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I've been running a Suzuki alternator for a season now. I picked it up for $30 from a wrecker and it already had a 4 rib pulley that was slightly larger which helps slow down the spin rate a bit.
I moved the alternator to the exhaust side of the engine so that I have more room to access the oil filter and underneath of the intake manifold. It's mounted by a small waterjet cut bracket that is mounted off the block.
This verson has a T plug for ignition trigger and doesn't seem to draw down the battery.
I made a billet tension bracket... but accidently made it flipped. Still works though but just looks wrong. It mounts off my EWP water pump delete plate.
The Suzuki wrecker I went to had a shelf of alternators sorted into sizes. There are lots of different options in the smallest size, some with two mounting flanges, most with 3 rib pulleys but all the same body. I just choose one with a single flange and the largest 4 rib pulley so that it's slightly under driven compared to stock. The wrecker had no idea what model it came off but there were several of them there so I figure its a fairly popular model.
Looked into that extensively, including getting a hefty quote from a machine shop and reaching out to garage star for a custom piece. Nothing OFS exists, we solved our failing alternator issues on our enduro car with a ~3” duct from the parking light on our NA.
Looked into that extensively, including getting a hefty quote from a machine shop and reaching out to garage star for a custom piece. Nothing OFS exists, we solved our failing alternator issues on our enduro car with a ~3” duct from the parking light on our NA.
Fresh air ducting alternators, now I've heard it all.
What was failing on your alternators curly? I've had a rectifier fail and a bearing seize, not sure those were heat related though.
I wonder if some of the failures could be attributed to very high alternator accelerations, eg a hard 1-2 shift when the engine can drop 3k revs very quickly, ie the alternator drops 7.5k revs in under half a second.
Has anyone tried an overrunning type (one way) alternator pulley on their car yet?
For those not familiar, its basically like a bicycle crank, ie the engine can spin the alternator, but the alternator can't spin the engine. Pretty much all new engine designs for the last 10 years have been using them. It would give quite a few benefits in our application.
1. Reduces alternator torsional deceleration on upshifts.
2. Alternator keeps spinning at speed as you go to next gear, that means your revs can fall more quickly (ie you don't have to slow down alternator) and then the engine doesn't have to provide energy to alternator to speed it back up again.
3. By cutting out negative torque, the torsional vibrations transmitted are reduced.
Seeing as the engine speeds we have aren't a step change vs stock (few people running >10% over), it would seem that might not be the cause of the failures as there's usually a fairly good safety margin in something like an alternator, especially as we aren't running on track with main beams, heated seats, full stereo etc... A more likely factor would be that either the torsional vibrations or the torsional deceleration on upshifts would be the killer, and the overrunning type alternator pulley would help hugely.
Though this is neglecting to mention heat, which is generally just a killer of everything electrical, so maybe that's the main factor, but an overrunning type alternator would help.
If you want to step down in pulley size you can buy the same denso as the suzuki but from summit racing with slightly different cases and v belt pulley for $280. I bet the pulleys for that alternator fit the suzuki one so you could convert to 1.6 accessories and make under drive easy.
What was failing on your alternators curly? I've had a rectifier fail and a bearing seize, not sure those were heat related though.
Ducted alternators aren't new at all, many cars have ducting to the alternators, BMW 3 series and Toyota Celicas to name a few. We were seeing voltages usually around 17 or 19 volts, occasionally just 12 volts when the alternator failed. We did find that some reman'd alternators had m6 studs like a 1.6 alternator, some had m8. We had more luck with the m8 studded alternators, not sure if that meant anything though. Problem went away when we ducted it, we did 3-4 race weekends like that, then swapped to an EcoTec, and have had no issues with that engine revving to ~7k. Haven't done the math on pulley sizes on the GM engine.
I see all this work on small alternators and I have been running a 140 amp FD RX7 unit (which is 2 lbs heavier) in my car for the last 4 seasons.
Cool story bro?
Some people allocate weight to big alternators to power EPS and save weight with paper-thin seats and lap belts. Other people see a heavy lump in the front of the car (that has reliability issues to begin with) and look to save weight there. Different strokes.
Some people allocate weight to big alternators to power EPS and save weight with paper-thin seats and lap belts. Other people see a heavy lump in the front of the car (that has reliability issues to begin with) and look to save weight there. Different strokes.
You don't even need a heavy alternator to power eps, I ran the volvo pump with both the stock and geo alternator with a tiny model aircraft battery without issue. The geo tracker alternator actually put out more real world amps than stock anyways.
I've had no issues with my little Suzuki one. I had lots of issues with the Oem alternator especially at high revs. Plus there is a lot less mass to spin up.
You don't even need a heavy alternator to power eps, I ran the volvo pump with both the stock and geo alternator with a tiny model aircraft battery without issue. The geo tracker alternator actually put out more real world amps than stock anyways.
Can you really say anything on your car went "without issue"
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