Just picked this one up from FL planning on making it My DD as soon as the engine is replaced. I'll then be able to start over on my SVT & keep the miles off of it. I was thinking about putting an SVT kit on it, but My main priority is getting another DD so it might still happen in the future.
V6 MTX, motor is toast.

Nice color! (I'm a bit biased )
Suits your light-sabre!

Nice looking car looks like everything but a moon roof. How about a wood grain headlight and radio bezel for it? I got an extra set handy.

This post has been edited by Aussie Ford: May 5 2008, 08:32 PM

does it have dual exhuast already?

Did you already have a motor? I'm permanently pulling my V6 out in 2 or 3 weeks, and I'm in Arkansas. It works perfectly well, but I need to make room for an electric vehicle conversion. It's currently serving until I refurbish my 4-cylinder ATX DD. I've finally assembled all the tools and parts for a full brake job, engine wiring harness transplant, oil/filter change, and new clear headlights. The only thing the V6 has is a code PO420 so probably needs a new oxygen sensor. Should be an easy task to replace once it's out of the car. Other than that, it runs smooth, only has 98k miles on it. I need to keep my MTX for the conversion, so I hope yours is still in good shape.

No it has some type of catback but I don't know the brand.



I would be interested depending on price, My trans is fine. I'll shoot you a pm & you can tell me the price.

This post has been edited by OB1: May 5 2008, 10:50 PM

man, just have to say... thats awesome.

how many horses is the electric? building it fast, or just to be a greenmobile?

I don't know quite how to compare electric to internal combustion horsepower. The electric motor has near-instataneous torque, so acceleration from a standing start will be better but the top-end speed is limited by the available voltage. With 20 6V deep-cycle batteries I'll get 120V, which is good for highway speeds.

I'm optimizing the design for the longest range at highway speeds. At 50mph, my supplier estimates it should have a range of 18 miles on mountain roads, 37 miles on hills and 83 miles on totally flat terrain. This is quite respectable for old-fashioned lead-acid batteries. That's about what the EV-1 got when the first generation was released with lead-acid batteries. Mileage will go down with the use of heat, defrosters, A/C and headlights.

The Contour/Mystique seems uniquely suited to this task, as it has an exceptional GAWR to tare weight ratio for a car and much better aerodynamics than a small truck. The Chevy S-10 can only carry 357lb more than a Contour/Mystique, but the high initial curb weight and drag coefficient of the truck tend to retard their range as electric vehicles. Small car conversions are limited by how much weight in batteries they can carry, and trucks are limited by worse aerodynamics and having too much weight in batteries to lug around. I'll soon see if I've found an optimum point for range vs. weight vs. performance vs. cost.

A fellow in New Zealand has used many of the same parts I intend to use on his Dodge Colt conversion. It can't carry as much weight in batteries as my conversion will, so his range is not as good as mine will be. Check out Gav's Kiwi EV page.

try searching "white lightning" on yahoo, it "should" give you access to ultimate electric options.

those lead acid batteries are a thing of the past, ditch that garbage and get yurself some li ions.

I presume you're referring to "White Zombie." One of the drawbacks is that it only has a range of 30 miles and has thousands of dollars of AGM batteries (not lithium, they discharge too slowly unless they are punctured, then they discharge too fast and turn your pack into a plasma torch).

If li ions are so great, why don't you have them under your hood? They can't even keep a laptop operational for a whole year without losing half their power, or did they somehow become a lot better when I wasn't looking? People have been trying for decades to make a better battery chemistry. Either it costs too much, discharges too slowly, isn't recyclable, or doesn't last as long as good 'ol lead-acid. One of my criteria is low cost, and a $45,000 hand-made battery pack of 6,831 li-Ion AA cells wrapped in kevlar (such as found in the Tesla Roadster) isn't in the budget.

This post has been edited by giganto: May 7 2008, 12:35 AM

well, I wasn't taking cost into account.

it is white lightening though, it's a land speed streamliner.

don't remember what kind of batteries it uses, only mentioned LI-ion because they're super light weight. didn't know they discharged so slow.

still... lead acid batteries are really heavy dude, if they are so great how come non of the competative electrics are using them?

The racers use batteries which can discharge rapidly; think of it like a dragster burning 5 gallons of racing fuel in a quarter mile. Ultracapacitors are popular too.

so what exactly IS your goal with this conversion?

I just always thought electric engines were a great idea for racing since they supply crap-tons of torque instantly.

BTW, i think we've high-jacked this thread on accident.

I explained pretty well my goals in post #8, plus the obvious goal of not paying $3.499 per gallon of gas. At 23 mpg for my V6 donor vehicle, that's $0.15 per mile. Once electrified, that number changes to about $0.02 per mile.

Battery powered vehicles have great axle-snapping torque, if you want to play the "if I stomp the accelerator, what's the weakest part of my drivetrain?" game. I'm surprised there aren't electric tractor pulls, where the torque and battery weight would be an advantage. Thinking on it, it would be much less exciting to watch than those tractors with six dragster engines on them. All those gigantic mine dump trucks are also electric hybrids, as well as all modern trains.

+1 for the electric tractor pull.

gigantic electric engines actually make quite a bit of noise, I've been in the engine room of a few trains, and they hum like a mofo.
if people want some flashier show, we could alwas toss a rolls-royce aircraft turbine on the back, lmao

imagine the guy in the opposing vehicle wondering why he's on fire, LMAOROFLWTF!!!!