[DRIVING] 1940 Chevrolet with Tesla Motor

[Aragorn]

That sounds like a lot of work for three weeks, especially 3 weeks of evenings and weekends!

Good Luck, really hoping to see this thing lay down some times.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

That sounds like a lot of work for three weeks, especially 3 weeks of evenings and weekends!

Well compared to last year, it doesn't seem too bad. I had to do a battery swap, move the firewall, build a battery cooling system, and figure out communications with a new BMS in 4 weeks. I was still working on the car the morning I had to leave.

I was really confident this spring that I would have plenty of time and be really ready before the event. Two inverter failures caused by fluke events and one set of stuck adapters later, and it's the end of August with a non running and untested car again. The only consolation is I know there are a ton of other participants also thrashing (on their ICE cars) to get ready for Drag Week too.

[Aragorn]

yeah it does seem like a common theme, from the big youtubers to the little guys and everything in between, its always a last minute thrash as the time runs out.
Did you ever get to the bottom of your WOT tuning issue? Did you investigate the current control firmware that seems to get spicy results?

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

yeah it does seem like a common theme, from the big youtubers to the little guys and everything in between, its always a last minute thrash as the time runs out.

I think its a combination of factors - stuff gets broken throughout the year, other things take priority, wanting to make changes or fix that annoying issue, etc. Then it gets to a point of "if I don't get this done, I can't go do racecar things with racecar friends" so it's a mad dash to get everything done.

Did you ever get to the bottom of your WOT tuning issue?

Sort of. I had a parking lot tuning session and got it to launch by lowering fslipmax. There was still a lot of work to do to improve that version of the tune, but literally driving home from that session, the coolant leak took out the base inverter. Then it was a circus switching to the sport drive unit, then that was killed by the control board inductor failure 2.5 drives in. Now I've had tons of issues fixing the sport inverter, and I'm going back to the base, so maybe I can actually tune on DW this year.

Did you investigate the current control firmware that seems to get spicy results?

I have not yet, as it came out while dealing with these inverter failures. I'm not sure I will before/during DW, because it does require modifications to the pedal wiring, and that may be one thing too far for me. I also don't love the idea of changing firmware right before an event far away from home.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Well after doing some repair work on one of the new phases from Boxster EV (swapping the gate drive board), I did a low voltage test, and was able to get all the way into drive mode without an error. I've got the inverter mostly back in the car, but I have a few things to button up today before I can do a high voltage test and drive test. Hopefully I'll be back on the road and moving on to charging updates this weekend.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

WARNING: DUMB HOT RODDER ALERT
Do not read further if sketchy solutions will raise your blood pressure.

As discussed in a Tesla section thread, I ended up doing probably my second sketchiest thing yet with the car (second to driving powered by a 2kW generator on the roof) and used one Sport phase in my Base inverter to get back on the road. So the car is running again! I have no idea how long this will last, but she did drive around the neighborhood and I romped on the throttle a bit (no WOT yet) and she didn't explode, so we're going with it for Drag Week.

In all of the nonsense fixing the inverter I did get quite adept at removing and reinstalling it, so I feel a bit better about any side of the road fixes, and I do have one more good Sport phase I'll be bringing as a spare.
[END DUMB HOT RODDER ALERT]

I then moved on to charging upgrades, and basically the weekend went to shit. The arduino I had set up to send PWM to the Bolt charger to figure it out doesn't seem to be working properly, so now I have off the shelf PWM generators on the way from Amazon. After spending Sunday on that nonsense, I moved on to creating a board to take battery data and provide FOCCCI current requests. Basically, a charge curve generator. I used ChatGPT to help with the coding, and everything appears to have compiled correctly. I went out to the car to test it, and eventually discovered my CANDue based CAN sniffer / reverse engineering tool is not communicating with my laptop. Did I accidently delete something I need earlier this year while cleaning my laptop? Maybe, but even reinstalling everything I thought I needed, the computer sees the board connected, but somehow doesn't see the COM port. So I've got to work on that this week.

