# Ripperton Barina 5 speed



## bradleyk (Apr 3, 2013)

subbed, looking forward to seeing it come to life


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## arklan (Dec 10, 2012)

looks like evmetros car


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## PStechPaul (May 1, 2012)

Those cylinders seem awfully close together. Probably used the same engine block and kept boring it larger to get more power without too much concern for reliability and longevity. Also could have been some corrosion on the edge of the cylinder under the gasket that weakened the metal and allowed the gasket to decompress, and the four-cycle becomes a vicious cycle that results in the damage shown. It seems to be present to some degree on all cylinders and probably continued to run with reduced performance for some time before it became undrivable. And that assessment may vary according to the driver's tolerance for lost performance, noise, smoke, and other clues. I wonder if and when the ECU detected this and gave a SEL warning?


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## poprock (Apr 29, 2010)

_looks like evmetros car _

Pretty Sure that model barina is a rebadged Suzuki in AU


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## tylerwatts (Feb 9, 2012)

It's a Vauxhall/Opel Corsa to the rest of the world. That model had the chassis and suspension tuned by Lotus during development so the simplicity does not compromise the handling potential. Vauxhall stuck budget shocks on it as it is a cheap model but an affordable set of coilovers turn it into a kart and it just needs a bit more power to be good fun. Most had small engines... But as an EV it will do well. Rip, you might get a second battery pack in place of the fuel tank, and even bring it up under the rear seat for more space. Or keep it light as they are pretty light as they are! Nice choice.


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## evmetro (Apr 9, 2012)

What year is it? It sure looks like a good platform for an efficient EV...


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

evmetro said:


> What year is it? It sure looks like a good platform for an efficient EV...


Its a 2005 model. On the short drive home I noticed the suspension was excellent and soaked up bumps with BMW aplomb.
The only thing I didn't like was the motor. Fly by wire throttles SUK as there is always a big delay on throttle up AND throttle down. Im sure they program that in for "safety" reasons.
This thing is a big car compared to the Mira and there is absolutely no shortage of space anywhere on the car. I could easy fit 200km worth of A123 pouches on board with 6kW 3 phase charger.
The rear pack is a no brainer, it just goes back in there where the tank and exhaust were, but the front pack may have to be reshaped.
Ive already made a 3D model of the flywheel and alternator pulley which will be made in aluminium.
The torsion springs in the clutch plate should come in handy.
I want to add a thrust bearing behind the taperlock flange so will source that before finalising the pully.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Heres some 3D stuff for ya.
The alternator / clutch is going in on a 5 rib multi Vee belt.


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## tylerwatts (Feb 9, 2012)

Looks smart Rip. Do you not get taper lock hubs with flanges integral already? Welding those always worries me.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

tylerwatts said:


> Looks smart Rip. Do you not get taper lock hubs with flanges integral already? Welding those always worries me.


I had a flanged one on the Mira and tried to find them but found out a friend of mine made it from scratch. Anyway the laser cut flywheel flange is in the works so Ive got plenty of other stuff to do like....hack the bell housing to bits !!! 

I figured I can put the front pack in front of the gearbox but I have to put the alternator up above the gearbox so I redesigned the entire motor mount system, made it in wood today. Got all but one bolt hole perfect and the drive shaft is spot on centred.
Removed the part of the gearbox bell housing where the starter motor used to be so the alternator has more room to swing down.
Also removed most of the front of the bell housing to make way for the battery.




Heres the bits.

The aircon compressor is going about here with a 1.6kW 12v DC motor.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Tha alternator is in the right place now but the front motor mount is wrong.
I have to replicate the original mount layout to suspend the motor gearbox at the right height. The original layout was 1 mount from the end of the engine (cam chain area) to the right side chassis rail and from the free end of the gearbox to the left side chassis rail, then there is an anti torque brace from the back of the gearbox (diff) to the firewall. The anti torque brace doesn't lift or support the motor / gearbox only stops it from turning under torque reaction so if I put a mount at the front of the gearbox it will drop down in the diff area. Back to the CAD screen.
Replacement ctlr has arrived from Kelly for the R1 so the Barina will be on hold for a while.
Ive made room for the rear pack by pushing the floor up in the rear seat area. Theres just seat foam on the other side of this sheet metal so it will accommodate the reduced space.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Waiting for the weather to cool down a bit so I can take the R1 for a test ride, found some time to work on the Barina.
Got the flywheel machined up all true and put the multi V pulley and thrust bearing on.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Switching to liquid cooling now, the best way to seal up the end frames was to make new ones.





