It’s been a long wait, but the Thundersky lithium 144v 160Ah batteries finally arrived! Now we have to set about determining the best configuration for the batteries in the engine bay and rear tank.
A bit annoying the BMS modules haven’t arrived yet as a confirmation measurement of the height of these would help in determining the battery rack height dimension. We could arrange the engine bay battery racks as a typical square-finish configuration, or perhaps angled around the motor for a cool effect, and then as Nathan suggests place plastic clear Perspex sheets over the top for a neat finish, and tinted perspex surrounding the Curtis terminals too perhaps – we want a neat engine bay!
Nathan mentioned someone who had Thunderskies mounted on their edges (sides) but the efficiency was greatly deteriorated and batteries leaked! I don’t know if those were the LiCoO2 (we’re using LiFePO4), either way we’ll install close to vertical anyway and a crude animation is included to show possible mounting.
Another ‘fun’ part in this video was removing the dash so we could access the ventilation system box and put in the heater core (I know, could have gone with a water micro boiler unit but budget is getting tight; maybe later) – biggish job but not too hard for two people working on it (Stephanie did it once, alone, and it was a pig of a job, she said).
I’ll help Nathan get it back together later as he moves on to the charging setup and we’ll the need the BMS master unit as well (which also hasn’t arrived yet). The Curtis will have a water cooling block underneath where all the FETs are positioned inside (and block secured tight with thermal compound between surfaces) and maybe a fan box on top, if there is room, but the water cooler alone should help keep the thing under 75-degrees Celsius (a Zilla would be better; can’t get our hands on one for now and they’re expensive).
The very crude animation of possible engine bay layout will probably change as we decide the best location for stuff (power steering/airconditioning drive components and compressor, pump motor, hoses, etc.) and final battery count front and back. The reservoir for water block coolant may stay in its original place if the hose length is not too long to be impractical. Slowly but surely we are getting somewhere now.
Sorry about the shaky camera, some of us have been sick with flu. Sorry about the boobies too – a bit hard to tuck away when one gets hot fiddling with cars ;-)
