Ok so this might sound insane, but as a hotrodder, welding things together and putting power trains in places they don’t belong is normal to me. Our 1950 Chevy currently has a 54 front suspension about to be 1986 Jaguar front suspension. Has an 86 small block and 72 3 speed auto transmission 57 rear diff about to be a 2004 LS 5.3 From a Silverado. This is my hobby. so I LOVE hybrids. I’ve had 5 so far. I have an old Lexus ES300, and have toyed with finding a wrecked gen 2 Prius and putting the powertrain in the Lexus. I can work out all the fabrication and crap, I just wonder if there is any knowledge or support for running a Prius powertrain out of the Prius. please don’t criticize me or attack my idea. I can do it I’m sure but I want to gauge how much of an effort (and there for weather or not it would be worth it) it would take to make it run correctly. if you’re wondering why, it’s because I want to combine what I love about the two cars. Lexus thought it was a good idea in 2013 again, please don’t flog me
Though @Bill the Engineer is currently in a holding pattern, check out the Firebird Hybrid Convertible. Will be interesting to see what you can omit for the gen2 and still keep it happy. A recent gas tank swap by @Rivieraman71 was tricky. Please post photos and any progress
Basically you would be swapping in most of Prius electrical system. So a lots of work but it's possible. For fabrication side you would want to fit wheel speed sensor with same amount of teeth as Prius had to all wheels to make the control units think that they are still in a Prius. What would you use for power steering? Maybe you could actually swap the entire front sub-frame. Then you would need to figure out how to mount the power steering motor (inside in a Prius). For AC Prius control unit would be needed to turn on the compressor. So you would need to use a bits from both systems to get it to work. Unless you just delete the AC. Then you would still have a bit of work to get the heater to work correctly. Where and how you would mount all the control units (in a Prius control units are mostly in the dash and to change the location would cause you to do a lots of rewiring) and hybrid battery. And those rear abs sensors/rings would need to be mounted on rear. Also you would need to figure out what to do with evap system. Using a ECU (and lot's of other parts) from non North American model would make this easier as you wouldn't need to figure out a way to somehow go around a bladder tank (or fit the tank). Actually this would sound like a fun project. A lots of work but fun. If I was there I would help.
I’m thinking use everything Prius. Cut and weld the Lexus so it fits. I did see somebody use the Prius “chassis“ meaning they used the floor pan in the engine bay and built a 1951 Ford pick up around it, that bothered me and just about every level… A 51 Ford pick up is an awesome vehicle, a Prius is an awesome vehicle, but mixing them is stupid. Like shampoo and bacon My thought is to bolt or weld everything Prius into the engine bay of the Lexus… CV axles would be made it in a sleeve and welded, exhaust would be all Prius until we’re at arches over the Prius axle, then custom, I guess the wires might be a problem… Not sure I would want to splice those and add resistance. This is in the “thinking” phase. Often find it extremely beneficial to Discuss things almost to the point of exhaustion before doing them… That way obstacles are encountered before they are taking up the garage for six months
Sure it's insane. So was going to the moon. It definitely seems possible to me, but it'll be a really big job. Not quite like a lunar expedition, but puts custom wheels to shame. If I had tons of time on my hands and wanted to do something like that, I think I might consider using a Gen 3 Prius, though since it makes a bit more power.
Valde and jerry missed your comments somehow. I’d use the whole subframe for sure. And the steering column. Would have to just assume the Lexus airbag and computer would be safe on a Prius Column lol Didn’t think about the ABS rings. Front are Workable rear would be tough. As for evap and gas tank, I’d fit it even if I had to modify the trunk floor. thinking through this, Camry hybrid is probly a way more suitable donor as they are the same size and such. Nevertheless this would be a sweet project. MUCH more challenging than putting a Toyota v12 into something
Airbags are actually relatively easy part of the swap. You can use Prius control unit to control other airbag or use the control unit that came with the car. ABS tone rings shouldn't be a big deal. Aren't the once on rear of your Lexus just separate ring? All you have to do is to get the ring with correct number of teeth. For sensors control unit can use another sensor as long as it's close enough to what's inside the rear hub of a Prius. If you're just going to fit the entire Prius gas tank then electrical side is going to be simpler. I think gen 2 or gen 3 Prius are closer in size to older ES300 (I don't even know what model we are talking about). Those could have track width so close that you could use the entire unmodified Prius suspension with hubs and all. Then you would only need to fit the subframe, fabricate strut mounts, and two engine mounts to get the drivetrain in.
