Quote:

Seriously? The OEM setup on my car 60 amp alternator would be discharging at idle if you turned on the lights and nothing else. So yeah, I'd say that only having a minor discharge with everything on at 700-750 rpm idle is absolutely acceptable considering a 20 amp draw from the fans which may or may not be on.

100 amp alternator is the biggest you can get for any reasonable amount of money that drops in and appears factory. My unit has the same specs as yours so I bet with yours...you'd be in the same boat.

Ask Powermaster what they define as 'idle'. I bet its 2400 alternator RPMs which would equate to 800 engine RPMs which I'm not running that high in gear. Since the output of an alternator is profoundly NOT linear in the lower ranges, this means you see significantly less than the stated idle output...that is unless you up your idle so your running 800 rpm in gear.

Sure enough, if I put the car in park/neutral, the RPM's rise closer to 800 and the discharge is gone.

But back to my original point, my charging circuit isn't perfect as it still can discharge in a few cases but it is 500% better than the factory performance. It looks factory without having some huge GM alternator on my engine. So yeah, I can accept a slight (<10 amps) discharge when I have ALL my accessories on at idle in gear and yes, I consider that well-planned.



Well, that explains it.

Dummy down "well planned" till it fits your situation then call it good enough. Why don't you turn up your idle speed or get a smaller alternator pulley and fix your "well planned" setup.

They say there are no such thing as a stupid question.
They say there is always the exception that proves the rule.
Don't be the exception.