I've come across a hiccup at events that require too much dicking around with the car at idle. Thanks to a tiny main puller, my car doesn't produce enough power to keep from discharging the battery. That's annoying, but I also don't want to over-spin the alternator (is that possible?).
Thoughts? I haven't seen any smaller alternator pulleys since most people are trying to slow the things down. Do I just get a bigger alternator?
Can you bump the idle speed or run a larger alternator?
I don't think bigger is going to help. It seems it is turning too slow to charge.
Can you up the idle just a bit?
I'm idling at 2k rpm. I can go higher, but man...
ohhh, well then.
Can you figure out (using the stock pulley sizes compared to the new pulley sizes) what speed you need to run at to have a stock "alternator idle speed"?
Is it possible that this is a wiring issue with the exciter circuit on the alt?
P.S. Do you still like the DEI trans tunnel insulation? DO you have anything on the inside of the car near the trans tunnel?
Thanks!
Rob R.
I'll need to throw a multimeter on the alt to see what it's putting out, but according to my dumby light it's excited and producing electricity. Maybe I need to run the sensing wire all the way to the battery. Right now it's sensing off the main positive distribution block.
I'll have to find a stock pulley for comparison.. I think I'm around a 30% reduction.
I really like the DEI tranny tunnel stuff. It worked well where I had it applied, which is why I added a ton more. I don't have anything on the interior of the car right now.
EDIT: I had the DEI applied around the opening of the transmission tunnel prior, mostly to keep me from getting hot foot. Worked really well - no melted shoes!
30% reduction would mean that if you idled at 1300 rpm (give or take) the alt should be good to go.
Stupid question.... Are you sure it is loosing juice? Could it be an overly rich condition that is causing it to load up?
Also, what sort of load are you putting through that alt? What alt is it? S4 or S5 or S6? S4 suck!
It's an S4. I know it's losing juice because the CPU for the water pump starts throwing a fit late in the day due to the drop.
In other news, my Mazda Motorsports vinyl package came today
Upgrade to s5 or s6. S6 is a little more difficult but totally doable for a person of your abilities.
I'll track one down. My sidemount bracket is pretty flexible anyway so choosing another option isn't too bad.
I've heard about Mid 90's Taurus alternators as well, but the signal to noise ratio on the forums is pretty poor.
This could be another option: http://www.jegs.com/i/Powermaster/713/8462/10002/-1?parentProductId=
At Kinetic Motorworks in Hampstead NH today getting the car aligned for the first time and (later) getting on the dyno for some tuning.
No wonder the car felt so sketchy at 100mph!
I was definitely running too much camber in the front for the Bias ply tires, so I've dialed that back to -1.5. Toe is zero front and rear. I'll use this as a baseline and adjust from there.
The good news is my ride height was within 1/16th left to right. Once I change my front springs out I'll worry about corner balancing and aligning for specific characteristics.
And I found 20 more horsepower under the hood with a little fiddling with timing. Still too rich though - AFR's are in the 11's and low 12's most of the rev range
Got a delivery today, so my window net and cage net are installed.
Header video on the dyno https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_DGw5jtUnM
Review of Okemo:
Learning a new hill is tough. Learning one while staring at your gauges is a little harder. The RX7 had some more teething issues, including getting hotter than I like (which was fixed with an aluminum wing) and not getting enough fuel (need bigger pumps).
Still it was a successful weekend given the car made it to the top of the hill every time and posted some solid times. With a few tweaks and enough fuel to be full throttle when it needs to be full throttle, I'm sure I'll be setting very nice times indeed.
Next hillclimb is in 3 weeks and it's at Okemo again! Nice to have back-to-back on the same hill. Hopefully it will be cooler.
Big thanks to Kinetic Motor Works for helping me get the car aligned before the event. It really paid off.
No videos. I'm a dumby and the gopro didn't get turned on right
Washed off all the okemo dirt from the lot and checked the car over. Everything looks good, but it does look like the rear tires rubbed the fenders a little. I'll need to roll them in the meantime until I get the flares.
You can see the aluminum winglet I added to the top of the hatch to solve my cooling issue.
Radar sheets from the weekend. I'm #7
You can definitely see my fuel issues, though I did get a 94mph (fastest in class) run by managing the throttle before the long straight and letting the carb bowl fill up. New fuel pump is incoming and I'm excited to shoot for 100mph next month.
"#7" --- can't make heads or tails of that vs all the numbers on the sheets...
Thanks - heads and tails now!
Discovered the culprit for some of my cooling issues - flaky cooling fan relay. Annoying since that was an expensive/overpriced "Painless" unit.
Two replacements procured.
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