I have a bone stock 400 engine from a 78 Charger that I want to drop into my 69 Chrysler until I rebuild the original engine. It has one of those giant 100 amp alternators on it. It has four wires: a giant ground that attaches to the intake manifold, an equally giant wire that is cut off which I think is the battery wire, and two smaller wires that were also cut off that were on a plug that attaches to twin blade connectors on the alternator.

How would I wire this into my electrical system? I already bypassed my ammeter following the instructions from MAD electrical (here's the link:
http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/amp-gauges.shtml). So I guess I could run the giant battery wire to the post on the starter relay. I don't know what to do with the other two wires.

I searched the tech archives and didn't come up with anything, and I will dive into the wiring diagrams if I have to, but I just wanted to see if anybody else had already done this.

Also, if it helps, the ignition is already converted to electronic, and I replaced the voltage regulator with a transistorized stock replacement, no rewiring necessary.

I run one of those in a '70 Challenger. The core engine is a 400 from a '78 Cordoba.

The brackets should bolt up and belt alignment should match the late 60's/early 70's AC setup.

Electrically, the ground wire goes to a good engine ground... manifold or head are best. The big output wire should be replaced with new 6 guage wire running to the fender relay or directly to the battery. Solder a short length of 10 guage fusible link into the 6 guage charge wire for short protection. The 10 guage fusible link is available at an auto electrical shop.

The two smaller terminals connect to the standard 70 and later dual field regulator setup. I belive there is a diagram in the archives for converting a single field car to the dual field setup. Most parts stores will have everything you need.

Besides being a bit heavy, this alternator works great. Lots of idle output. It is the only practical "high amp" option I know of for BB cars with AC.

Compared to the stock small case alternator, the 100 A unit is higher and hangs out farther. On my car (70 challenger) I moved the receiver/dryer back an inch or so to clear the alternator. I also had to extend the cooling neck about 1 1/2" to get the stock style top radiator hose to clear the belts to a Sanden air conditioning compressor.

I'll try to post a pic as well.

pic

will need to consider a higher upper radiator hose for belts clearence

yeap, sorry, noticed that later LOL

This is exactly the information I was looking for. I hadn't even thought about the upper radiator hose clearing the A/C belt. I will have to check that.

By the way, how did you extend the water neck so you could keep using the same upper radiator hose?

I was afraid you would ask... anyhow. I bought a parts store replacement water neck (<10$) and ran a 1" PT tap through the inside. It cut enough threads to hold a 1" pipe in place but not seal. I cut a short section of 1" pipe to fit the inside of the water neck and welded a short section of 1 1/4" pipe to it with overlap. 1 1/4" pipe has 1 1/2" OD and matches the top hose. I cleaned the internal welds with a die grinder and sealed with JB weld... since my welding skills, especially out of position, aren't up to pipe weld specs. Then I threaded the 1" section into the tapped water neck with plenty of JB weld as pipe dope. All of the JB weld applications after a good cleaning with brake cleaner.

With a little sanding and a coat of paint it works and looks fine. Ace hardware and a mig welder and JB weld solved the problem.
FYI I didn't weld the extension to the water neck as it looked like the water neck was grey iron... tough to weld.

The pic shows a standard water neck... not the modfied version.

How about the lower radiator hose? I couldn't tell from the photo if you had retained the post-1973 water pump housing with the lower radiator hose connection on the passenger side. This wouldn't work with the stock radiator in your 70 Challenger. What did you do?

My radiator is shot, so I'm toying with buying one of those aluminum radiators with the lower hose connection on the passenger side. Otherwise I have to replace the water pump housing, but my motor came with a power steering pump which I would like to use, and I can't tell by looking at it if the lower radiator hose exiting on the driver's side would interfere with it.

alt bracketing has nothing to do with water pump housing, so I don't think he changed that... if he did it is just because he didn't have one or damaged the original one.

I went with the late 60's/early 70's style radiator (pass side upper hose, driver side lower hose). This is opposite the '78 core engine setup. That required other changes from the core '78 engine. The '78 power steering pump setup puts the pump in the same space as the earlier lower radiator hose. The solution was a re-pop early 70's style PS bracket from Bouchillon that mounts the pump higher. I used a MP aluminum WP housing in the earlier style (which is the common setup for MP and other repop housings). I also got Bouchilon's advice on a compatible WP pulley... after I bought the wrong one.

Bottom line, I converted most of the accessories to late 60's/early 70's style to fit the car and use the better/lighter repop parts available. All except the alternator and bracket which worked well with the modificatons described.

If you decide to make these changes to your "temporary" 400 ci engine, you should be able to use any new parts on your long term engine.

PS... is the original engine in the Chrysler a 440? If so, some accessory mounts that bolt to both WP housing and head - like alternator - are deck height dependant. If your Chrysler is a 383, anything you do with the 400 should transfer over without problem.

Yes, my original engine is a 440.

You are right to put the word "temporary" in quotes considering how much work I might end up doing to make it fit. I really wanted to do nothing to it and just drop it in. The engine I got is really complete. The guy I bought if from just disconnected or cut all the wires and hoses and yanked it out. It still has oil in it! And it's still attached to the transmission.

Since my radiator is shot, I have an opportunity to buy one that will fit the 400 engine, but that will lock me in to a non-stock look for the future. I have to decide how much I care about that (considering what I want to do to the original engine someday when I rebuild it, I don't think I care very much at all!). The other option is to buy some of those rigid tubes from that place that RapidRobert linked to and make a lower radiator hose that will reach from the passenger side on the engine to the driver's side on the radiator.

This is not the least of my worries. I might have to change the exhaust manifolds - not looking forward to that!