openinverter forum

Hello! I've been lurking for a while, and I feel it's time to make a post. I've been a Volvo enthusiast for most of my life. My parents had a white '83 245 from new. I've owned several Volvos over the years. I bought this one a few years back, thinking I'd do the typical Volvo bits (turbo, 5spd swap, suspension, etc.), but I was never really motivated to get underway.

Around the same time, I found Damien's YouTube videos, and then this forum. This is what I've been looking for. I'm a systems engineer / architect, and have written code professionally at different parts of my career. One of my other hobbies is repairing electronics, especially older analog audio gear.

All that said, I've started my project in earnest. This afternoon, I pulled the ICE and gearbox from the car.



I'm thinking that I'm going to go with the GS450H as my motor, since that seems to be the easiest way to get a car with this configuration converted. I've been watching Gregski's videos as well. But, I'm totally open to suggestions in terms of hardware, etc. Right now, I still have some more ICE related bits to remove like the fuel tank. And I'm going to assess how much rust repair and cleanup needs to happen.

Things are happening:

After some searching on car-part.com, I found a GS-450H transmission for a really good price. I think they're pricing it like the GS-450 ICE auto trans? Around the same time, I spoke with a member on a Volvo message board, not too far from the salvage yard's location in Canada. He's looking for some of the manual transmission parts that I have kicking around. He's buying the transmission, driving it down here, and driving back with my parts. We both wind up getting a good deal, and no shipping.

Based upon the pictures they sent, it looks like it has the pump, the HV loom, and even (part of?) the wiring for the pump? I doubt the controller is included, but those aren't too expensive on ebay.

Behold! The crustiest oil pump controller in all of the land!

Time to get a transmission jack and start thinking about fit and fabrication:

Happy to report my Zombieverter VCU board arrived today. I likely won't touch this for another few weeks. I have some more pressing matters before the weather gets too cold to be working outside or in the garage. Like insulation for the garage ceiling joists. Once that's done, I can think about how reasonable a smaller heater in the garage might be.

I'm really looking forward to this project. Those old Volvos are just awesome

Clutch disk arrived today, via ebay: viewtopic.php?p=48324#p48324

Now to decide how to attack it with the grinder.

Next, I'll be ordering the blanking plate from this thread: viewtopic.php?p=20934#p20934

Nice project. What sort of batteries are you planning?

Not sure on the batteries yet. I've known from the start that batteries are likely to be the most expensive part of this project.

I think either Volt (Ampera) or BMW packs will be the cheapest based upon what I've seen on the used market over here. I may wind up buying a small pack just to make sure everything works as expected while saving up funds for more storage.