Brake Vacuum Pump SetupDCVOLTPoint of No ReturnStripping out unnecessary partsMy Very Own Power Cables!Hot Water Heating SystemADC 206-03-4110APack FusePlug in Here!
OwnerMichael Evans
Owner's Other EVs2009 Mongoose Mountain Bike
2009 EEV 002
LocationRolleston, Canterbury New Zealand map
Email email image
Vehicle1992 Honda Civic MX
Standard Civic 3 Door donor car with 205,000km.
MotorAdvanced DC Advanced DC #203-06-4001A Series Wound DC
8" dual shaft
Drivetrain1.5L 4cyl D15B ICE, 5sp manual.
ControllerCurtis 1231C
Batteries30 Thunder Sky 200AH , 3.20 Volt, Lithium-Polymer
LiFePO4
System Voltage96 Volts
Charger HWC4 Series 96V/20A Charger
220 VAC, onboard with LiFePO4 BMS.
Heater1000w tank style engine block heater with integral thermostat, 1 quart aluminium radiator surge tank with 13lb Prestone radiator cap, Audi 12VDC Turbo cooler water pump, 12VDC lighted rocker button dash switch, and Kilovac LEV200 SPST NO contactor with 12VDC pulldown coil. Uses OEM heater core in situ and maintains OEM look and operation. Lukewarm water in under 1 minute, 90 deg C in 4 minutes. This heater absolutely rocks! If you want real heat, that doesn't cost you serious range, this is the kind of heater to have. You can even bring it to operating temperature while on grid! Dump the idea of using ceramic cores and butchering your ventilation system, this is soooo much better! If you need a detailed parts list, please do e-mail me.
DC/DC ConverterKelly HWZ Series DC/DC 96V to 13.5V 300W
30 Amp output, tiny footprint, less than 4 pounds.
InstrumentationCurtis voltmeter, Ammeter & state of charge gage have replaced tachometer and fuel gages. Green LED for pack voltage go/no go, red LED for brake pump go/no go. Otherwise bone stock.
Top Speed65 MPH (104 KPH)
Acceleration0-100 @ 10.3 seconds
Range80 Miles (128 Kilometers)
Watt Hours/Mile190~200 @ 60mph
EV Miles
Start:205,530 Miles (330,697 Kilometers)
Current:205,530 Miles (330,697 Kilometers)
Total:0 Miles (0 Kilometers)
Seating Capacity5
Curb Weight2,075 Pounds (943 Kilograms)
TiresFederal SS 195/50 R15 over 15" aluminium monobloc Work wheels from Japan, 40 psi. 94-01 Integra R front springs, 97 Prelude rear springs, stock struts. 97 Integra rear trailing arms w/disc brakes & 40/40 proportioning valve and 1" master cylinder. Front & Rear Integra stabiliser (anti-sway) bars were "bolt-on" process for the Honda EG model. Also has front and rear camber adjustments from Blox.
Conversion Time9 months since I got the idea into my head until I bought my donor car. The donor car isn't the biggest expense in the project, but the EG Honda Civic is the perfect platform for conversion to an electric car, IMHO. Haven't stopped reading about it. Lots of time invested. Most of the conversion time is consumed with waiting for people to respond (ordering a part, waiting two weeks, receiving part, 5 minutes installing part, ordering another part, etc...) and generating project funds.
Conversion CostUS$8500 thus far. Budgeted at $15,000 to completion.
Additional FeaturesNew Zealand's draconian inspection system will be the most difficult part. It appears that the Government don't want people converting cars unless they can extract money from the process. My opinion, however, is that we are reducing the carbon footprint, so the Government should be paying us.

Supplier UPDATE: If you are in need of electrical components, please visit "The Toolbox Shop" at (click here->)WebPage in the UK. Their prices are great, and their service is impeccable. They carry all those Albright parts that the EV sales places are milking us for. Thanks to Adrian, he's a good bastard.
My progress Blog...