I did get started on wiring FOCCCI and figuring out the pinout of the Bolt charge port, so at least some progress was made.

As the car sits today, apart from the drive unit updates/changes, it is as it came home from DW 2023. In theory, I could take it as is, but I really need better Level 2 charging and I think I need CCS to get through the midwest. It's two weeks to DW 2024, so it's thrash time.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Well I haven't been filming or photographing much of the work, as I'm working on such a tight timeline, but this weekend I got the new CCS port fitted and the Bolt charger and DC-DC converter installed and hooked up to HV. I ended up deciding to use the whole Bolt port, including door, and while it doesn't fit like I wanted it to, it's kind of cool.

I still need to fabricate the CCS contactor box and cables, and finish the 12V wiring for the new charger/DC-DC and CCS. The old Model 3 PCS is out of the car, but it's control board and 12V wiring are still there.

I've posted separately about my code for the CCS integration and new charger. I've made a few tweaks to those, but haven't had the chance to test anything yet. I have several things arriving tomorrow, including a new CANBus tool and new connector for the DC-DC.

I'm hoping to take a break from work and head to the junkyard to look for hoses that will make the cooling system work later today or tomorrow. I also have to take the rear wheels and new drag radials to be mounted, but not sure when.

Once again, I'm cutting it tight and very unhappy about doing so, but I'm hoping this is the last time.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

In the scramble to make it to Drag Week, I didn't post much, but now that the event is over, here's the update:

I did get the Bolt charger and DC-DC working, though not exactly how I wanted. I had to cut bait, and just use a PWM generator that I manually adjusted to run the charger. The DC-DC was setup how I wanted, but I discovered an issue; the DC-DC keeps running sometimes when the PWM is removed, so at times it kept the car powered when I tried to shut it off, as an alternator can sometimes do. I've still got to work on that.

I got CCS fully wired and talking to the station, but my board was not providing current requests fast enough for FOCCCI to be happy. I believe I found the issue in my code, but haven't been able to update it (the Arduino IDE on my personal laptop was acting up, and my work laptop was at home). I think the slower pace of the Voltage message coming in was disrupting the current request going out.

The car and it's patched together inverter did great! No major breakdowns (only a rough road shaking some body panels loose), slightly higher efficiency than last year, and good runs each day. I don't know if the terrain, my driving, the dc-dc, tire pressure, tune, or something else led to the higher efficiency, but it did seem closer to 360Wh/mile rather than 400Wh/mile. I need to do more logging to make sure I have that right before saying the range is actually longer.

In terms of performance, I did have two runs trigger the gate driver desat shut down, but 7 runs go cleanly. It does seem that a long burnout reduces the likelihood of a shutdown (maybe from heating the motor?). Best run of the week was an 11.75 @ 114. Some more info on the event is in the thread here: viewtopic.php?p=75187#p75187

Moving forward, I want to get CCS running, get the OBC running automatically, and fix the DC-DC shutdown issue. Plus a few general repairs/upgrades like trunk and window seals. Then its just more tuning and suspension tuning to get the car quicker. I do think low 11s are possible, and maybe even 10s, though that may require a full Sport inverter.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Annndddddd we have CCS!!!

With a few tweaks to my charge curve board's code to make sure that the outgoing messages are sent quick enough for FOCCCI, I completed my first CCS charge today! It's hot and humid here in Raleigh, and I do have non-car things to do, so I only tested at one EVGo charger (made by Delta), but it is working! Next weekend I'll likely do a bit of a charger testing cruise one evening when it's a little less toasty in the car.

I also couldn't help but stop and take some new glamour shots of the car on the way home. It is so good to have her back on the road, and now with even more functionality!

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Saturday evening I went out for a cruise, and tested on two more CCS stations; an Electrify America and an ABB at a Nissan dealer. Both worked flawlessly, though I need to make some changes to my charge curve - it ramps down way to soon and way to far. Hoping to get to that this week and keep testing next weekend.

