Someday, A 944 EV?

[OK-944]

The day may come…when I remove the engine, exhaust, fuel tank, torque tube, and tranny from my ‘87NA, and slap in one of these:



With 281hp, at 205lbs, this new Ford crate EV engine should fit perfectly in place of the tranny and fuel tank - and the battery packs will fit nicely in the engine bay, with a cable tunnel replacing the torque tube.

Thoughts?

[v2rocket_aka944]

i think it would be great.

in one of the 944 facebook groups there's a guy knee-deep into putting a Tesla drive motor under the trunk floor and stuffing the rest of the space with batteries.

[mytrplseven]

After all the work getting my piston engine version working??? I'll wait.

[Stoneguy]

Looks like a nice unit and could be a fun project but I'll never give up on the internal combustion engine, thanks.

[OK-944]

Yeah...I get this for sure - and as I'm just getting my '87 dialed in after a long rebuild/rehab (and thoroughly enjoying the process), I feel very attached to this car just as is.

Still...there is something very compelling about doing an EV changeover at some point - but if I decide to go this route, it would not happen for a few years at least, or, if sooner, I may decide to look for yet another 944 to dedicate to this project.

[jjeffries]

I’m always a late adapter and, like Stone, am a guy who thinks the spirit is in the engine … vroom vroom.

BUT … one appeal of an electric 924/44 (please don’t do this to a 968!) would be the lack of exhaust fumes coming back into the cabin. And the sunroof would make an excellent place for some solar cells.

John

[v2rocket_aka944]

944 NA engine dressed is 400 lbs (i weighed mine complete)...so that motor is a 200lbs savings off the bat.

944 trans and torque tube is approaching 200lbs itself. NA exhaust system from Y pipe to tip, including muffler and cat is about 30...

helps offset the battery pack.

EVs make a TON of sense from packaging and efficiency standpoint.

[Stoneguy]

I don't know. I think if I ever did an electric conversion, I would lean toward just the power plant. I think I would like to maintain the trans and preserve some of the driving experience.

I've seen a guy do this on a fiat 500.
Retained the drive train and just replaced the engine.

Yes? No?

[OK-944]

Thinking about maintaining the trans for an EV conversion...I'm just wondering, even though the Ford unit is not that powerful - what this motor's near instant maximum torque might do to this drivetrain?

Did the guy who did that Fiat conversion need to do any further mods (thinking hydrostatic torque dampener) to deal with torque?

Also would need to think about the extra weight and space requirements of leaving in the tranny and TT - would not leave as much room for batteries which would restrict available driving range...further inhibited by any amount of spirited driving. Hmmm...

[SilverLined]

Originally Posted by OK-944

Thoughts?

When I saw the C/D article about this last week, I thought the same thing. Better than a used Tesla drive unit?

https://performanceparts.ford.com/part/M-9000-MACHE

Gotta love big American manufacturers for supporting the grassroots market... I think E-crate motors will abound in the next few years, but the Eluminator is definitely a good start!

I also think two of these would be better than one. At 22 inches, that would put it just behind the strut towers and in front of the windshield defrost vents, in terms of positioning. That would allow for a really nice weight distribution, if you had another motor in place of the transaxle. Using the torque tube for wire routing is perfect, and would allow you to put batteries up front and in the rear, with hardware in either position.

944 AWD EV... > 550hp, < 3000lbs, ~45/55 F/R

Might need to budget for brakes, suspension and chassis reinforcements

Originally Posted by OK-944

Thinking about maintaining the trans for an EV conversion...I'm just wondering, even though the Ford unit is not that powerful - what this motor's near instant maximum torque might do to this drivetrain?

It would Eluminate it. Instant pixie dust!

[Stoneguy]

Search " Electric classic cars" on youtube
This British company does ev conversions on the Fiat, Porsche and VW. You might get some ideas from their videos.
Interesting.
They leave the stock trans and drive line in most of them.

[OK-944]

Thanks for the youtube reference - I'll definitely take a look. It would be great to keep the tranny.

[Fast Freddy 944]

EV classic Porsche? Pass....

[v2rocket_aka944]

This appears to be a dual-shaft motor (so you would mount it transversely under the trunk floor, one axle to each wheel).

No reason to keep the TT or trans.

[OK-944]

Good that its a dual shaft, for the sake of logistics and weight saving.

If I ever made this conversion...as much as I'd like a tranny, I'm guessing that whatever weight (and space) can be saved by leaving it (and the t-tube) out would mean more room for battery packs, which would hopefully help translate to something approaching a decent driving range.

[djnolan]

Are there any concerns about this being too much power for the chassis and brakes?

[OK-944]

One might think that a turbo spec'd car or 968, or at least upgrading with appropriate components would work - but there is that aspect of near maximum torque right off the bat...which might necessitate a very sturdy mounting plate, plus appropriately beefy/hardened driveshafts/cv components.

And/Or...some kind of torque dampeners (thinking of the hydrostatic drive on my John Deere) calibrated to keep "excess" torque at bay during early acceleration. Might be able to mount these on each side of the output, replacing the current trans drive plates which mount to the inner CV joints. Then again, with this motor mounted transversely, the space requirements for drive shaft travel could necessitate a few more rear suspension (and perhaps chassis) tweaks. Might be easier to simply mount the motor in the front, with its torque dampener in place of a clutch, and use the existing TT running back to a differential.

[v2rocket_aka944]

No concerns about power or torque. 281 hp and 200something ftlbs is a trivial load for a unibody.
Extreme examples but there are guys with 600-900hp in admittedly braced 944 tubs.

[originalowner]

The Ford crate motor has 50% more torque than my 85 NA in first gear. It has 6% less torque than the 91 944 turbo in first gear. It appears doable with late turbo running gear.

[originalowner]

Originally Posted by v2rocket_aka944

No concerns about power or torque. 281 hp and 200something ftlbs is a trivial load for a unibody.

You need to multiply that torque value by the 9.05 internal gear ratio of the motor.