Thread: Alt. or Just Battery?

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I'm running a 60A alternator with an over-sized pulley. I do believe it is more reliable to have alternator especially if you get into situation where you don't have time to recharge between rounds. However, I do not agree that there is no "significant" power to be had.

I found out (accidentally) that I can pick up over a tenth when the field wire is unplugged (external regulator). I wired in a relay to cut out the field wire and consistently saw about a tenth faster ET. I have not done this for a while because this will cause big voltage spikes when you cut it back in and I had lost an ignition box in this time frame (maybe coincidence, maybe not).

Anyway, this works out to be about 10HP gain for my vehicle with alternator field wire disconnected. Mind you there will be more to be had taking alternator out altogether without the mechanical load on the belt. I know many who would go to great lengths to find 10HP but I will not ditch my alternator because it is hard to power a race car (ignition, fans, fuel pump, maybe water pump) from battery alone without considerable charging between rounds.

two cents,

-Chris

Like I said I'll check tomorrow to see how much room I have up front for a alt, I'll be running electric water pump, fan, fuel pump.

10-4 it's all good. Talked to my friend today that has the roadster and he said he was going to put a alt on his along with the two batteries, he said when they really get into it he don't want to have to worry about power issues. Ran into a problem with mine today with space I'm going to have to pull the radiator back out just to get a socket on the crank bolt so I can turn the engine over to time it for the dist.

I've watched a lot of guys on Pinks All Out who get into the finals and then run into a problem with their batteries getting too low to either crank the car or run the MSD box. They apparently are running their electric fans between rounds, trying to cool it down, and drain the battery.

I've always said that if I built a car for Pinks I would run a 4 D or 8 D battery (Diesel truck/marine stuff) and then have a second group 27 as a back up, on a selector switch. Lots of reserve amperage in those, and the weight could be helpful in the back for traction.

Don

Originally Posted by skids72

I'm running a 60A alternator with an over-sized pulley. I do believe it is more reliable to have alternator especially if you get into situation where you don't have time to recharge between rounds. However, I do not agree that there is no "significant" power to be had.

I found out (accidentally) that I can pick up over a tenth when the field wire is unplugged (external regulator). I wired in a relay to cut out the field wire and consistently saw about a tenth faster ET. I have not done this for a while because this will cause big voltage spikes when you cut it back in and I had lost an ignition box in this time frame (maybe coincidence, maybe not).

Anyway, this works out to be about 10HP gain for my vehicle with alternator field wire disconnected. Mind you there will be more to be had taking alternator out altogether without the mechanical load on the belt. I know many who would go to great lengths to find 10HP but I will not ditch my alternator because it is hard to power a race car (ignition, fans, fuel pump, maybe water pump) from battery alone without considerable charging between rounds.

two cents,

-Chris

--and I never hit the switch unless I'm out on the other lane, at about the 1000 foot mark it will give a few hundredths cushion on my dial in...Hey, had to do something when the starters got so dang nasty about deep staging!!!! the left front has about 3/4" lead, must have been an engineering error!!!! Honest!!!!

Did you go to a 16V battery with the dual connections yet Chris????