Some chatter marks visible from a 6mm end mill that probably wasn't machined properly.



Almost ready to go together.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Its IN !!!
temporarily at least. bit more work to go before its ready.
The belt poking out is too long but its the right width so I can see what kind of clearances I have.



The new flywheel and clutch poke out through the bellhousing at the front so a guard will have to go on there.



I think I stuffed the positioning of the drainage hose tail in the drive end frame. Forgot that motor was going in diamond shaped.


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## Vanquizor (Nov 17, 2009)

If the motor was working reasonably well air cooled in your previous build why did you choose to go to what I assume will be an internally oil cooled setup? Definitely simpler to stay air cooled or just do an external cooling jacket if you need a bit more is it not?


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Vanquizor said:


> If the motor was working reasonably well air cooled in your previous build why did you choose to go to what I assume will be an internally oil cooled setup? Definitely simpler to stay air cooled or just do an external cooling jacket if you need a bit more is it not?


Definitely simpler and cheaper to keep the air cooling and the motor will be producing less heat with the gearbox because it will be under less load but I want the motor heat to be transferred to the inside of the car for heating.
I can get some nonconductive "water" cooling liquid too so I want to experiment with that.


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## jonescg (Nov 3, 2010)

RIPPERTON said:


> I can get some nonconductive "water" cooling liquid too so I want to experiment with that.


Is that still a glycol based coolant Dan? I'm interested to see how it goes. As long as it doesn't dissolve the varnish on the windings it should do a good job. Pure water should do a good job too, but it invariably dissolves enough stuff to conduct electricity. Will the rotor be exposed to the coolant as well?


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

jonescg said:


> Is that still a glycol based coolant Dan? I'm interested to see how it goes. As long as it doesn't dissolve the varnish on the windings it should do a good job. Pure water should do a good job too, but it invariably dissolves enough stuff to conduct electricity. Will the rotor be exposed to the coolant as well?


Brett Sutherland is getting it but I don't have any specs on it, don't even know what brand it is.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

This is the final fit of the motor and clutch with the new 790mm belt in and tensioned.
Theres some slop in the motor bolts so I will be able to move it around so the clutch plate spline doesn't make any noise or shudder if I have to slip the clutch. The belt comes quite close to the top motor mount frame.



The right side motor mount half way finished to show the nylon test piece.
This is the right shape so I will now make it in 20mm alloy and bolt it in.
The original motor mount has a degree of torsional resistance so I used this again by bolting it off to the motor using 2 bolts. If I had used only one it may have worked loose. I went around the street to find another 2005 Barina so I could look under it and see what height the gearbox sump ran at. Then designed the right side motor mount with the same sump height.


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## evmetro (Apr 9, 2012)

Lookin' good!


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Thanks Metro
Yet another Frankenstein brought to life at Ripperton Labs this morning, that's 2 in 1 week.
The slightly loose torsion springs in the clutch plate are making a bit of noise.
When I finished the right side motor mount I noticed how worn out the left side mount was so ordered one off Ebay. Will wait till that is in before welding the front mount.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlzZf_vvRac&index=1&list=UUoOd7A2JVRmeuaEfGbO7f_g


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

I was going to post these shots of the Barina throttle to see if you guys could help me hack it but as I was taking the photos I noticed some of the brushes were bent and couldn't get them straightened out so I went with the old Mira pot on a cable.


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## kennybobby (Aug 10, 2012)

It looks like a resistor network making up two pots in one package. If you only need one pot then you could just use the 3 pins of the good wiper pair (the shorter radius pair of wipers). The pot signal is the pin closest to the "4" on the board, the + supply pin is just below and next to it, the - return pin is at the bottom next to the "RU" marking.

The + and - supply pins can be reversed to adjust the wiper signal polarity/direction for your application.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Thanks Kenny
Running the throttle on 2 lipo cells 7.6v, I tried 3 different circuits but I don't think the Kelly would have liked any of them. 
This throttle is clearly for an ICE ECU. What I really wanted was to use both pairs of tracks for maximum voltage range. 
The double track circuit had the lowest throttle off voltage but only went up to 1.9v
In the end the large radius tracks produced the most range but still started off too high and the Kelly would have seen that as a throttle up signal and would have idled at maybe 2000 rpm.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Got the front battery pack in today and took it for a run around the block on 67v. Absolutely no power but made it back up the hill in 2nd.
Box shifts well but clutch grabs a bit low. I did a clutch slip take off just to see if the aluminium flywheel was machined straight and it was ok.
Now just have to jam the rear pack in under the rear seat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kml0KH40X4s


