Westfalia T3 with Chevy Bolt drivetrain

72213 Views 174 Replies 26 Participants Last post by remy_martian, Jan 7, 2022

Yabert

Discussion Starter · Oct 12, 2018 (Edited)

2

VW Vanagon T3 with Chevy Bolt drivetrain

Hi

I'm asking myself if DiyEcar is still the best place to put a build thread and to obtain help.
It was the case many years ago when the overvolted forklift motor was the rule, but now?

Well, my plan is to put a 200 hp 60 kWh Bolt drivetrain in a Westfalia... Exciting right?
Yes, but all the electronic and control in the Bolt fear me a bit.
Anyway, I will have the crached Bolt in few days and the West in few weeks.

Let me know if you have advice or help.
Thanks

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41 - 60 of 175 Posts

CanadaLT28

· #41 · Dec 2, 2018

brian_ said:
If I recall correctly, cold drawn seamless mechanical tubing would be more likely to be true than drawn over mandrel... and it is actually seamless. This presumably won't be inexpensive, but you don't need much.

If you are talking about cold rolled tubing used for heating and gas piping, I use it every day and would trust DOM more, even if the tubing was sched 80. I don't think the wall thicknesses work for the shaft diameter anyway (assuming the Bolt is similar to the T4 or Leaf shafts)

Yabert

Discussion Starter · #42 · Dec 4, 2018

piotrsko said:
On your collar: if you drill at least two holes through coupling and weld down to the inner tube the joint becomes as strong as the inner tube. Required procedure on aircraft tube structures

Do you have some visual support or link to show me exactly what you are talking about.
A quick internet search don't allow me to fully understand.
thanks

piotrsko

· #43 · Dec 5, 2018 (Edited)

http://www.flight-mechanic.com/repair-of-steel-tubing-aircraft-structure-by-welding

I have a stupid browser. Hope this works

Yabert

Discussion Starter · #44 · Dec 5, 2018

3

Ok, it's what I had in mind. They seem to call this Rosette Welding.
But it appear that I have bad experimentation with this type of weld when they are used for torque transmission in a shaft.
On the aircraft structure this kind of weld is used in tension / compression in addition to others welds between tubes. It's not the same case on a driveshaft.

As you can see below, the first shaft on my Smart was rework using rosette type welding and it fail after few thousand kilometers.
After I reworked the shaft with a complete weld around the tubes and it's what move my Smart today after many thousand of kilometers (3e pic).

Each assembly was press fit tubes and only the weld type was different. Of course, the coupling inside or outside the tubes have played an important role too in this case.

Duncan said:
Couple of other points
Pressing the two together is not as "safe" a process as doing a heat shrink - I would be looking at pressing them together with the outer tube as hot as you can get it

Thanks for the tip. I understand the fact and I plan to heat the coupling to obtain a slide fit when heated and an interference fit when shaft and the coupling are at the same temperature.

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brian_

· #45 · Dec 5, 2018

Yabert said:
As you can see below, the first shaft on my Smart was rework using rosette type welding and it fail after few thousand kilometers.
After I reworked the shaft with a complete weld around the tubes and it's what move my Smart today after many thousand of kilometers (3e pic).

Is it the same tubing? The rosette-welded tube appears to have been very brittle and cracked through the holes for the rosette welds. I suppose avoiding the rosette weld holes avoids that problem, but I'm sure either the material or the heat treatment is wrong if this failure occurs.

Welding in a ring around a shaft or tube can be a problem, leading to the shaft shearing off at the weld; this is one reason that tubing is fishmouthed or diagonally cut in the article linked above.

boekel

· #46 · Dec 5, 2018

There might be some nice information / pictures in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gDILvW5yMg

Yabert

Discussion Starter · #47 · Dec 6, 2018

Haha! Nice coincidence.
I'm exactly at this step to fix the charger/inverter/junction box/dc-dc over the motor and reconnect the cables.
Thanks

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Yabert

Discussion Starter · #48 · Dec 7, 2018

2

It's a bit the mess in the room at the moment. It's mainly caused by the huge wiring harness.
I have to find a large and tall support to fix it to the wall.
I have to use it almost completely to maintain all the desired fonction of the Bolt in the West.

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boekel

· #49 · Dec 17, 2018

new video!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APhRPSdmdmk

Yabert

Discussion Starter · #50 · Jan 5, 2019

2

Small update
The stack comprised of the motor, controller, charger, dc-dc is now in place.
I have to reconnect few wires minus the seats and the airbags and find a stable place for the airbag module.
This one could take action if it think that the car crach (module drop to the ground) or if it think that the car is in an important angle.

Also, I have dismantle the cardan shafts.
After have cut it, I will to be able to do the press fit with the other half Vanagon cardan shaft.

