In my latest blog post about the cooling system, In mijn laatste blogpost over het koelsysteem, active battery cooling using the airconditioning I had installed the battery heater and found a place for the heat exchanger. The latter still had to be mounted.
Mount for the Tesla chiller
Using the mount that I made it will be bolted down onto the subframe.
Installing radiators
The radiators that I had designed and having produced fitted very well but had to be mounted. I am using thin vibration dampers since the aluminum does not withstand the vibrations of the car.
Motor radiator filler is indeed very well accessible even with the hood support in place.
I can reuse some of the cover mounts and am adding two new mounts in the battery box cover.
The 3-way valve is mounted a bit higher compared to the radiator outlet and fits perfectly. In my design I already anticipated in having it point upwards a bit to prevent mechanical tensions.
Earlier I already fabricated the mount for the 3-way valve twice but had to change it for the third time.
The pins from the mounting ring pointed forward and interfered with the controller pump. So I turned that 90 degrees and it worked out. It is crowded but just all fits.
In the end it is quite a network of hoses, valves and pumps.
Two items were still an open design challenge, the outgoing cooling connections for the front battery box and the inlet and outlet of the controller.
Cooling connections front battery box
The front battery box has three incoming and outgoing cooling lines. While designing the boxes I had chosen to have the outlet at the highest possible point to prevent air bubbles getting trapped. I did find the flexible nylon corrugated tube that Tesla also uses.
One of the questions still was how to connect the outgoing coolant lines onto the swirl pot.
So I visited the local hydraulics shop and found a set of swivel hose barbs and bulkhead adapters.
Once back at the car these parts turned out to be too big and bulky. Luckily I could return them, but I did need another plan though. Additionally the outlets might be too high to nicely adapt onto the swirl pot since a slightly lower expansion vessel would be nicer.
Coolant connections controller
It also depends on the cooling connections of the controller. In the Ford Transit Connect Electric by Azure Dynamics the DMOC645 is installed horizontally and the straight connectors work out fine. However in my build I would benefit from using angled connectors.
To be able to screw them in, they need to be either of different height or only one of them can be a fixed connector. Question number one is: What kind of thread is it? It is tapered so NPT or BSPT and given die diameter it is 1/2″.
The angled swivel connector I have for the Siemens motor would be a nice match in terms of size. Unfortunately the thread is different.
So I went to the local workshop to see what they had..
They did have two options with the correct thread. Option 1: a tube with adapter.
Option 2: some prefab tubes and elbows. Disadvantage of that option is that they do not swivel..
Once with the car again it was once more quite bulky, especially the tube.
So I visited the local installer shop a couple of times.
While is was more lightweight either the thread delivered did not match with what I asked for or it was not compact enough. Finally I even checked whether I would be able to use AN12 connectors but that also was oversized.
During the search I have been able to determine the correct thread: 1/2″ BSPT so I could narrow down my search. In the end I found what I needed at Flowtechnology Benelux. A nylon elbow from 1/2″ BSPT to 19mm hose barb.
And that worked out nicely for the inlet.
Furthermore they had a 3-way coupler with BSPT thread.
The one they sold was straight but the elbow I had for the Siemens motor exactly fitted in so I now have a nice and compact connection with swivel.
To be continued to connect this to the expansion vessel and of course the puzzle for the outgoing battery box coolant lines.