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## z_power (Dec 17, 2011)

I don't feel strong enough with electronic circuits but I think you could match your throttle to Kelly with op-amp circuit - here's quite good explanation: http://www.neatcircuits.com/l-shift.htm (by good I mean understandable at my level  )


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Cradle for rear pack. 8.5kg of angle iron.







http://s37.photobucket.com/user/ripperton_2008/media/Mira/REAR PACK 5_zpstywcqph5.jpg.html

Hand Brake cable had be extended and have its anchor moved.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Now running on 134v it didn't have much more power than 65v so I went looking for probs.
With the accelerator floored I reached down and pulled the short cable going to the throttle pot which turned it further around and it went faster so I repositioned the pot and re attached the cable further away from the pivot point. Also reconfigured the controller to have 100% throttle at 80% of pot value. Also doubled the phase cables as the single ones were getting hot. Goes ok but not as powerful as I expected. I drive it much the same as with ICE using all the gears.
I connected power to the alternator clutch to make the vac pump turn continuously and the brakes have perfect vacuum and feel powerful.
Even backing down the driveway using reverse gear (motor turning forward) fills the booster with vacuum.
Will now wire the clutch so it has 2 parallel switch circuits. 1 on the regen pedal to increase regen effect and the other on the brake pedal to supply and replenish vacuum whilst braking. Will fit a small tank also.
Various auto electricians have advised how to connect the alternator but still havnt got it working.
Next step is the BMS and see how the pack has handled almost a year of inactivity.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Bringing the rear pack back to life meant replacing 10 of the Headway cells as they wernt holding charge.
Getting the rear pack in and out is a chore so I wired the pack with some fast balancers.


Funnily the 2 cell blocks that were leaky and had cells replaced in them are now too high in voltage so I connect a set of halogens to them when I charge.



Getting more and more power from the motor as Im advancing the hall timing and improving throttle off regen too. The TOR is a pain and will have to be reset to zero as soon as I have the variable regen setup because it stalls the motor during a gearshift.
The whole drive is very sensitive to hall sensor position.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Going for a dedicated regen control but better than the last one in the Mira that used a pot. Going to mount a motorcycle clutch master cylinder on the floor in between the clutch and center console and use a 200psi pressure transducer so the pedal will have virtually no travel. Can mount the foot pad close to the floor.


Got a few old 8Ah LifeTech cells from a friend and doubled the size of the 12v battery. 13.6v 48Ah 0.65 kWh.


Funny just as I was charging this thing up the postman arrived with the power steering hack that I bought from Rally Wiz in the UK.
Fitted it in and perfect, completely silent, electric power steering.
http://www.rallywiz.com/Shop/power-...005-electric-power-steering-control-unit.html
Its no longer speed sensitive so it has a pot to make set and forget adjustments. Turn the pot all the way to the left and it turns off.
Turn to the right and it increases in assistance.


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## evmetro (Apr 9, 2012)

I am excited to see the dedicated regen control. There are not many EVs on the road that benefit from that level of efficiency. I am really enjoying this thread.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Sealed the new battery in a 6mm acetal and 1mm aluminium box.


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## evmetro (Apr 9, 2012)

RIPPERTON said:


> Going for a dedicated regen control but better than the last one in the Mira that used a pot. Going to mount a motorcycle clutch master cylinder on the floor in between the clutch and center console and use a 200psi pressure transducer so the pedal will have virtually no travel. Can mount the foot pad close to the floor.


Will this pressure be isolated from the friction brake pressure, as in it is a closed system exclusively for the regen transducer?


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

evmetro said:


> Will this pressure be isolated from the friction brake pressure, as in it is a closed system exclusively for the regen transducer?


Yep, theres no integration, its a fourth pedal. Ive removed the foam block that was the foot rest and the regen pedal will sit close to the plastic center console wall. I will have to release the regen to push the clutch if I want to downshift.
My feet will be pretty busy, It would be easier to drive if I had an automatic trans.


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## evmetro (Apr 9, 2012)

RIPPERTON said:


> Yep, theres no integration, its a fourth pedal. Ive removed the foam block that was the foot rest and the regen pedal will sit close to the plastic center console wall. I will have to release the regen to push the clutch if I want to downshift.
> My feet will be pretty busy, It would be easier to drive if I had an automatic trans.


