bottom line?

I own an '87 Suzuki Samurai that recently blew the headgasket in the 1.3 liter gas motor (60hp). I'm probably going to do a motor swap to the VW 1.6td as those engines can still be found and the conversion is relatively straightforward.
But I've also toyed with the idea of going electric.
--So what's a good ballpark figure for cost of motor, controller, and batteries?
--Lead acid or lithium?
--Size of electric motor?
This vehicle is rarely used for trips more than 50 miles but occasionally ventures onto the dunes where we live in coastal Oregon.
All input appreciated.

mammonista said:

--Lead acid or lithium?

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Swap in that VW engine.

flat tire said:

mammonista said:

--Lead acid or lithium?

Click to expand...

Swap in that VW engine.

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And run biodiesel.

You can probably buy another car for what you'll put into a useful EV conversion.

Go to EVAlbum and DIYElectricCar forums to see what other conversions have cost, and the potentially years of work you'll do to get it done (if no kits are available for your specifc car, you'll have to design and make all the mounts, adapters, etc., and potentially redesign and remake them if/when things don't work as expected).

Samurai has a divorced transfer case. Meaning there is a drive shaft between the transmission and transfer case. Could probably just plumb a big DC motor directly into that. That'll give you a high range and low range.

They have a wide selection of rear end ratios to choose from as well as different transfer case gearing, so you can probably find a nice combination that would work.

The challenge would be fabricated a drive shaft adapter, making engine mounts, and then, especially, finding a place for the batteries. Removing the gas tank would leave a big empty space under the rear bed, so you could put the batteries back there, above and below the bed.

Samurai isn't ideal due to the small space and low efficiency, but you wouldn't need a very big HP motor to motivate it.

well I no longer have the back seat in the Samurai as well as squeezing a few in the engine compartment. seeing as the stock 1300cc engine only has 60hp and weighs about 2,000 lbs. so it wouldn't take a lot to motivate it. so what size electric motor would I need to duplicate the gas engine, and how many volts (# of 12v batteries ?) would I need?
thanks in advance!

mammonista said:

well I no longer have the back seat in the Samurai as well as squeezing a few in the engine compartment. seeing as the stock 1300cc engine only has 60hp and weighs about 2,000 lbs. so it wouldn't take a lot to motivate it. so what size electric motor would I need to duplicate the gas engine, and how many volts (# of 12v batteries ?) would I need?
thanks in advance!

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It depends on your goals. I have a Suzuki LJ20 (like a 3/4er sized Samurai) I considered electrifying too.

Although it's massive overkill, you can get a used Nisan Leaf electric motor for under $1k. It's the battery that's going to kill you. $5k for a used but 80% capacity battery would be a bargain, with charger and management system. you'll have to hunt for what you can get. Or just buy a good electric car with a good battery (leaf, Volt, Bolt, etc) and gut it for parts. it would probably be cheaper.

Lead acid is only an option if you want to never go further than the local bar. For example, my friend had a 16 battery electric car that weighed 1200 pounds dry, 4000 with battery. His wasn't a conversion, but a propper designed electric vehicle. it could go 40 miles if he planned his rout to have few stops, never exceeded 35mph, and accepted that the last 5 miles would be with no headlights and under 10mph. he also replaced those batteries every other year.
His car was aerodynamic. Your Sami has the aerodynamics of a brick wall.


To be honest, though, I wouldn't electrify a Sami. it would be useless off road, and even worse on road than it was. Samurai were about being fun little offroaders. they sucked at everything else. The 1.6 liter G16 motor is almost a direct bolt in replacement and had something like 100hp.
Or go crazy and stick a VW diesel in their.

Thanks!!!! Exactly what I needed to know. Had planned on doing a vw td conversion with the 1.6 motor (I already own two vw td's - a 1.9td in a van and a 1.9mtdi in an early jetta coupe) but was curious about going electric in the sami. I have recently built two electric fat tire bikes and got to thinking "hmmmm?" But you told me what i needed to know. Thanks again!!!