Budget UK conversion

That is a superb conversion and very well written up.
Would it have been possible to locate all the batteries where the fuel tank was in order to retain the use of the passenger seat ?
Did it just need a bog standard MOT or an additional engineers report ?

Sorry for the slow reply!

In the future I think that is exactly what will be possible. At the moment with current battery power densities it would be pretty hard to fit a decent amount of power in that space. The fuel tank is a rather odd shape which doesn't fit well with the square box forms that batteries typically take.

Just has a normal MOT with a note stating electric conversion, and the insurance company is aware. It did more than double my insurance. The DVLA will send someone out to check that you haven't done any drilling or cutting and then refuse to update the logbook anyway for post 2001 cars. So still stuck with petrol road tax.

Admittedly once you have had that inspection there might well be nothing stopping you from placing the battery in the front subframe. Or given the DVLA won't actually update anything you might question the point of telling them about it anyway, which then removes the zero tolerance limitation on drilling or cutting.

I am tempted to keep my eyes out for a cheap pre 2001 MG with major engine or gearbox issues, then it would be a straight subframe swap and I could actually get the road tax down to £0 and DVLA computers would be able to change the logbook.

If ever I get around to doing my conversion I plan to 3D print 18650 battery holders to fit all the available spaces creating my own units.

Working on the tightest of budgets (i.e. free is expensive) I plan to use second hand cells from used laptop batteries.

talkingcars wrote:

If ever I get around to doing my conversion I plan to 3D print 18650 battery holders to fit all the available spaces creating my own units.

Working on the tightest of budgets (i.e. free is expensive) I plan to use second hand cells from used laptop batteries.

I expect the cheapest overall way will be to use a battery from a PHEV, the BMW hybrid batteries in particular are very good. They come with the bms system which is already hacked, along with the main junction box which has recently been hacked as well. Good power output and a decent size. You'll get maybe 30 miles out of the 12kWh packs. I think I might end up putting one in mine eventually.
The trouble with reusing 18650s is that filament isn't that cheap to start with. You'll then need a BMS system, contactors etc. I can also see in the future a battery like that or like the one I'm using will have a harder time getting through inspections. I think they will look very favorably on reusing OEM components which have already gone through safety tests.

Thought I might give a bit of an update on this as quite a bit has changed in the last year.
I took it off the road around about July last year as the insurance ran out and I had some upgrades that I wanted to do.
Firstly I upgraded the battery to a 12kWh BMW hybrid pack as I mentioned in my last post. I also upgraded the control system from the ECU that I designed initially to the “Zombieverter”. An open source ECU from Damien Maguire, more information of which can be found on the Open Inverter Forums.
The Zombieverter turns a lot of the conversion into almost a plug and play setup. Utilising canbus to talk to the components as if they were still in their original environments. I had to do a bit of work in incorporating the Outlander motor control messages into Zombie, but with some help from the Open inverter forums it wasn’t so bad and now the Outlander Motor has native support in this application.
The Zombieverter already supported the Outlander Charger and BMW battery pack contactor box so that was a very easy setup.

I also removed the gear linkages completely and just left it in 2nd gear. I replaced the gear stick with a simple Forward, Neutral, Reverse switch. I also switched out the radio for a
single din android auto touchscreen. I pulled out the middle vents and 3d printed a mount for my BMS display and also a holder for my phone. Still haven’t gotten around to getting any more of the dash dials to work, however I might do a bit of work on that later this year.

Back on the road in November, the perfect time for convertibles! Still no heating which makes the commute to work a bit of a slog in winter. But it’s proved very reliable. The cold weather has a big effect on range, in the winter months when the battery temperature goes below 0c it will struggle to do the 28 miles to work. Now in summer I can get over 40 miles with the same battery with an efficiency of around 4.5 miles per kWh.

In spring time regen was added to the list of Zombieverter features and I was part of the initial testing of that feature. Regen is something I thought I didn’t really need. But well tuned regen on the throttle is completely transformational to driving. It gives you effortless control over your speed with just one pedal and I rarely find myself needing the brakes anymore. I have it setup to light up the brake lights if my regen goes past a certain percentage, which I think is rather important!

I haven’t got anymore photos, because honestly I don’t take much care of the aesthetics of this car so it doesn’t look great. It’s my daily workhorse, rear window is covered in Duct tape where the plastic has split, the interior is pretty messy, and the outside is rather run down. But it never lets me down and saves me £10 a day in fuel commuting to work.