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Jpl

· #51 · Jan 8, 2019

Do you sell the remaining Volt parts ?

Moltenmetal

· #52 · Jan 9, 2019

Hi Yabert: you're amazing- just so that you know that if you didn't already!

Consider me "subscribed".

What are you planning to do for insurance? My understanding is that Quebec is just about as bad as Ontario for insuring converted cars- and here, if I were to re-build my E-Fire, my only option is the Facility Association- $4,100 per year, which is too much for me to consider right now even though I'd only pay it 6 months of the year.

Best of luck with the project- personally I would find it too frustrating to deal with all that software. You're Doctor Frankenstein, trying to make a brain happy in a new body!

CanadaLT28

· #53 · Jan 10, 2019

Moltenmetal said:
What are you planning to do for insurance? My understanding is that Quebec is just about as bad as Ontario for insuring converted cars- and here, if I were to re-build my E-Fire, my only option is the Facility Association- $4,100 per year, which is too much for me to consider right now even though I'd only pay it 6 months of the year.

Best of luck with the project- personally I would find it too frustrating to deal with all that software. You're Doctor Frankenstein, trying to make a brain happy in a new body!

What was your insurance cost before the accident?

Moltenmetal

· #54 · Jan 10, 2019

$1100/yr which I paid 6 months of the year. About the same as I pay for my principal driving vehicle, except that principal driver coverage includes both comprehensive (fire/theft etc.) plus collision whereas my previous insurance was just for liability.

That policy was offered to me by accident and then enforced by their ombudsman as a result of their error. Of course that's only a 1 time thing.

CanadaLT28

· #55 · Jan 10, 2019

Moltenmetal said:
$1100/yr which I paid 6 months of the year. About the same as I pay for my principal driving vehicle, except that principal driver coverage includes both comprehensive (fire/theft etc.) plus collision whereas my previous insurance was just for liability.

That policy was offered to me by accident and then enforced by their ombudsman as a result of their error. Of course that's only a 1 time thing.

Hmmmm, makes me wonder whether I should even tell the insurance company. None of the safety stuff is compromised so I don't know why they should be so strict. Facility is usually for those with a lot of accidents or the very young.

brian_

· #56 · Jan 11, 2019

CanadaLT28 said:
Hmmmm, makes me wonder whether I should even tell the insurance company. None of the safety stuff is compromised so I don't know why they should be so strict.

It's one thing to avoid providing unnecessary information, but another thing entirely to falsely answer questions such as "is the vehicle modified". It would be bad if you got insurance, but later found that the coverage was not valid when you needed it.

It doesn't matter whether or not a technically competent person considers the vehicle's safety to be uncompromised; if you don't follow the terms of the insurance service, you risk not having insurance.

jonescg

· #57 · Jan 11, 2019

Yabert said:
Finally, I rebuild the Bolt battery inside.
With all the modules and cooling plate in hand it seem I could probably rework the fifth module and move it by 90° in the middle of the pack (pic-1-2).
This rework can allow me to don't cut some part of the Westfalia Frame.
Anyway, I have to choose between cut the Westfalia frame and don't touch the battery or cut the battery cover and build new support for the fifth module. Of course this second option imply re-routing of the coolant circuit and some wires and busbars.

I still have to remove some wire harness and module inside the Bolt and I will have everything I need to run the motor inside.

Hey Yabert,
I was wondering if you have some insight into the way the battery is cooled - I know from John Kelly's videos that there's a thermal pad between the cold plate and the battery modules, but I was wondering if the modules consisted of inter-leaved aluminium plates between each cell or group of cells. I find battery thermal management quite the challenge, so it's good to see how the market leaders are working it.
Cheers,
Chris

Yabert

Discussion Starter · #58 · Jan 17, 2019

jonescg said:
I was wondering if the modules consisted of inter-leaved aluminium plates between each cell or group of cells. I find battery thermal management quite the challenge...

My understanding is that each 3 cells group is stack between two aluminum plates. Those ones are in contact with the cooling plate in the bottom.
So over 6 cells face, there is only two cells faces in contact with aluminum.
IMHO the Bolt battery cooling method is not ''high performance''. It's there to slowly regulate the temperature, but not to allow high discharge or charge rate.

Not the same thing with the chevy Volt cells. As you probably know each cell have at least one face in contact with a cooling plate.

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joekitch

· #59 · Jan 17, 2019

Bolt heart and brain inside a classic body?
if this works this could be pretty big, and translate to a lot of other cars

Yabert

Discussion Starter · #60 · Jan 25, 2019

joekitch said:
Bolt heart and brain inside a classic body?
if this works this could be pretty big...

This will work and it's pretty big

Everybody who consider a conversion today should consider grab the parts on an OEM electric car.

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