Do you mean what @SFO said about Bill? No, I didn't miss that. I've been following his adventure for a couple years at least. I thought about also mentioning that his method should save work, but SFO beat me to it, so I didn't bother. Now that you mention a Camry base, that sounds almost easy compared to any Prius model.
There are other ways Hybrid Hot Rod 2.0 - The Pria Ghia - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com
Wow! Sounds simpler than I’d have expected. The airbags and abs I mean. Reminds me of post-war (wwii) GM interchangeability. Jerry I meant I didn’t see your reply which is why I didn’t initially respond The VW is awesome. I never thought I’d want to do a Prius build but I very much do that’s awesome - By pallet I meant can it run out of the car. In the street rod world, running a powertrain in a pallet is proof it will run in another car lol
Yes. Kind of. Electronically there are only couple of tipes of abs sensors and only couple of types of airbags in any newer car. But the thing that makes this complicated is how many systems there are. And all that mechanical fabrication isn't easy at all.
Well the fabricating is my gift so I don’t mind that. So airbags... I wanted to grab this gorgeous ls430 steering wheel for my es300 but didn’t cause of the airbag. It would have worked?! The connectors will the same
Probably. I think both the Prius and ls430 (and maybe the ls300) (I still don't know what vintage any of these are so I can't check) do have the same kind of dual stage steering wheel airbag inflator. Those airbags do probably have very close the same filling speed and pressures on the different stages to each other. But to get exact information could be hard or impossible. Electronically there's no problem as resistance is close enough.
I meant an early 2000s LS wheel in an 02 es300. Always liked larger spoke wheels. Pardon how off topic some of this is but I’m learning things about modern car interchangeability that I didn’t expect. Old cars were less surprising cause there wasn’t the electronic side of things. Example: want ball joints in your 49-56 Pontiac instead of kingpins? Everything from the 57 bolts right on (at least for 55-6 but possibly back to ‘37) dxta yea... the big appeal of the Prius power plant is of course the ICE’s ability to NOT run If this gets executed, very few beside my self and people on here will appreciate it, but when a 2002 es300 rolls through the grocery store parking lot “off” I’ll be grinning as for a subframe swap, one thing I didn’t think of was the Prius being a thick wishbone and the ES300 being a big sqaureish loop I’m sure it can be worked with but I’ll be wanting to see both torn down to the frame rails first. I’ll see what I can find at the local yard. They’ve got the cleanest greenest most organized inventory in the country so I know there are plenty both cars, though I’ll be likely looking at Camry (same as es300) one more question. With all the Prius cats and evap working and all the monitors clear on the Prius ecu, logically it would pass NY inspection, but could they fail me when it pops up “2006 Prius “ but they are physically looking at an 02 es? Obviously that’s a question for an NY savy person
With LS (very popular with streetrods - it’s complete fuel injected computer controlled powertrains from modern GM in 4.8,5.3,5.7,6.2) Many have published “pin outs” explaining each wire of the harness. When I put on in our family’s 1950 Chevy, I’ll have an old school dash light (simply a red bulb and crystal) connected to the 2005ish ECU check engine light so I know if there is a need for diagnostics. In this Prius project, I’ll run the factory screen as it’s tiny. I can probably fit it where the ash tray door was on the Lexus and have it hidden. Many low budget LS swaps have a 2000’s gauge cluster in a 50’s glove box. I’m not going that Route. I wonder - speed read out and gas level is all I care about on the original dash. I’d love the Prius warning lights to be available somewhere, would be nice if the wires that turn them on where easily identifiable and I can put the others inconspicuously somewhere without the whole readout?
Speed and fuel level you can easily get from obd2. There's other method for those too mostly depends on how and what you want to connect them to. Warning lights are in separate warning panel. And wiring them to somewhere else would be pretty easy by just connecting to that board and maybe using couple transistor if you want to use something like incandescent bulbs. But all this is easy stuff compared to fabricating.
Wow surprised that’s that Simple. Will it be easy to figure out which wire is which? And that’s a great thing to hear cause to me fabrication is the easy part as I’m used to it with my ‘50