12/10/08 - Start Conversion. Purchase donor car and begin fixing all the worn out bits. Donor car had leak in rear window, rear window struts shot, door locks broken, filthy cigarette smoke smell, clutch bad, worn out shocks, dead battery, missing rear window washer motor, and the list goes on...Bought a used set of Work wheels that I plan to recondition and put new tyres on. Scoured underside of car with soap & water by hand, and then painted 2 coats of gloss black. Car has no damage or rust underneath. Removed all the suspension and brake system for overhaul. Put in Integra R series front springs, Prelude rear springs, and complete braking system from Integra R series, 4 wheel disc. Replaced all worn out shocks with new ones, and installed Blox camber adjustments front and rear. Installed Integra front trailing arms and front & rear stabiliser bars, along with front subframe stiffener. Car rides like a brick.

01/11/08 - Progress continuing. Because I was made redundant from my job with Dynamic Controls (a really AWFUL employer) in Christchurch in October, I have more time to devote to the car, but sadly not much money. This week, I have stripped down the wheels and sanded out the gouges that the Rolleston Automotive guy put in them while removing the tyres. I got some great "wheel" paint from Resene in Tuam St, and the wheels look like new. Bought 4 new tyres from a Trade Me vendor in Oamaru, who got them to Rolleston in the same day. Thanks to Kevin & Kerry at Beaurepairs in Hornby for expertly mounting the tyres on my "new" rims without a single scratch! I have stripped the interior out and put it out on the driveway, saturating it thoroughly with laundry detergent and water. Gave it a good scrub, and wiped out the naked interior of the car with disinfectant/deoderiser. Took 2 days for the seats to thoroughly dry in the sun, but the smoke smell is completely gone. Now it just smells like an old Civic.

01/12/08 - I'm selling off lots of my old Harley parts to buy EV parts. Fortunately, most of everything I need is sitting on the shelf, waiting to be installed, because I've been collecting bits for a few months now. The motor and the adapter plates are the big hold up right now. The single, most costly piece is the motor, and I'm not going to compromise. I passed up a deal on a used Raymond forklift motor, but I think I would have been disappointed by it anyway.

01/01/09 - Still no luck in the job market, but I did order my emergency battery disconnect switch, Albright ED250B-1, from The Toolbox Shop, in the UK. Many thanks to Adrian for expediting the shipment. The switch is unmistakable, if not a bit obnoxious, but definitely present and you can't miss seeing it. I've got my junction box from Cory's electrical, so I can run my main power cables from the battery pack to the front. I picked up a 5 metre length of 40mm flexible waste water drain pipe from Mitre-10 in Hornby, that looks like armoured cable, for my main power cables and the flat cable for my various 12v instruments in the boot. Bought a sheet of black Coreflute for $32, and I've made a cardboard template of my front belly pan, so I'm ready to transfer the design to the Coreflute, and then my underbelly will be slick. I think I know what Michelangelo must have felt like. I SO wish I had a car lift! Still playing around with the steering system, but would definitely like to locate a manual steering rack with subframe. Looking like I may have to settle on a Toyota MR2 pump...

01/02/2009 - Well, it's February. I've decided to pursue the manual steering idea, and lucky for me I've finally found a manual steering rack with subframe. I've had an epiphany. I'm going to build an electric bicycle and then sell it to raise more project funds. I'm dead in the water until I raise more money, but I do have some tidying up to do on the paint work. I already bought my paint, so I'm pulling out the DA to sand off the layers of jackleg paint that previous owners have applied to the car body. A mate of mine seems to have located a paint booth I can rent, so I'll lay on a paint job soon. The overflow bayonet for my heater arrived today. Too late, I already bought one from a local auto parts house, so now I have two. Good news is that the heater is a real piece of art, and works great, and this was just a cosmetic piece because I expect that I'll never exceed the 13 pound rating of the radiator cap I'm using, so there'll never be overflow. It looks like a very professional installation with the overflow making it look like an OEM installation. Bravo.

