dmulally's pimpin' Imp

[dmulally]

So have got the imp in primer. The paint was about 2 years old so had to thin it right down. Which is good because it means less sanding. By less I mean none at all. I went out to hit it with some colour and half the sticky tape has blown off and it's just too windy. Too windy for Johnny Cutcorners himself. 

Also looks like the starter solenoid has shat itself too. Just a single click when hitting the tit now. I had to get back to work so I'll pop out later with a hammer to negotiate with it. Lucky I have a hill so can clutch start it. 

[dmulally]

It's the starter. Might need a bigger hammer. 

[HumberSS]

Ev swap??

[dmulally]

On 29/05/2023 at 21:58, HumberSS said:

Ev swap??

Wouldn't mind it if one would fit! If only you didn't sell that Nissan Leaf I didn't know I wanted 

Hopefully catching up with @cubastreet when he decides to stop holidaying to come up with a plan. 

I tried fitting the Honda V twin bike engine I had in the parts bin but it is too long. Something I've never had to worry about in my life 

[yoeddynz]

2 minutes ago, dmulally said:

Wouldn't mind it if one would fit!

Nissan leaf engine in an NZ imp...

[dmulally]

Blimey that is tiny. Who's is that? 

[yoeddynz]

Not sure. He posted it up on the nz impers facebook group ages back. I don't know if he's got any further than sitting it on a bit of wood and taking a photo. But yeah- lots of room.  Looks like some sort of quad bike diff in front?  How do leafs go in reverse- I presume the motor just runs in reverse?

Set that up and then just stash 386 of these in any available space about the Imp you can...

ETC ETC...

[dmulally]

Being an electric motor I assume you could just flip a switch and make it go the other way. With the Thunderstruck control unit that is possible. 

 

I think the bigger issue would be battery physical storage. Unless the Leaf batteries can be pulled apart and repackaged or it could take aftermarket batteries it would be hard to fit. 

[Tiger Tamer]

Nissan leaf battery on trade me. 

[yoeddynz]

I think the answer is simple......

If it works for Jay and his RC10-

@Valiant would agree.

[tortron]

You might look into the lithium conversions for old Honda insights. 

The new Honda insight packs seem quite compact and easy to hide once they are cracked open and separated. The enthusiasts make a control board for them

[Valiant]

1 hour ago, yoeddynz said:

I think the answer is simple......

If it works for Jay and his RC10-

@Valiant would agree.

That's exactly what early Prius had. A huge bank of nimh sub c cells.

They were unreliable as a pack of 6!

[dmulally]

4 hours ago, Tiger Tamer said:

Nissan leaf battery on trade me. 

I could park two imps on that! 

More if they would start to be able to drive onto it. 

[dmulally]

On 13/03/2022 at 14:44, dmulally said:

Right. This engine is already getting on my tits. Open to engine swap ideas. 

50-100hp, reliable, and carb. Ideas so far are EA81, Suzuki Carry, 1600 cortina. 

I don't care about handling. 99% of my driving is in 100kph zones with long lazy corners. 

@cubastreet

[HumberSS]

3/4/5k Toyota?

[dmulally]

So the subie EA18 fits nicely. Only mods required looks to be the air filter/carb arrangement and the oil filler tube. Thankfully the tube is mild steel so I can shorten it and face the correct direction rather easily.

That inlet manifold needs a bit of a trim with all the extra lumps and bumps sticking out of it as well as I don't need all the vacuum ports and whatnot. Interestingly the original heater pipes on the EA18 are a similar diameter to the Imp front radiator tubing so I can still use that. But the diameter for the original outlets for the radiator are far larger. I'll have a think about it but perhaps having a radiator front and rear could be handy. I could also gut the subie water pump and just use the davies craig one I'll be installing shortly for the Imp engine. See how I go I guess. 

Gearbox will be a VW freeway flyer IRS box (3.8/0.82). I've already ordered that as well as an adapter for the subie to VW. I think the one main thing I'll need is a starter but I'll wait until I have the ring gear in hand to check what I have. 

[dmulally]

On 05/06/2023 at 18:30, HumberSS said:

3/4/5k Toyota?

Lovely little motor (especially with sidedrafts) but would require cutting the bulkhead. 

I popped over the LVV cert guys place for a gasbag yesterday and he said if I can avoid as much cutting of the firewall as possible that would be good. I think the only part I'll have to cut is the snout area for the VW box. But that is technically the gearbox tunnel so not a big a deal. 

The only question mark he has for me which he'll look into are the half shafts. I was going to cut the Imp and VW ones and weld them together with a collar over it. He said he'll let me know the best way I should do that.  

[yoeddynz]

4 hours ago, dmulally said:

I was going to cut the Imp and VW ones and weld them together with a collar over it. He said he'll let me know the best way I should do that.  

I'll be interested to see what he says because I'm planning on doing similar between my scooby and imp shafts. 

 

[dmulally]

1 minute ago, yoeddynz said:

I'll be interested to see what he says because I'm planning on doing similar between my scooby and imp shafts. 

 

Yeah will pass it on. 

If it has be done by a certified machine shop I'll give you a yell and we can perhaps sort something out. Especially if it has to be splined. 

[fuzzy-hair-man]

I don't know if I've mentioned it on here but my mini's driveshafts were made by taking the larger diameter and longer of the 2 driveshaft options (probably VW and subie in these cases) cutting them down in length and turning them down in diameter and then cutting the appropriate splines on the end for the outer CVs, mini in my case. So solid, one piece shafts, no welding and no chance of warping or weakness and relatively cheap as most of the works already done. There's a possible issue as the splines may have been hardend and won't be any longer but mine are going OK.