I'm just beginning to plan out a conversion, and am looking at a donor car that is reasonably modern (ie waterproof and reasonably comfortable).
I'm pretty confident that given an old Mk II Escort, I could whack an AC drive and motor with a few batteries in without a massive amount of trouble. It occurs to me, though, that with modern cars, it might not be so easy - has anyone got some pointers?
I'm thinking that I would like to keep the inside as stock as possible, with the exception of removal of the gear lever. The dash would be standard, albeit with a charge meter and perhaps diagnostics.
The problem as I see it could be that all the electronic systems in the modern car are so tightly coupled that ripping out the engine might do more than just lighten the load on the front wheels..
A hypothetical situation:
After removing the engine, I no longer need the engine computer, so toss that.
- As part of the integrity/security systems, the body computer interrogates the engine before enabling the ignition circuit, as well as the airbags. Getting no CAN response, the airbags are disabled.
- Since the wheel speed sensing logic was integrated in the engine computer, there is no wheel speed feedback, either.
- The reverse lights are on a LIN network, and were enabled via a switch on the gearbox, also binned.
- On the same network, as a safety precaution due to the reverse lights not responding, the brake lights are also disabled.
- The clutch actuator 'keep alive' signal is no longer happening (clutch thrown away), so an error scrolls continuously across the message area in the dash...
Any advice, reassuring stories/tales of disaster?
Thanks..