the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) Parts Out

The Exhaust system and fuel lines are out.


The Fuel tank, heater box and accelerator linkages and accelerator poodle, sorry pedal.
The accelerator pedal will be replaced by a "fly by wire" pedal from a VW polo so I do not need the complicated linkage arrangement.
The heater box will have the radiator type core removed and the ceramic heater element fitted.

Exhaust System and Fuel lines out

I figured the exhaust wasn't going to come out easily so I just did it the destructive way. Out with my trusty angle grinder which I haven't used much since getting it to cut ceramic tiles. Down to Bunnings for a couple of metal cutting off disks and away we go. Very quick but the sparks actually hurt. I know, I should have had long sleeves but it was hot weather.

You can see in this shot that the drivers side (left) has more built up grime due to the crankcase breather being on that side of the car. (I have scraped that side a fair bit.) Two years after the Vogue was built, Rootes changed so that their cars fed the breather back into the intake (into the carburetor) - not so the Vogue - straight to atmosphere.

Removing the Petrol Engine and Auto Gearbox

Holiday time! I have taken a couple of weeks off the try to get ahead with the Vogue.
The pictures tell it all. We (11 year old son and I) decided to split the engine and gearbox and remove them separately. Reason being not enough headroom in the garage.

This is the "before" picture.


I removed the bonnet then the generator, starter motor, radiator and water pump first.
Then, with all bits unbolted and the engine released from the transmission (gearbox).... That was a saga in itself. Apparently I did it incorrectly as I left the torque converter on the engine. This makes it difficult to get back in. Oh well, that's not my problem now!


Easy as she goes. Had to rotate about 20 degrees to clear the harmonic balancer on the front of the crankshaft.


Next the gearbox. I supported it at the back with my trolley jack and just let it roll forward. It leaked lots of fluid when we lifted it even though I had drained it.


Empty (almost) engine bay. You can just see one of the two horns on the right. I will relocate them to the front just behind the side grills. Since taking this picture the auto-selector stuff has been removed from around the steering box (near the brake master cylinder at the back left).
Grotty isn't it. The underside has 44 years of mud/grease/oil gunk.


One Borg Warner 35 automatic transmission for sale. I must remember to grab those rear mounts and measure some dimensions.


Dejected engine sits in corner. The torque converter on the right hand side (low down, brown thing) was only replaced about 8000km ago.


The radiator and water pump already have a new home waiting for them in Adelaide (South Australia). They hopefully should go this week. The Radiator was re-cored not too long ago and Tim in SA has overheating problems.

Batteries Ordered

Well I really am going to use the expensive Lithium battery option I talked about.
The day before yesterday I sent my order to Headway for:

• 12 of 48V20AH battery packs (each pack has 32 cells).
• 12 of Battery Management System (BMS) for above packs.
• 12 of 48V 3 Amp chargers.
• 5 spare 38120S cells (the blue ones a few posts below).

A few bank hiccups but I have partially paid for them and will complete payment today.
They are coming by sea so it may take a while.
The packs I ordered are similar in appearance to the one shown below (white ABS case).

Now I have an Engine Hoist

The time has come to disconnect all things petrol and pull the engine and transmission out.
I had been offered the loan of an Engine Hoist by a kind AEVA member but I have no easy way of transporting it.

Since I will no doubt need it for a while to "adjust" the way the electric motor fits - I figured I would buy one and sell it again when I was sure I had finished with it (hmmm).

Thanks eBay. I also purchased and Engine leveller which allows you to easily tilt the thing you are lifting.
I should have it by the weekend.

I have some house renovation work preparing the family room ceiling (prior to painting) then and I might get time to do some significant work on the Vogue.

Oh, I also dropped my old dashpad up to the restoration place in Brisbane during the holidays. He needed the old one to make sure that he knew how it would fit back into the car.

Maybe Going for Lithium (LiFePO4) Batteries

The battery decision has been an extremely difficult one.
While SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) is the most inexpensive option, about AU$2000 to $2500, all the research tends to indicate that they will only last between 400 and 600 cycles (discharge, recharge cycles). Charging once per day, that's 16 to 24 months. In addition the "pack" will weigh around 320kg. Not only does that put the car over original weight - a problem for road approval, but it will have lower performance.

170kg in a 1000 kg car is important. Why 170kg - because that's how much less a Lithium Iron Phoshate battery pack would weigh. The LiFePO4 pack would also have almost twice the range as it does not suffer nearly as much from "peukert effect" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peukert's_law. Finally, Lithium should last 2000 to 3000 cycles, that's around 6 to 10 years with my expected driving distances. A LOT more expensive though!


My Lithium batteries of choice are 10 of these 60V 20AH packs from Headway in China. (The blue cylinders are what is in the big white box - 40 of them. I earlier had this at 20 - there are actually 40 cells per box.)

