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238 Build Your Own Electric Vehicleresults in a net gain on the transaction. Plus there are a number of other aspects—draining fluids, storing parts, not breaking cables and wires—and the physical act ofactually removing the engine without damage to you, your chassis, or the engine. Touse an analogy, it’s like changing your own motor oil at home versus at the Valvoline.It takes you several hours and you have to clean up a mess (yourself and your spot).The Valvoline people, who do it for a living, take 10 minutes and neither they nor youget dirty.If you do the job yourself (schedule an “inside” helper for this step), pick a sturdyjoist to attach your lifting winch to—not a two-by-four—or rent an engine-lifting dolly.Cover the vehicle’s fenders and sides with moving pads to protect them during liftout.Attach the chain or cable to the engine at two different points. Remove the boltsfrom the engine mounting brackets and those attaching the engine to the transmissionbell housing. The disconnected engine slides straight back away from the transmission,then up and out (in theory). In practice, since you have to both pull down on the winchcable and pull back on the engine block, another set of hands helps greatly. Theobjective of the whole process is to remove the 300 lbs. of engine without banging,bending, or damaging anything inside the bell housing (transmission spline shaft, etc.)or on the now exposed business-end of the engine (clutch-flywheel assembly, etc).Carefully set the removed engine down in an out-of-the-way yet protected part of yourwork area.Finally, remove everything else associated with the internal combustion engine: gastank, gas lines, muffler, exhaust pipes, ignition, cooling and heating systems.MechanicalThe mechanical part involves all the steps necessary to mount the motor, and install thebattery mounts and any other mechanical parts. In other words, you next do all themechanical steps necessary for conversion. You follow this sequence because you wantto have all the heavy drilling, banging, and welding—along with any associated metalshavings or scraps—well cleaned up and out of the way before tackling the moredelicate electrical components and tasks. Let’s take a closer look at the steps.Mounting Your Electric MotorYour mission here is to attach the new electrical motor to the remaining mechanicaldrivetrain. The clutch-to-flywheel interface is your contact point. Figure 10-8 gives youan overview of your task in generalized form. Figure 10-9 shows you a great motorcompartment designed by Paul Little at EVPorsche.com. When you flip it over andplace it in the undercarriage, you will see how snug the motor fits later in this chapter.Four elements are involved:• The critical distance flywheel-to-clutch interface• Rear support for the electric motor• Front support-motor-to-transmission adapter plate• Flywheel-to-motor-shaft connection via the hub or couplingWe’ll cover what’s involved in each of these four areas in sequence. Understandthat this discussion has to be generalized because there are at least a dozen good