Hey man, if you are interested at all, I have a tubular front subframe from Diamond Race Cars I am going to post for sale soon, it's pretty much brand new. Currently installed in my car, but the car has never seen the road. It's powder coated black. Let me know!

 

much cleaner


Everything cleaned up and a fresh coat of paint applied to sway bar and sub-frame.
Polyurethane steering rack and sway bar bushings installed along with white line tie-rod ends and a new rear mount.
All bolts torqued to spec.

 

cables & terminations for motor & contactor


Refocusing my efforts on the motor bay. It should really start to look like something soon. 4/0 cables for motor-controller and 2/0 cables for controller-contactor-traction pack. The cables contain a soft copper conductor and are double wrapped with irradiated cross-linked elastomer insulation and a jacket to provide shielding for reduced noise. They are international safety orange, indicating high voltage. These cables are specifically designed for vehicle use. UL rates them to 1000v, although I'll only subject them to a measly 400v at most.

 

Just read through this thread. When I saw that you were removing the fuel tank, I just assumed you were going to do a nice fuel cell. Lol. Congrats on the progress thus far. Can't wait to see how she turns out.

 

more things


Calipers from detective coating showed up, these are completely rebuilt. New brackets, pins, pads, and braided lines accompanying them. They are very nice to behold.





Cool shot of the EXRAD jacket on the 2/0 wire. I fumbled one of the motor cables, otherwise I'd be posting a picture of the motor all wired up

 

Things
under the hood are starting to take shape.

 

Motor side
shot of the cabling and revised controller/contactor/fuse box mount. Mount is now bolted to cross-member via vertical support.

 

Looks like an Evo
from the outside.

 

cant wait to hear it , I mean see it running.. "a ture green evo "

 

Are you planning on adding more batteries? There is a company that sells them for a hefty price. I'm wondering how it would be wired up or if the software gets updated. I just bought a leaf and considering adding another pack...

http://cleantechnica.com/2016/01/19/...ing-to-48-kwh/

 

Eventually I will add more modules, but I doubt I'll use more than 48. One of my design principles is keeping vehicle weight low. Individually, the LEAF modules are light; they weigh 8.3775 lbs. However, an entire battery of 48 modules is +400 lbs. I do not foresee adding a 2nd bank in parallel for extra range, this build is not a highway cruiser.

I'm ignorant on the specifics of a LEAF BMS. However, I believe adding a 2nd bank of modules to your battery would require a 2nd BMS to handle the extra cells. I've observed that the used market price-per-module is $100 +/- $20. Hybridautocenter.com sells 11kW/h packs with bus bars and plastics for $2900.

 

Progress
is admittedly slower than expected.



Here is my list from 7 weeks ago, I've been able to check off a few boxes more.
I expect the remaining 3 tasks will require around 10-15 hours.

 

What kind of range are you expecting to get? in-theory max?

 

No idea. There are too many variables to make any guess worth a damn.
Most authorities can't even agree on the range of the Nissan LEAF.

Range Ratings for 2012 Nissan LEAF (24kWh Li-ion Pack)
Nissan: 100 miles
EPA : 73 miles
FTC: 96-110 miles
NEDC Automaker test: 109 miles
Personal Reports I've been privy to: 80-85miles

Some of the most noteworthy differences:
A Nissan LEAF is: A/C powered, has brake regen, single gear, FWD, and is 3350 lbs.
My Single motor EVO is: D/C powered, has no regen, 5 speed, AWD, and 2850 lbs (est).

To further complicate calculations, I'm not using a complete (24kWh) Nissan LEAF Li-ion pack. Initially, I will only use half (12kWh), but I intend to install another 6kWh of cells later this summer or early fall. A/C motors are more efficient than D/C motors, but A/C controller/inverters are less efficient than D/C motor controllers, plus I'll have 4 extra gears, so it almost balances out (for sake of simple math).

-The Evo will have 75% the stored energy of a Nissan LEAF.
-The Evo weighs (on paper) 15% less than the LEAF.

For pure highway driving, I would expect the Evo to have a lower range per kWh ratio than a LEAF. However, this build will not see much highway use. So, for the intended driving conditions and an 18kWh pack, 45 miles? 50? 60? I'd be shocked (heh) to see much more than 60 with only 18kWh.

 

Ha, let's be honest here. Once you realize it's reliable enough to drive around. You're gonna burn that battery in about 5 miles doing hard pulls while grinning from ear to ear.