It was a lot of fun to get to basically play with the car. It was still a bit hot, but the weather is getting nicer this week. I tried to be a responsible citizen, but I did romp on the car a bit, especially when some Audi SUV thought they were going to pass me, and when I happened to turn alongside a Mercedes EQS. It is so much fun to be going 45mph and then all the sudden be doing something that starts with an 8. I love driving this thing.

[AMP3R]

I tried to be a responsible citizen, but I did romp on the car a bit, especially when some Audi SUV thought they were going to pass me, and when I happened to turn alongside a Mercedes EQS. It is so much fun to be going 45mph and then all the sudden be doing something that starts with an 8. I love driving this thing.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

I realized I forgot to share this here - finally another video on the car and the repairs/upgrades over the past several months. There's not really anything that hasn't been shared in this thread, but if you want to see my ugly mug ramble on about it, here you go! I will have out a video about Drag Week next Saturday too.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

My Drag Week 2024 summary video is up! Watch my ugly mug blab to camera, as well as each full pass including occasionally on/in car cameras (when I remembered them and they didn't die)

I'm also doing some work today on the CCS charge curve, so hopefully some updates on that soon.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

So, the '40 has been on the back burner for the past few weeks as I've caught up on life and had other obligations. We also had a few weeks of fairly cold weather (for Raleigh anyways) which makes it not much fun to drive a hole filled car with poor windows seals and no heat. I did switch the coolant from water over to antifreeze a few weeks ago, so no more racing this year.

This past weekend, I was out in the garage working on my daily, and noticed a small puddle of coolant under the inverter side of the motor. Fearing the worst (an internal inverter coolant leak, since I've done the rotor delete) I opened up the inverter casing, and no coolant poured out. I do have an auxiliary pump located above the inverter that pushes coolant back to the radiator and main pump in the front of the car. So, I put some paper towels on top of the inverter, and cleaned up the puddle. After two days, the paper towel is wet, and the floor appears dry. So it looks like simply a pump leak. I've got a spare, and was thinking of relocating it anyways, so I'm hoping to take on that project this weekend.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Time for a bit of a non-update update.

The '40 has continued to sit over the past month. Several weekends of holiday travel, and catching up on things because of that travel, and other life things.

The current plan is to:
1) use a preformed hose I found at the junkyard to relocate the auxiliary coolant pump so that it is not above the drive unit, and in the process replace with a spare pump.
2) Finally add heating to the battery. This will involve not only adding a heater to the system, but also replumbing the pump to add a coolant reservoir. I've got to work out contactors (and a location for them) to send power to the Volt heater, but I do have the HV relays from 4 different Volt packs to choose from and figure something out.

Neither of these are terribly fun to work on when it is hovering around freezing in the garage. Hoping for some warmer weather soon.

I also have to do some work on the garage itself becausssssseeee..... I'll be trading in my 2017 Challenger for a Dodge Charger Daytona EV any day now (waiting on it to arrive at the dealer) and I want to have a Level 2 charger for that. Fortunately, there is already a subpanel with 100A in the garage, I just have to pull a permit and wire the receptacle. In the process I'm going to fix some of the 110V stuff that I don't like while I have the panel open. Once I have the Daytona, it'll be an all EV fleet around here. Hoping to build a budget EV shop truck later this year.

And after all of that, the '40 is hopefully going to get a new inverter this spring as well (because I'm totally made of money). I'm planning to find a "for parts" sport LDU and use some of the parts I have to build a working Sport inverter. Goal is to run 10.5 in the 1/4 on Sick Summer and Drag Week this year.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

I finally got around to fixing the rear cooling pump yesterday, as I had both time and nice enough weather to deal with coolant. Video to follow at some point. I was able to get the new pump mounted in a new location, and the hoses all connected, and then I discovered that despite coming off very similar Priuses (this is one of the Prius's auxiliary pump by Bosch, not the main pump I've repeatedly fried) the old and new pump use slightly different connectors. So now I've found and ordered the right connector, and can hopefully wrap up this project next weekend.

