Ive been having charging problems galore lately and couldnt find a bigger alternator till now. 200 amps should be plenty.



http://www.motorcityreman.com/18.html

 

200 amp alternator = 18-21 HP to turn it. You have fun with that

I miss my stereo days too, but after the 220 Amp Powermaster Unit I had, I can't afford to lose horsepower like that at full load.

 

It will only put noticably more load on the engine if it sees more electrical load. There could be some marginal decrease if the rotor has a greater mass or heavier duty bearings.

Also be sure to check what the idle current available is. Often high output alternators will only provide slightly more current at an idle compared to stock, which is usually where you are needing it the most.

 

www.powermastermotorsports.com

226 amp chrome piece on my hooptie

 

18-21 H.P.??? Where on Gods green earth did you get that info? So tell me . How much does a factory 120 amp alternator rob?? \

 

I'll dig it up. I used to be pretty involved in USAC/DBDrag stuff and talked with Coy at Powermaster, who made about 5 different alternators for me over the years. I'll try to dig up some more info, but basically the magnetic field that has be generated to create the current you need takes horsepower to create. The stonger the magnetic field, the harder it becomes to spin the unit. Trust me, High Output Alternators DEFINITELY eat HP when being spun hard.

 

18-21 does seem a bit high. 5-10 would seem a bit more realistic, at least to me.

if i remember correctly JL runs 300 amp alternators on their trucks to keep the batteries charged up since they are turned on and off often and dont have long periods of running time to charge the system up whats that rob, like 50 hp?

 

OK, did some searching, it seems that an alternator that is 75% efficient (which is pretty high), for a 200 AMP alternator it's only 9-11 HP. Maybe I'm thinking of the 350AMP units Powermaster made. In any case, it's only 10HP at MAX draw.

Now the weight of the stereo......

EDIT: and I doubt JL uses 300 AMP units in race trim. Powermaster, Irragi, and others will tell you anything over 250 is "special application only" and in no way should be spun at race speeds.

 

i'm just posting up what he was telling me and ACWalsh at the J-HO/JLP dyno day last month. they were having issues with the batteries dieing on their trucks since they just got raced 1/4 mile then shut off all the time and never driven for extended periods of time so he got 300 amp alternators for the trucks to keep them charged up.

maybe he mixed up the #, but thats what he told me and walsh last month