anyone with 914s using anything other than gasoline. please post a picture ,and your story.(ie electrics,alcohol,steam,solar, nuclear,etc)
i believe that there are some members with electric motor setups(can't
remember her name)

....uhhhhh....How about deleting a few of these repetative posts??

uuhhhhh i only posted 1....

QUOTE (LongARM @ Sep 12 2005, 07:46 PM)

uuhhhhh i only posted 1....

No.... You posted at least 5. I moved the others to the recycle bin.

nope ...i clicked it once


hmmmmmmmmm

DMN

but thanx Gint

ok, I'll bite... progress thread is in my sig.



Otmar I think is still recovering from burning man...

As bad as you may find gas prices, using almost anything else is actually more expensive, at least in the short term. E85 (85% ethanol), for example, is about equivalent to gasoline at $3.50/gallon when you do the numbers per mile.

Electricity is very cheap to run (like pennies per "tank"), but the conversion costs are still very steep. $10K is pretty much as low as you could reasonably go, and $15K would not be at all out of line. $15,000 will buy nearly 4300 gallons of $3.50 gas, or nearly 270 tankfuls, or about 5 years of gas if you drive the car quite regularly. A set of batteries is roughly $1000, and may last you 2-3 years if you're careful. Range is still fairly poor (figure 130-150 miles at best), and you're adding at least 1000lbs to the car, so handling typically goes right into the toilet. Shannon Gomes on this board has a delightful 914 that's been converted to all-electric, but he's looking at several more years of driving it before it starts to pay off in cheaper running costs.

The only pure electrics for sale that perform better than a golf cart are in the $50K and up price range, except a few home-builts, which, for the most part, are only fast in a straight line.

If the economies of scale every get around to making the electronics cheap enough, and batteries got a better power-to-weight ratio, an electric could be a killer deal.

Dude here in boise has a 914 with a VW 1.6 turbo diesel (68hp). Accelerates pretty nicelydue to good torque, gets over 50 mpg he says.

Pretty cool I think. I'm looking for a good roller and TDI (easily chipped to 130hp with bigger injectors). Plus you can run biodiesel.

Figure 2k for tdi motor, add $500 for adapter plate, $200? for rad, fans and water lines, $100 make your own motor mount. Various other sundries..$?

Hmm - TDI in 914, very interesting. If I ever loose the 1.7 that would be a very cool alternative. Any idea who does the conversion plate?

Here is one from Rantoul IL. For some reason they didn't include the pictures that were in the paper.

Electric 914

Kenedy Engineering looks to be a great place for adaptor plates and such. They have a list of engines adaptors they make, but I didn't specifically see TDI listed anywhere on the list. Call 'em up!

QUOTE (LongARM @ Sep 12 2005, 05:34 PM)

anyone with 914s using anything other than gasoline.

I run mine on huge amounts of air with just a little gasoline mixed in.
-Ben M.

thanx shannon thats the link i was thinking of.....

look at this ........

......

I would love to tdi a 914. Where can you get a tdi for 2 grand? Who makes an adapter for it? I would also love to tdi a jeep wrangler. That tdi has as much torque as a jeep 4 cylinder.

For those in the SF Bay area who are interested in electric conversions there's a workshop on Sunday, September 25 at 10:00 AM - 5:00PM.

Location:

Hewlett Packard Bldg. #48
19483 Pruneridge Ave.
Cupertino, CA,
Oak Room Auditorium.

Details are here:

http://www.electroauto.com/

Apparently 914s and VW Golfs are pretty popular for this kind of conversion.

The problem with the TDI (1.9 VW) from my experience, is that the torque is all in one big lump around 2.5K-3K. It comes on, then goes FAST. They're great for mileage and highway cruising, but not so much fun to drive. Kind of like slow...slow...slow...wam!...then the power is gone and you have to shift it FAST, to even keep moving. Kind of annoying for spirited driving.

Now maybe that new V-10 TDI in the Touareg

And for those that are really really interested there is a rally the day before at Palo Alto High School:

Electric Car Rally