I also completed the install of my new 240V, 40A charger for my Charger, which also benefits the '40. Its really nice having that sort of charging power at home now. No idea why I waited this long to do that. I did end up wiring a 14-50R receptacle, rather than hard wiring the charger. This was done intentionally to support future welding needs. Future builds might require TIG welded cages.

[dbc105]

Paul, I streamed Drag Week and saw you run, great job. I saw a video that might be of help to you if you've not already seen it. It is a battery trailer range extender the guy built, uses a Tesla battery. The way I see it, you would keep your small pack in the car to race, light weight, then unplug it and plug in the trailer to travel. Anyway, here's a link and I hope to see you on the track again next year.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Paul, I streamed Drag Week and saw you run, great job. I saw a video that might be of help to you if you've not already seen it. It is a battery trailer range extender the guy built, uses a Tesla battery. The way I see it, you would keep your small pack in the car to race, light weight, then unplug it and plug in the trailer to travel. Anyway, here's a link and I hope to see you on the track again next year.

Thanks

Drag Week rules explicitly prohibit using anything on the trailer to fuel, charge, or cool the vehicle while in motion on the route. So in theory I could haul it around like a portable charging station and stop to charge from it, but it would likely eat so much range that it wouldn't be beneficial.

Long term the solution is a new car. I'm taking the '40 on Sick Summer and Drag Week this year, but I'm working on plans for something that will be much quicker and have a longer range. No idea if I can get it done for 2026, but that would be the goal. All depends on money basically.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Alright so a brief update:

I did finish the auxiliary cooling pump upgrade, but the new pump is making a heck of a racket. Might end up swapping it it out, I have to do some more testing and verify that everything is staying cool.

I also finally implemented the throttle signal mod and upgraded to FW 5.35r. I also did switch the encoder signals and utilize the new pinswap functionality so the drive unit correctly knows its forward when in forward and reverse when in reverse. Had a chance to do a quick test at lunch time today, and it drives smooth. It's a bit weird since I have an EV for my daily now, its made it hard to remember how the 40 had felt, so I'll need to get to a track to see if 5.35 really did provide improved performance. I definitely will add in some more off throttle regen to match how I have the daily configured. I'll also have to add a note to the dashboard so that my future sleep deprived self doesn't try to just upload an old tune at a race in the future.

The weather is getting nice here so I'm hoping to get some track time soon. One of the goals is to race this car at every drag strip in North Carolina (approx 18) so I'll have some local road trips soon, plus Sick Summer and Drag Week. I'm still considering Sick at The Rock in a few weeks (a 2 day Drag and Drive in Rockingham) but I would have to move a few appointments to make that happen.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Playing with hot rods is fun, even when the pollen is so bad it looks like fog.

I spent all afternoon and evening on Saturday playing with the '40. This included charging testing, efficiency testing, acceleration testing, and simple cruising.

First, I tested my new CCS charge curve. I'm fairly happy with it, but it ramps down a bit too aggressively so I sat at 25kW and 8kW for a long time on a 100kW charger. But doing a stepped ramp worked better than a linear one, and reporting SOC in 10% intervals seemed to make the station a bit happier.

Then, I did an efficiency test. From the charger I was using to test, there's a good stretch of road that is very similar to the routes we get sent on for Drag Week (4 lane divided with stoplights every couple miles) that ends in a small downtown area about 13 miles away. So I drove there, got lunch, and drove back to the same charger, and charged to full again. In total: 27.3 miles consumed 10.235 kWh, meaning 2.67 mi/kWh or 375 Wh/mi. Assuming that the pack retains the energy capacity it had the last time I did a zero to 100% charge of 28kWh, that means a max range of 74 mi. I'm saying it has a safe range of 65 mi, given that I really don't want to push the battery that low.

