Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

I wonder if you could rig an alternator to run like a windmill since there is plenty of windpower at driving speed?

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

Consider this........ At low power output.... cruise, your engine is sucking a strong vacuum to hold the amount of air it is taking in down, thus holding power and fuel consumption down, etc......... That is a given load that is doing absolutely nothing useful. A suction turbine could drive an alternator, and a bypass throttle would allow full power by bypassing the alternator when you needed everything you had. Vacuum is ABSOLUTELY FREE ENERGY.... You gotta produce it and it's parasitic.

The vacuum you MUST produce at cruise, does not know weather it's doing work or not. You have to have intake resistance to control engine output



Howard

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

Pull the fan off the alternator and unplug it.......... The fan is the only load on the alternator when it isn't charging.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

What about HID bulbs? They do have significant energy savings... legality and practicality may vary. But you could cut the elEctricity usage of your headlights by around 50%.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

HIDs require a significant investment, unless you're willing to endanger yourself and others by blinding other drivers.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

why don't you bolt on a small solar panel to the roof? or embed it? structurally they're rated at hurricane force wind loading.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

Ahem. I know everything is different in Canada......
Modern vehicles run off the alternator.
How do you get around that?

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

since my 84 crx doesn't have all the electrical requirements of newer cars, and the water pump is driven off the timing belt, I am considering removing the belt , and adding a deep cycle battery. but here's another thought, put a larger pulley on the alternator. would this lessen the load of the alternator, while keeping the battery charged? if not would it at least lengthen the time it takes to drain the battery, and run a deep cycle battery?

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

That's a popular modification among the more common high-speed folks, called an "underdrive pulley". I'm not sure how well it would work for us low-RPM gas savers.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

if it would give any charge at all, it would be better than nothing, and help to extend the range of the battery. the question is, how much gas would we save ?

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

I have been researching this for a while, and one of the concerns is that without the alternator, the spark will only be 12 volts instead of 14. how about running the ignition system on a seperate circuit, running the alternator with a larger pulley, connected to a motorcycle battery. the rest of the electrical system could be hooked up to a deep cycle battery. now the spark would be 14 volts, and the alternator would not be working very hard. I realize this would only be practical for older cars, but my crx is a 84. as long as I was able to bump start my car, I would be able to get home even if the deep cycle battery was too low to start the car, assuming its not dark. The other option would be to just put the starter on a deepcycle battery, run larger pulley on the alternator, and run a motorcycle battery. my car doesn't have a radio, and without the burden of a starter, it wouldn't take much battery to run the system.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

It's not too hard to unplug the round connector from the back of the alternator- this will stop it from charging. Then you could check the drive ability and mpg at 12 volts. A higher voltage aftermarket coil would give you a similar spark at only 12 volts. You could likely even find a coil designed for an external resistor (breaker points system) and leave the resistor out.

IMHO- I don't think that running a motorcycle battery will reduce alternator load- since it still has to maintain the voltage set by the regulator. The motorcycle battery would give you less reserve capacity, but I think the load on the alternator would be the same.

Honda put an alternator control module on the CRX HF's for sure back in 86, I don't know if they went all the way back to the 84 crx 1300. The control module was able to control whether the alternator charged or not. It stopped the alt from charging under certain conditions (probably under deceleration and light loads). The 87 CRX HF had to have a certain model of alternator for this to work properly- the only way you could tell that it was the correct one was from the part number (it looked identical to the rest of the 84-87 alternators).

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

the reduced load to the alternator would come from the larger pully. isolating the ignition system with the motorcycle battery would hopefully not overtax the slower turning alternator. fuel mileage probably wouldn't be as good as running with the alternator deleted, but the driving range would be greatly improved.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

I found a formula to calculate how much hp the alternator uses.
amps x volts = watts
745.7 watts = 1 hp
hp x 40% efficiency loss = hp loss
hp + hp loss = total hp used
example
55 amp x 14.9 = 819.5 watts
819.5 watts / 795.7 = 1.098 hp
1.098 hp + 40 % = 1.5372 hp

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

after considering those numbers, I took the alternator belt off my crx. cold idle speed went from 2000 rpm, to 2500 rpm.
I just purchased a 31a yellow top optima battery for my dump truck, but I am going to put it in the crx and see how far it will take me.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

After an alternator failure and still having to drive hundreds of miles on battery power alone, in a newer all-electronically run vehicle, I wonder how what we are discussing would work with a new vehicle.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