01/03/2009 - Whoopee! I got a job! Finally working again. It's a great job, with no worries to take home at night. I ordered my bike kit and put together the kit as soon as it arrived. Looks great, however I was rather disappointed that the battery didn't arrive with the kit. The seller sent it separately, and it got intercepted by the Neanderthals in NZ Customs, who thought it was a bomb. "it had duct tape on it and it had wires sticking out of it, so we decided it was a bomb", I was told. The NZ Post confirmed that it looked like a bomb, apparently being bomb experts themselves, so they put it in their safe overnight on 17th Mar, and waited until the morning of 18th to call the bomb squad to destroy it. Then, after all was said and done, they rang me to tell me all about it. I asked them why they couldn't have rung me first, and I could have cleared it all up with them, but they just couldn't wrap their heads around that idea. The guy in charge at the Auckland Mail Centre, Phil Glen, threatened to make me pay for shutting down the entire Auckland Mail Centre for a whole day, but backed off quickly when I told him that the news media had been hounding me all morning and that I was curious as to how they got my name, and that he must have a bad security leak in his organisation. I think the words "Fair Go" may have come up once or twice, too. They told me it was illegal to send batteries via Air Post, so I told them it was only a lithium battery, same as what's in a laptop computer or a mobile phone, so they should go and arrest all those thousands of people who fly with their laptops on commercial airlines, but once again the Neanderthals didn't understand my point. Nevertheless, after the $500 loss of my battery to the Neanderthals, I'm out of pocket. So, I liquidated a few more things in my collection and raised a bit more money, and then ordered another battery. Don't worry, I had them ship it out via surface shipping, and I provided the Neanderthals with the customs declaration number BEFORE the parcel was even shipped. What's the bet that they blow it up again?

01/04/09 - Here we are again. Still working. I'm still building bits and pieces to go on the car. This month I sold one of those bike kits, and just about broke even. The first electric bike has been sold, and the second one is ready to sell. The bikes are selling as fast as I can make them, so I'll see how that goes. I'm starting to put back a little more project funds for my motor. I've pulled out all the incandescent bulbs from the car and matched them up to LED's available on eBay. I also bought the "no load" flasher relay, but it's 35mm wide and the socket is only 25mm wide, so I had to make up an extension wiring loom. While I was there, with the instrument panel out, I installed my reverse led, along with the pack led and the brake led. I want to keep the factory tach and hook it up to my motor, and put my ammeter, voltmeter and state of charge gages on the driver's pillar. Also, I installed the LED's behind the dash and in the climate control panel. Went with red, so it looks absolutely marvellous at night!

01/05/09 - A guy has e-mailed me, saying he's got the very motor I'm after, new in the crate. He wants a bit too much, so I'm going to let him keep his motor, for now, hoping his price will come down a bit more, the longer he owns it. He listed it on Trade Me, but got some silly offers for it.

01/06/09 - The guy has dropped his price on the motor, and is willing to let me make payments on it. I forwarded him $1000 as earnest money, with the balance to be paid by the end of July. Hopefully I can scrape enough together to pay for it as promised, but I don't see why not. Added a few more bits to the shelf, so not much left to buy. A couple of gages and the shunt came in today from Electro, and they are great. Made another $1000 payment at the end of the month, so not much more to go.

01/07/09 - Made the final payment for the motor of $1400, and received the motor in new condition, in the crate. What a wee beauty! I connected the motor up to 12v battery, and she purred like a kitten. I could feel the torque as the motor smashed my fingers between the frame and the crate, even at just 12V. Now, I can pull the engine out of the donor car. I started making all the smaller bits this month from my big pile of parts, and put together the pack fuses and made the breaker box out of aluminium sheeting. I need to buy some more aluminum sheet metal and plate metal.

01/08/09 - Have listed my engine on Trade Me, so hopefully I'll sell it. The weather has been a slight bit warmer, and mild, but that could change at any moment, this time of year. I want to pull the engine out because I have to give Electro-Automotive a "rubbing" of my flywheel bolt pattern and my transmission mounting face, along with the "magic number" to get my adapter plates made up. Once that is done, I'll have to get the engine compartment tidied up. I ordered the gas struts for the hood today, so goodbye support rod! You'd think that the auto manufacturers would put them in because they don't cost very much, but instead they put in a cheesy prop rod. I can't count the number of times I've bent the prop rod while working on the car, or had it get in the way.

01/09/09 - Nuff said, time to convert my car is now. Most parts are already here, so I have removed the engine, along with the exhaust and petrol tank. Car was needing a WOF, so I went ahead and put the Rego on hold for the next 3 monts while I do the conversion. Ordered my Westach gages from Electro, and they should arrive any day now. Adapter plates coming in soon, too. Hopefully enough time to tidy up the engine compartment before they arrive. The car is stripped and I'm already putting things back together.

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