Corvairius

Description

When you accidentally stumble across a $200 Corvair and a $300 fully running driving perfect condition Prius that's not legally allowed on the road again, you have but one option.

Thus, the Corvairius was born.

Will it be easy, nope, will it be done soon, also nope, but it will make for a heck of a project.

As far as I'm aware nobody has been able to successfully run the gen 3 drivetrain without the rest of the car. Am I up to the task of performing a world first? Probably not, but I hope to have some help along the way to make this happen.

This will be interesting.

Details

Essentially I have three goals.

Remove everything from the Prius without damaging anything.

Reassemble everything on the floor and get the engine running outside of the chassis while removing as many systems as possible without upsetting the hybrid ECU.

Fabricate subframe mounts and put everything into the Corvair.

This is massively simplifying the amount of work involved.

Aong the way I will need to find a way to spoof the rear ABS sensors, as this current front engine front drive system will be occupying the rear of the Corvair, there will be nowhere for those old rear sensors to go.

The front and rear tone rings and sensors seem to be identical, I would like to find a way to take the front sensor signal, and repeat it to the rear inputs, this will both effectively disable ABS while keeping regenerative braking active, the hybrid ECU disables regenerative braking if any ABS codes are active.

Components

1 × Toyota Prius 2010, 1.8l

1 × Chevrolet Corvair 1964, 0.0l

Project Logs

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Project Corvairius: Running
Ryan • 08/15/2024 at 01:22 • 0 comments

A lot has happened since I posted the last update, I will have to post some of the steps that got me to where I am now to show the progress, but for now I'll show my current status.
The drivetrain is installed, the harness is in, and the car runs and drives beautifully. It lacks an interior beyond a phone taped to the dash and seats, but that's all we really need, right?
The Fitment
Ryan • 01/29/2023 at 21:55 • 0 comments
A lot of progress has been made recently that I’ve neglected to share, I will try to keep up with the updates more regularly now that I have been making good progress.
The subframe has been reunited with the front strut towers, along with the drivetrain.
Basically, the whole front of the car has been reassembled without the rest of the car.
A corresponding Prius front end shaped hole has been created in the rear of the Corvair.
I have a lot to do still, next I will be:
1. Using my pipe bender and making 2” bendable steel reinforcements to strengthen what I’ve cut away.
2. Laying out all of the components and doing a test run without the car. I will be using most of the OEM harness and sensors.
3. Modifying the harness to allow for relocation of certain components, the throttle pedal, brake/skid control ECU will be up front at the firewall, while everything else will be relocated to the rear of the car, their corresponding wires will have to be lengthened.
4. Plumb in the dual cooling systems, the HV inverter and transmission have their own small radiator, pump, and coolant. The ICE cooling loop will be simplified without the exhaust heat recovery loop and heater core, the coolant will instead go directly from the cylinder head to the EGR, then to the radiator into the coolant pump and back to the head.
5. Build and plumb the fuel cell. For testing I’ll start with the OEM fuel pump in a 1 gallon plastic fuel can, this will later be replaced by a custom made 3-5 gallon fuel tank.
6. Mounting of the HV traction battery and 12V battery.
Disassembly
Ryan • 11/08/2022 at 00:18 • 0 comments

I have removed the drivetrain from the Prius, it conveniently comes out on one strong subframe with motor mounts and lower control arms connected.

I will need to section out the front of the Prius unibody to support and locate the struts. This will have to be reinforced to remain strong without the rest of the car.