Pretty cool stuff. I am not familiar with your controller, but on my 1238, I have been able to tweak the off throttle regen just right so that it makes a super easy clutchless shift. I still have a fully functional clutch, so I can shift either way. When I set my off throttle to zero, the motor would spin for about a minute after I got out of the car, before it would finally come to a rest. As I was adjusting the off throttle to have a tiny something more than zero, I ended up figuring out that we can have a nicer clutchless shift than what the DC guys can have.


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## tylerwatts (Feb 9, 2012)

Ripperton, sorry to butt in. What about a controller to speed match the motor to the gear you are selecting?


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Reconfigured R1 LiPo pack finished and ready to go in.


Riveted spades for the BMS wires


8.5mm Acetal box with plexi lid to see the BMS boards.


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## evmetro (Apr 9, 2012)

That box and pack just made my morning. I applaud the guys who pay pocket change to convert their rust buckets with tape and deck screws, but nice craftsmanship like what you are doing is what I live for.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Thanks Metro. Im lucky enough to be able to pay pocket change for nice craftmanship.
Ive been trying to put these other photos up all day, I cant believe how utterly defective PhotoBucket is. 
Heres what I started with, the left overs of the R1 pack. 380 cells, I just needed another 4 cells to make the 32s 12p Barina pack, luckily I had a few new cells lying around from the last YGS purchase.


Heres the R1 2s 10p block in the foreground with its threaded acetal backing bars. If a clamping screw came a bit loose, that LiPo tab would run a bit hotter and melt the acetal further loosening the clamping pressure and further heating the tabs ect so I went to aluminium threaded backing bars for the Barina pack. The Barina 2s 12p block in the back of shot.


Heres a shot of the 2s 12p block going together with the aluminium backing bar.


All the R1 blocks were down to 3.7v after the fire in QLD 6 months ago and couldnt charge them up till now. You can see the short aluminium bus bar that I added to go from 10p to 12p.


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## Jayls5 (Apr 1, 2012)

Looks like 5AH size cells. Does that mean you're doing 60AH 118v nominal (134.4v peak)?


Are these the salvaged cells from that LIPO fire you had? These are the ones you downgraded to "commuter duty" due to high IR, right? How many amps / C discharge will you be pulling continuous & peak from this build?

Awesome work as usual.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Heh forgot the specs. They are 4Ah YGS cells. They will do about 400A each for 50 seconds. In the R1 at 10p they did 800A full throttle with 2 600A controllers.
Now the Barina has 1 600A controller.
So the pack is 48Ah 134v 6.4kWh and 47.2kg.
Ive removed the LifeTech packs today cause they just dont match the LiPo for energy to weight ratio. Id rather have just 6.4 kWh instead of 8.5 and save 80kg. When the other R1 pack gets decommissioned I could make a brother pack for this one. 
The LifeTechs will be good for 12v packs, big ones. So people dont have to use a dcdc converter, just a 12v charger.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Days of idle procrastination culminated in this crucial solution of laying the new LiPo pack down on a refabricated cradle so the charger can sit on top without clashing with the bonnet latch and 2 quad bike radiators can be fitted in front of the charger.



The pack sits over toward the left chassis rail to make room for the aircon compressor near the right chassis rail.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Regen pedal bracket goes across 2 steering column access panel bolts off some ally hexbar.






The master cylinder bolt holes are slotted for a bit of adjustment.
Now just have to get rid of the ball end off the lever and bolt on a small foot pedal.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Been testing the regen pedal and it works reasonably well.
A bit noisy under hard application and prone to overamping but it feels great to use, just remember to use the clutch pedal to change gears not the regen pedal.
Took the alternator off and brought it to an auto electrician but couldnt get anything out of the regulator either ie dash light wouldnt come on so boxed it up and shipped it back to the Ebay seller so they could look at it and try to fix it. Wonder what they will say about the AC clutch ?.

Watched the Dakar vid from Yaberts thread and found they probably use the same power steering hack that I put in my Barina. 1 minute 35 seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhYwwiMHZPU


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## tylerwatts (Feb 9, 2012)

Awesome. When are you entering Rip?