Future plans are to maybe look at getting some of the dash dials working again. I also need to look at the suspension again. Not sure if it’s cheap Poly bushes or something off with the hydrolastic suspension but it’s a very hard ride.
Apart from that I don’t really plan on doing that much to this car in the near future. I have a Land Rover 110 I’m in the middle of converting right now. When that is done I might revisit the F and maybe do another one from the ground up. I’m thinking a bigger pack, around 24kWh, with CCS fast charging would give me all the range I need. Maybe a slightly more powerful motor, 100kW rather than the 70kW I have now would probably be nice. Also I might have to invest in a cabin heater next time around!

in the South East Australian climate (Victoria, Tasmania, much of NSW and parts of South Australia) both heating and air conditioning are essential for a daily driver without those two little luxuries a car would be next to useless in reality. In the UK climate you could probably do without AC but I imagine that a heater is absolutely essential.

So whilst cars designed to be EVs have these features and more, integrated into their designs, these features may prove difficult to incorporate into the conversion, especially in a the limited interior space available in a car as small as the MGF.
That's not  to say just that these problems can't be overcome, but it is to be considered. 

You harsh suspension will most likely be because the hydra-gas spheres have probably lost all their nitrogen gas charge and have been pumped up with fluid to build up the ride height to compensate. Which bring us to another potential problem with doing a conversion on a MGF..... whereas a car with a conventional suspension system can have stiffer or softer springs easily made and installed to compensate for the inevitable differing weight and balance of the conversion, this may prove difficult with an MGF, as such a TF with it's conventional suspension would be a much more suitable candidate.

Cobber wrote:

Your harsh suspension will most likely be because the hydra-gas spheres have probably lost all their nitrogen gas charge and have been pumped up with fluid to build up the ride height to compensate. Which bring us to another potential problem with doing a conversion on a MGF..... whereas a car with a conventional suspension system can have stiffer or softer springs easily made and installed to compensate for the inevitable differing weight and balance of the conversion, this may prove difficult with an MGF, as such a TF with it's conventional suspension would be a much more suitable candidate.

I totally agree with Cobber's observations above.

Congratulations on achieving the upgrades you have incorporated.  A cheap TF with an engine with HGF maladies would be a good starting-point for your next iteration.  You may recall that I visited a couple of years ago with a Silver TF.

I now drive an EV as well as that TF.  I found the single-pedal style of driving tricky to get used to, and I had the same thought about brake lights!  Now that I AM used to it, I find that it encourages a relaxed and energy-efficient, (= range increasing) driving style.

Good luck with the Land Rover 110!
 

As I mentioned on another post there was an f on eBay with a Tesla motor, it was unfinished but at £800 I was sorely tempted.
However as I noted elsewhere, it could be a health hazard, I had one hell of a bollocking for buying a set of wheels, just think of the problems I’d have suffered if I’d bought that.
The long silence could be attractive though.
M

Yes there is a big problem with possibility of upsetting the Minister for War to the point of them crossing the floor and voting with the opposition!

On the heater front, it would be quite easy to put one into the current setup. I have enough space in the engine bay to mount a HV water heater, again the Outlander heater is commonly used. Then I can route it through the hoses from the cabin heater matrix that already come out into the engine bay. Alternatively I could replace the heater matrix with a HV PTC heater for direct heat, then route the HV cables in the same manner as the original hoses. But that is a bit more work
If I had some spare battery capacity for my current commute, or a smaller commute I would have definitely do the water heater option. As it is I generally just take the spare ICE car if the windscreen has frosted up and take that as the sign that it’s too cold for the MG that day. The rest of the time I use a coat and heated seats.

On a related note I am putting a PTC heater element from a VW ID3 into my Land Rover 110 heater box. Actually that part I have already done and tested, it can push out up to 10kW of heat! So the Land Rover will not be cold, nor will the windscreen take long to defrost. But the battery on that will be at least 50kWh.

Suspension wise I did get all the spheres refurbished during the original conversion process. However I am putting some extra weight over the front which is probably not ideal. One idea I have seen in the past is to replace the front spheres with that from the Rover Metro, same subframe but the spheres were designed for the weight of the engine. So they should be calibrated better for taking the weight and also be a straight swap.

As for F or TF for a future conversion, current UK rules make the F more favourable. As pre 2001 vehicles are eligible for 0 tax as you can change the engine size to 0cc. Anything newer (like my F by two months) is taxed on CO2 emissions which cannot be changed on a V5 logbook. I also personally prefer the look of the F headlights.
However there are some changes on the way regarding conversion regulations (not anytime soon but the cogs are moving) so this may change things.
 

EllisoJo wrote:

I do remember. It’s changed quite a bit since you last saw it. I think you might have seen the starting strip down of the 110 project back then as well.

It is good the hear that you have solutions in mind to tackle the lack of a heater.

I'm glad that you find the aesthetic of the MGF headlights  a positive as they have nothing else going for them, they are functionally speaking, bloody awful!
A birthday candle sitting in half a beer can with an old plastic bag as a lens would make a more effective headlight!