T.J. wrote: I installed an AC Delco CS130 internally regulated alternator on my Mini about 5 or 6 years ago. I had to reclock it so that mounting holes lined up how I needed them. I have essentially no electrical accessories on the car other than lights, horn, ignition, and an electronic rev limiter. Do I ever need 100 Amps out of the alternator? Nope. Is it nice to not see my head lights dim to uselessness at idle? Yep. I also got to ditch the Lucas external regulator box. I liked it so much, I also fit a similar alternator in my BMW 2002 megasquirt project.
this is why a big amp alternator is a good thing to have- my Nova picked up some power on my butt dyno just by swapping from the stock 35 amp alternator to a 105 amp CS120, it gained a little gas mileage, and the lights were a lot brighter. my voltage at a 750rpm idle with everything in the car cranked (stereo cranked, headlights on high, heater fan on high) went from 12.5 to a rock steady 14.2 according to my multimeter. the swap literally took a half hour in that car since i had swapped out a few external regulated alts for internal ones before and GM cars have an almost Lego like level of parts interchangeability.. most of the time was spent running a bigger power wire from the back of the alt to the + terminal on the battery. i've also done the same swap on a couple of Ford products with the same results.