Tyler


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Made a new 12v battery with 20 A123 pouches. 4s5p 100Ah 1.3kWh.
So I wont have to use a DCDC or an alternator, maybe just a solar panel.
I got the alternator back from the Ebay seller who made an idiot out of himself by stating he was an engineer then saying he couldnt test the alternator because he couldnt figure out how to make the clutch engage. Then he said he couldnt think of any application for a clutch on an alternator. He tested the regulator and said it was ok. Didnt want to talk to him after that.
So going to leave the alternator off and look for a 12v solar panel.
Refitted the carpet after trying to find the water leak around the firewall.
Think I fixed it but not sure.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Without the alternator and vacuum pump I went to the wreckers and liberated this 12v electric vacuum pump from a Volvo 740. Cost $15 !!!!!
At the moment its powered by the old AC clutch wiring so it only works when I have my foot on the brake. Mounted behind the left headlight and completely silent.
Proper brakes.
After driving 5.2Kwh worth of battery energy I used about 350Wh of 12v battery energy powering the electric steering, motor fan and Controller.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

One of the most crucial mods in this project was the water cooling for the motor. Its a splash dry sump system which will keep most of the motor full of air so there will be a minimum of losses due to churning.
Heres the drain point drilled tangialy into the drive end of the motor frame.





I made some injectors that will release the glycol as close as possible to the rotor stator air gap opening on the Hall end of the motor. The coolant should corkscrew down to the other end making contact with the stator laminations and magnets in the rotor.



Single radiator off a quad bike.





8lpm brushless pump sits on a T piece and feeds coolant up to the heater core. The reservoir will also attach to this T piece
so the pump doesnt suck air.



Will fit another one of these pumps just before the motor feeding coolant to the 3 injectors and the chill plate on the controller.
Heres the pump and injectors running.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xk9mLud_HQ


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## AdamS (Jan 16, 2014)

Hi, been a long time follower of this project, awesome work to date! 
Any concerns with erosion, like cavitation with the air/fluid mix?


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

AdamS said:


> Any concerns with erosion, like cavitation with the air/fluid mix?


I think you would need complete flooding to generate the pressures required to produce cavitation. But Im not an expert on the subject.


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## PStechPaul (May 1, 2012)

Your images seem to have disappeared. Error message says image incorrectly linked.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

PStechPaul said:


> Your images seem to have disappeared. Error message says image incorrectly linked.


Thats Photbucket having a hernia, 
Photobucket is a classic example of what happens when you let 12 year olds loose on the internet.


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## riba2233 (Apr 29, 2015)

I use imgur, works great, haven't lose one image yet


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## Moltenmetal (Mar 20, 2014)

Cavitation happens when the fluid reaches its boiling point, i.e. the pressure at a point in the system drops below the vapour pressure of the fluid at that temperature. More properly, damage happens when the fluid is boiled and then the bubbles are allowed to collapse again- the collapse of the vapour bubbles is very energetic and can do a lot of mechanical damage. You see this on the trailing side of pump impellers etc. 

Higher system pressure increases the boiling temperature and makes a system less likely to cavitate- but it would also challenge seals in your motor which might not have been designed for hot glycol/water.

I'd be more worried about whipping the stuff into a fairly stable froth, given the high rotational speeds and your intention to not run it full of liquid. The froth will carry away the air that used to be in the motor case, unless it is vented. You'll need a place for vapour and liquid to disengage if you don't want it to run full, i.e. your discharge line will have to discharge by gravity (so that the discharge line runs partially full, so the line can carry vapour and liquid at the same time and hence provide the venting). Venting doesn't need to be to atmosphere: you can vent back to the collection reservoir and still run the whole system at a slightly positive pressure if you felt you wanted to do that.

For corrosion reasons you want the system to be closed- you don't want to be reintroducing fresh oxygen in there any more than absolutely necessary. 

You also don't want your pump to try to pump a mixture of air and liquid- generally they hate that. It's not cavitation per se, but can also be damaging and may cause it to lose prime- hence losing cooling on your motor.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Heres a layout of the system. There will be a coolant level in the motor albeit a low one where some degree of disengagement of air glycol will happen.
The reservoir is down on the motor level and is clear so I will be able to see aprox what fluid level I have in the motor.
The hose going from the extraction pump up to the heater core will have to be clear also so I can see if there is any froth coming out of the motor.
The controller chill plate exits back into the reservoir but that may change to the extractor pump inlet.


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

The Barina has been sold to another member of AEVA here in Sydney and the build will continue.
There will be loads of Leaf cells stacked into it and brought thoughtfully to fruition.


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## laddertech (Nov 5, 2016)

We have taken the project on. And hope to maintain the high level engineering and craftmanship. Trying to locate a leaf pack now. The plan is for the car to be on the road Feb 2017. NO TIME.


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