I would think with modern computers and so much electrical, it would be a challenge.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

That's a good question. I know that newer computer controlled cars have tables that look at battery volts to keep the engine running right so volts can fluctuate without affecting the way it runs. I also know that a healthy 12V battery will drop to approx 9 to 10 volts when cranking and trying to start. It's been a while since I read the manual, but IIRC the ECU shuts down when volts fall below 7 or 8 volts. I believe the Prius and other electric cars and hybrids manage battery charge more strictly than that.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

mikehall's CRX is carbed and has a mechanical fuel pump- although reduced voltage from no alternator will result in a slightly weaker spark, assuming he keeps the headlights lights and blower motor off and is driving on the highway (no brake lights) I think it will go at least 2-3 hours before he notices any difference in performance.

I have an old 4 cylinder gas tractor which is missing the alternator and I can run it for at least 5 hours and still have enough juice to start it again (yes the battery is larger than a CRX battery- but it also 9 years old).

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

the optima 31a yellow top battery is probably the biggest battery I can get and still fit under the hood. I believe it is optima's biggest battery. I also do a lot of EOC, so I doubt I will have any problem running low on battery power

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

What we are suggesting is that a car with fuel injection, electric fuel pump, solenoid operated shifting, a computer, starter motor, windshield wipers, electric windows, a clock, solid state instruments, won't be like Erik's ancient tractor, a Model A or cars from the 60's that can run without a battery.
Somewhere you get to where what you do has no practical purpose.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

I drove for two hours mountain driving. 1st the good, power was up, I gained a gear on some of the hills. where I would normally run in 3rd gear at 2000 rpm, I was able to use 4th at 1500 rpm. now the bad, after an hour or so , I noticed that when I let off the throttle and pushed in the clutch, the rpms would be 3000 rpm. when I got to work I put the stock battery back in and installed the alternator belt. on the way home, no issues. The crx has an electric choke,combined with the lightened load on the engine, may have kept the high speed idle circuit on.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

Thanks for the feedback. It's always interesting to try something new and see what happens. Did you monitor battery volts to see when the electric choke is activated?

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

If some electrical genius could make an attachable unit that accomplishes what the Prius 'B' gear position does, increase braking battery regeneration, only shutting off the charging of the alternator.....

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

I checked the voltage after two hours, and the voltage was 12.32 volts. I also listened to the stereo most of the way.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

now I wonder if I should leave the ignition on, even with the alternator hooked up. to keep voltage going to the choke

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

That isn't what B does. It keeps the the valves open instead of shutting them during engine off and coasting. So the engine pumps air like a traditional car during DFCO. The energy captured by regenerative braking is usually reduced while in B.

In the next few years, I think we'll start seeing smart alternators appearing on cars. Some luxury models already have it. A smart alternator only(tries to at least) chargers while the car is coasting or braking, keeping alternator load off the engine while there is demand for the engine.

First heard about it with BMW, but recently saw an article mention it with Ford.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

You need to find an air conditioner clutch pulley and put it on the alternator so when you are engine braking you can run the alternator to charge the battery and slow you down a bit then shut off the clutch when you want to save power / fuel. I think there is power supplied to the alternator on older models from the ignition switch which activated the regulator and field winding. On newer vehicles you would have to interrupt the power going to the regulator built into the alternator or at least shut down the power to the brushes energizing the field winding, you would still have the alternator fan load however which is why the clutch pulley is the best way.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

Like that ac clutch idea... Hey someone mentioned the 87 hf needing a specific alternator for its feature to work properly. Do you/anyone have that part number info? My alternator looks like a newer replacement I'd like to look into this.

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

I don't have the part number- you could likely go to the majestichondaautoparts website and get the honda part number. I think all of the aftermarket alternators are the same- they will work on the HF just fine, but they will not cut off charging when like the HF is supposed to. Perhaps it is a function of the voltage regulator- so maybe you could find an HF voltage regulator and swap it into your alternator.

Putting a volt meter in your cigarette light outlet will show you if the alternator is cutting out as it should (probably when braking).

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-t...0/DSC06485.JPG
Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha
I don need no stinkin alternator. I'm solar charged.
(I stopped behind a Nissan Leaf today)

Re: Alternator v. no alternator - 10% gain @ 70 km/h
 

Good luck with that on a cloudy day. :)