Weighing 15kg each, using these bring the theoretical weight of the car in under it's original weight by about 40kg.

The house mortgage is down since we sold our caravan (temporary situation), so finance is possible...

Dashpad Woes

The dashpad (padded bit on top of the dashboard) has occupied a fair bit of my planning time and looks like it is going to be expensive ($550).
We mucked around a bit with some padded vinyl and finally came to the conclusion that it would look OK but would be a pain to get it to extend out as far as the old dashpad - necessary to prevent sunlight from obscuring the LCD backlit displays. I found some 'D' shaped rubber foam molding from Clark Rubber and got a sample to see how it would go extending the bulkhead under the vinyl forward (about 20cm). I reckon it is "doable", but my better half thinks I have enough to do. So Dashboard Restorations (highly recommended from the Hillman yahoo group) get the job of fixing the old one. It seems they have a Singer Vogue mold...

This is what we have to cover.

Winding Window Refurbishing

A few delays going on at the moment. One of them is the search for a "Bailey Channel" that matches the original fitted to the Vogue. Bailey Channel is the name given to the felt lined slotted stuff in which your winding windows slide up and down.

We have given up on an exact match and a long search may have ended up finding one that is made (a replica) for the EH Holden.
This is what we were looking for.

Respray Finished

The Vogue is back home.
It arrived home on the 40th anniversary of humankind landing on the moon (20th July 1969).

No trim, no rubber, no glass, no interior, no lights.
Now to order all the rubbers.

After 7 weeks away and not being started, it burst to life on the first turn of the Engine. I'm going to miss that exhaust note...

The colour is hard to photograph. It changes depending on what angle you look at it. It's a light to medium metallic blue. I LOVE it!

Basic Electrical Diagram and Layout

I notice that I haven't described anywhere how the electrical system in the car works.
Here is a basic diagram.
Essentially a bank of batteries supplies 600 Volts DC to the controller, that "chops" the DC up to look enough like 3 Phase AC (the type of AC used in factories) to run the 3 Phase AC Induction Motor.

The controller "*speed" signal comes from an accelerator pedal exactly the same as used on "fly by wire" cars like the Holden Astra, Audi, VW Golf etc. (*Actually the pedal controls torque.)

This diagram shows Lithium Iron Nano-phosphate battery packs. There are 12 packs of 53Volts (shown in diagram as 48V) with 20AH capacity - that makes around a 12kW/h pack.

The motor is coupled directly to the tail-shaft. There is no clutch or gearbox.

Here is the proposed layout of these components in the car.
This will most likely change a bit once I have the existing Engine and gearbox out and can better measure where stuff can go. (Updated to show Lithium Batteries.)

Later addition: A note on the battery pack size. 12kW/h is a small pack for an EV but will be more than adequate for the range I want and resulted in the car weighing about the same as the petrol version - a plus for engineering approval. Another plus is of course the price.

Top Coat Going On

Not a great photo but it shows that the roof is pretty much done.

Why just the roof? Well we changed our minds - now it's going to be a two-tone.

Lower colour goes on next week...

Nearly ready for Top Coat

I visited Brett (spray painter) today and discussed the colour for the Vogue. Most likely we will stay with the original "Moonstone" but we are just checking out possibilities.
I took a quick photo while I was there. It's all in primer now.

The Vogue is almost ready for Primer

Brett (Old Auto Classics Restoration) sent me some photos for the blog.
They are just about ready to prime the main part of the body.
He mentioned that on removing a lot of the paint they discovered a few "secrets".

My Motor Awaits Shipping

QIN WEI Sent me some photos of my motor, ready and waiting to ship.

The terminal box is a lot further forward of where the drawing said it would be so I'll have to see if I can replace it with a low profile ABS or aluminium box when I get it.

The idea is to try and mount the motor as far back in the transmission tunnel as possible. It's 258mm diameter so it might fit - I won't know until I get the engine and gearbox out of the Vogue. The terminal box will be an issue though.

Door Trim Material

I've decided not to use the plastic sheeting. I looked at 3mm MDF on the weekend and it looks like it would be soooo much better. I'll just have to exclude that from my weight shedding plans.
I won't get it until we have the fabric. Plans are to get some fabric samples in in the next 2 weeks and go looking (if we have to) during the June school holidays.

I did visit Jacka Wortley (upholstery) and the lady there was really helpful - basically saying she would go for fabric sold expressly for automotive uses.

(2014 addition. We bought all the fabric, underlay and extra vinyl from Vyfab in Moorabbin, Victoria. The blue and silver seat fabric is leftover from Holden production runs.)


This is the worst of the door liners.

I took photos of all the door liners before I pulled the clips off when I noticed they have a specific clip orientation for a given liner.











One of the door liners will need the woodwork re-veneered (not this one). I have yet to find out where to get Walnut Berl veneer in a long enough strip.