I have a few questions on alterantors...
-what modifications would need to be done to run the car with no alternator?
-how much horespower is gained by this?
-who has done it successfully?
-how often would the battery have to be recharged?

 

the hole point of a alternator is to not use the battery constantly.

all the alternator is , is a generator. and lemme tell yeah. ya need it to keep the battery charged.

 

yeah but after the car is started, how much power do our cars really consume? Even with headlights on stereo blasting the battery wont die for quite some time. I have heard of people not running alternators before in racing applications just to gain some extra hp. I know its not practical to implement this on a daily driver, I was just wondering.

 

I lost my alternator while racing one weekend a few years back,and I must say it didn't hurt my performance at first,but by the end of the day my car seemed down on power.I then drove the car home from NH to southern MA the next day,and by the time I got home pretty much any electrical part was non-operable,and the engine was barely running.So I would say you need an alternator.There is no question in my mind that the car will work without one,but not for long.I would imagine the performance gain from this mod is not worth the headache of charging a battery everyday,and therefore needing to replace a battery more often.Bad idea period.

 

what electrical components need to be on for the engine to run properly? you said your engine was barely running.

 

Ignition, fuel pump.

You could get a magneto ignition system and a mechanical fuel pump and always park on a hill and be good to go. Also get mechanical gauges.

 

You need electric power for ignition and fuel pump. If power is down for either one, performance is down. How much hp would you gain with out the alt, oh, about 2 cheeseburgers worth.

 

And keep a video camera aimed on it so we can enjoy the show...

 

I think in our case (carburated atleast) it shouldn't be a problem running without an alternator with a good battery. Not a good idea for daily driving. Charge it nightly and it should be all good. For daily driving maybe running 2 marine batteries in the bins. How long would it last would be the question.

This would probably be a bad idea for the ecm folks.

 

Haha, my Carter would probably drain the battery by the time I got to McDonalds to get my cheeseburgers.

Alternators rule!

 

If anything I would think it would be better (for overall performance) to drive without the battery... weight savings over the alternator.

 

This would not be good on the battery. Canstant draining to low levels and rechanging will ruin the battery in short order.

 

Huh??^^

 

Better idea yet.

Right, draining a wet cell battery down leads to more build up on the plates and shortens the life of them.

Nah, my Mallory Comp 140 can out drain your Carter any day. Damn thing requires a 3/8" return line line.

 

Remove alternator, apply power to the wire that tells the car the alt is going, and use the famous "yoohoo" belt to run the water pump.

between 1-2hp, and about 5lbs of weight savings

Nobody I know

If you're doing nothing but run the bare car itself (and it's a carb'd 12a) then you'll probably get 60km or so would be my guess. I drove it home about 30km without noticing a drop in headlight or console light brightness. You'd definitely have to charge it daily and wouldn't be able to take any long trips.

You'd need a battery that's specially designed for that kind of drain/charge cycle. Racers have 'em, they're expensive as all hell.

If you're running the most BARE car possible, you'll strip a hell of a lot before you would ever consider removing the alt. Bike racers are more likely to do this than car racers, since a small amount of weight makes a big difference on a bike. But in the car, you won't see any improvement unless you're in a high enough class of racing that you've done absolutely everything else you can do within the rules, and you're still on equal grounds with your opponent. If you want that 1hp difference, this can give you that advantage (assuming all other attributes are the same, driver skill, car weight down to within 1lb, exact same mods).

Jon

 

Fuel pump,ignition,directionals(yes some people in New England actually use them),brake lights,and in my case the radio so I don't have to listen to the Carter fuel pump humm.

Chris

 

basically unless its a car dont take off teh alt.

if its sheetmetal that looks like the car go ahead..

 

thanks for all the info everyone.

 

What's funny? I must have missed something.

 

Vipernicus hinted at it best.......

If you are considering removing the alternator,then you either dont understand the importance of the alternator,or your really,really,REALLY passionate about every lb and every HP,which means you are very likely racing the car only.

Seriously,though batteries and just about every electrical system on the car dont like being run low on juice.The lower the battery gets,the weaker your ignition system gets,the more your various relays and motors will struggle,ect,ect,ect.
Cars are designed to run on a 13-14V system.The battery only puts out around 12.8V when fully charged,and it only gets lower as it discharges.The alternator runs everything on the car at 13-14V when the engine is operating,in addition to recharging the battery after startup.Once the engine starts up,the battery should not have to do anything but wait until the next startup.

 

SO EVERYONE KNOWS!!!
yeah i am not stupid i know what an alternator does, i know the car needs higher voltages to run well. I am not going to / was not ever even thinking about doing this mod, i was C-U-R-I-O-U-S. I know its been done on other cars and i was "JUST WONDERING" if anyone had done this to an FB!!! Got it!?!?

 

lol, the man knows!



That's why I only *hinted* at it. I figured you knew, but wanted to reinforce it for anyone reading the thread

Jon

 

Yea,dont get too mad there bud.

This is the internet,any one who wants to can just read this,interpret it the wrong way,end up doing serious damage to their car,then come back screaming and bitching about how their "deleted alternator mod" F-ed up their car...heh,heh

I didnt mean YOU had no idea how an alternator worked,but face it,that is an.....unusual question..... in regards to car modifications.Just wanted to help reinforce to the masses, the consequences of removing the alternator on a non-race vehicle......

 

.

 

in short, you would want an alternator to run the car's electrical system. no ifs and buts to this.