I went home for a bit to handle other things, and then took her back out. First stop: acceleration testing. I remembered that the GPS speedo I put in the car has a 0-60 timer built in. Well with the "street" tune in it, which is what ran 12.1 sec in the 1/4 all week at DW 2024, it pulled a 3.47sec 0-60. And did it twice in a row.

Then, I headed into downtown Raleigh to grab some dinner, BBQ with a Cheerwine (NC based cherry soda).

Then I did some cruising around downtown and over to one of my favorite parts of the city, Dorothea Dix Park, before heading home for the night.

[johu]

Sounds like a nice day out

Just had to check, the Model S P85 that your motor would come from(?) is 4.4s 0-100kph. Nice work!

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Just had to check, the Model S P85 that your motor would come from(?) is 4.4s 0-100kph. Nice work!

Thank you!

The current drive unit is a base, or actually a base hybrid (2 base phases and 1 sport phase) from cramming to get ready last year. So Model S 85. I'm hoping to move to a full Sport inverter from the P85 at some point this spring, depending on budget, mostly.

It is significantly lighter than a Model S. With me in it on DW2024, it weighed in at 3510 lbs (1592kg). And most of that weight is right over the rear axle, so no traction limitations.

I'm cooking up an idea for a future car that takes a Plaid drive train and puts it in something really light - hoping to have the money to start on it late this year. It appears the Plaid inverters share the basic design of the Model 3 inverter, so Damien's board might be usable to enable those shenanigans.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Another weekend of chipping away at various gremlins and messing around with the car.

First, I addressed an intermittent issue with my DC-DC subverting the emergency disconnect. This has only been an issue with the Bolt DC-DC, because it will continue operating when the PWM drops out and apparently, when the 12V battery drops out too. I had originally wired my emergency shutdown, which I also just generally use to shut everything off, with a 12V contactor that was controlled by the dash and rear emergency switches, and then my HV safety contactor received 12V power when the 12V contactor was on. This worked fine, except with the DC-DC continuing to operate, it kept supplying 12V to the safety contactor. I also think there may have been a slight wiring issue in the control of the DC-DC's contactor which was preventing it from dropping either. Regardless, I solved the issue by placing the HV safety contactor in parallel with the 12V contactor, so both are only able to get power when the emergency switches are in the correct position. Should have been this way from the start, but its fixed now.

While I was messing around with this wiring, I finally added the now NHRA required full car 12V fuse which had been sitting on the workbench for 6 months. (every circuit is individually fused, but they want one master one now too).

I also did a bit of tweaking on the CCS curve, and I think I'm pretty happy with where it is. Only tested on one charger, but should get more next weekend.

On the way home from testing the CCS curve, I also stopped to get groceries, and given the suspension of the 40, I'm pretty sure the eggs I bought are now pre-scrambled (but at least none broke). But I love the confused look on people's faces when this rolling junkyard quietly pulls into the parking lot, and I get out like it's completely normal.

I'm considering going to Sick at the Rock next weekend for some racing, but still TBD.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

A non-update update that's also kind of a big update:

So as a refresher, last year I had a Base inverter fail due to coolant (one phase bad) and a Sport inverter fail due to a part falling off the control board and dropping 12V (one phase bad), and in the rush for DW, I put one good Sport phase into the Base inverter and it worked.

Well I've been paying attention to the evilbay, and waiting for a good opportunity to pick up a new Sport drive unit, even a damaged one because I could harvest a phase. Last week, I spotted someone parting out a Sport LDU with one bad phase, and I snatched up one of the good phases for a reasonable price. It arrived earlier this week, and I'm hoping to find time in the next couple weeks to rebuild a full Sport inverter. I'm dealing with a bunch of real world work, and my new daily is giving me issues, so it's going to be a bit. But it's very exciting. This year, we're hunting for 10s in the 1/4!!!

[barracuda816]

Oh no, what's happening with the charger (Dodge) ?