Pulling The Engine

This weekend a big step in the conversion process was taken, the engine was taken out. I would like to thank the mechanics at Eldon's Automotive Repair in Hastings, NE. The car's battery had been completely drained so to get the car from garage where it was being restored the car had to be jumped. We had made an agreement to take the engine out on Saturday morning but when I drove up, the mechanics wanted to pull it right away. So the guys got straight to work on pulling the engine out.

The engine bay on this car is rather large so the initial pulling of the belts and wires was rather simple. With three mechanics all working to pull the engine out at once, the process of more major bolts and engine mounts went quickly as well.

This engine was originally designed to be dropped out of the bottom of the car, but for time purposed it was brought out the top. This required a few more pieces to come off the engine than initially anticipated. This took up more time and caused us to have to use a secondary jack on the underside of both the engine and transmission.

The most difficult part of this process was getting the engine to come off the transmission. As far as we know this engine has never come apart from this transmission so there was a lot of brute force needed to get the engine to separate from the transmission. When the engine finally popped off the transmission there was a sigh of relief in the building. The guys at the shop had said they could get the engine out within an hour, they completed it in 56 minutes.

I am so thankful for these guy helping me throughout the project. The engine came out intact with no damage to the engine or transmission. This allowed for a little bit of fun within the shop.

At this point we debated on making it an electric car or the first street legal Fred Flintstone powered car! With all joking aside the car is now being prepped for the electric motor to arrive at the shop and the flywheel is being shipped to the creator of the kit so the conversion plate can be made.

As seen above the engine bay is rather large on this car. This will allow for plenty of room for the electrical motor. The motor will more than likely be attached by the same motor mount seen in the above picture on the left. Other then that the exhaust system needs to be taken out and the car interior to be completely stripped.

The Start: The Car

This project will be converting an 1987 Volkswagen Scirocco from a gasoline engine to an electric motor. This car was chosen for an electric conversion due to its large engine bay, large back seat for batteries, its light weight and the lack of sophisticated electronics. This is all key in an electric conversion so the car will operate properly and have good efficiency.

This specific car was chosen due to the fact of lack of rust and overall integrity of the body. This car came from California and had spent its entire life on the West Coast so there is virtually no rust on the car. The body has minor dings and dents but no major structural damage. It was trailered from California to Nebraska.

Here the car is on Raton Pass in Raton, New Mexico

As of right now the car is being put through milage tests on the 16v 1.8L enigne. These tests are being done so then the mileage of the internal combustion engine can be compared with the electric motor. More updates will be made this weekend as the engine will be taken out of the car and some of the interior prep work will be done.