DC Power Rob

Wow wow wow... Hold on here... If your (supposedly) getting an alternator with adjustable voltage, get used to driving around with your check engine light on... You absolutely, 1000% cannot bypass this system on a Mazda, there is NO way to do it without a LOT of very highly technical work, that would have to be done by an OEM level engineer.. On your car, half of the regulator is in the alternator, half is in the PCM. More precisely, your actual "Field switch" is in the alternator, your "field controller" is in the PCM and it runs via a 400hz PWM between the PCM and alternator. If the Field switch isn't communicating to the PCM, it is insta CEL. Next, since iirc it's also part of emissions system on your car, and therefore falls under the Federal Emission regulations, it's technically illegal (to the letter of the law no matter how ridiculous it is)... I could go on, but I think you get the point... Against my own better judgement, this is one of the times where I'm going to call somebody stupid, and it's not you... Your problem on your car with the 2.0, is your alternator has more mounting points than you can shake a stick at (5), they are all tangential to the mounting surface, they ALL bolt to the block.. So, not only do you have to get passed the mounting issue, Mazda is the ONLY OEM who uses this system, and Mitsubishi is the ONLY manufacturer that supplies Mazda.. Needless to say, your car, is in the top 3 biggest pains in my but because of this... There is just no good solution that I've found, yet.... Sorry to rant, but this just touched a big nerve because it never ceases to amaze me at the lack of knowledge by some people (again, not you)....

Just a thought on the Astro... I've "readjusted" my thinking about how things can be done, and what is possible in general with regards to designing brackets so we may be able to do some things different on the Astro now, that in the past I wouldn't have thought to do.. If you have any good HQ pics of the engine bays on your 4.3 V6's in Astros and S10's, send them my way.. [email protected]

You are also correct, under some circumstances any amp is capable of making more than it's rated power, especially these amps. I was just trying to draw a comparison about relative power requirements. IF you can keep a 3500 supplied with enough current at say 15v at .5 ohm, your input power requirements are most definitely going to be higher.. The formula that I gave as an example still holds true though, you just have to change the calculations to reflect the higher output power of the amp.

Yes it will.. This ones going to be a couple weeks out yet, but it will fit all 2UZ engines in either Tundra/Sequoia/Landcruiser/GX470 etc.. I dont think it will fit the cars with the X-UZ engines due to clearance, but it may.

VERY well put!! Now, for this particular question we have done a lot of testing so we have a good bit of experience.. That said, a 180 amp alternator in this car is going to give him about 120 "usable" amps over what he normally has, and with a couple of "good" batteries he should have plenty of adequate power under normal circumstances. The main thing to consider with a big amp like the 3500, is how is it going to be used. Is it in a daily driver that just bumps alot driving around, or is a comp vehicle. Kyles 3500 never pulled more than about ~100 amps at .5 on music at say 3/4 volume. On tones at .5 at high volumes, it may touch 180 BRIEFLY. In hours of testing, we NEVER saw over 200 AFTER we put a 270XP with a 15.1v regulator in it no matter how hard we pounded on it. Remember, music is dynamic and even though you may have a 3500W "RMS" amp, your dynamic load of the amp will almost NEVER exceed 70% of its rated power. If you calculate it to the letter for power consumption, 3500/15 15= 233 amps. 233/.8 (effiency) = 290 amp max power input required to make an actual 3500w of output power. Now, take 290*.6 (dynamic avg MAX current requirement on music) 174 Amps, which is the absolute MAX necessary for 3500 actual produced watts, which you will only see MAYBE 25% of the time. Will a bigger alt power it better, absolutely, no question about it. Will a 180 amp alt power it ok 90% of the time, no question...

This is why you don't buy alternators from eBay... That stuff is Chinese garbage no matter who's selling it.. There are at least 15 companies who all buy the same shit, from the same people, the same garbage windings and put their own name on it and call it high output.. All this ends up for most consumers is save a buck on the alt because they think 250 amps is 250 amps and it's cheaper, and all you do is cause yourself a bunch of headache and BS...

How would a 200 fair? I don't need much amperage, about 150 amps of extra draw on the charging system is all. The smallest XP we build is 230.. Other than that it's going to be a 180HP... Considering you only have 70-80 stock, a 180HP with a good battery will be better than anything say 200-220, and thats just because of the inherent efficiency of the HP/XP alts.. If you want to go by the "letter", if you have an extra 150 amps of draw, plus your stock alt, your right at 230 anyways.. I always recommend the XPs just because you can never have too much alternator, and you can always swap it to another vehicle. You never have to buy another alternator, just pay for a new case if you change vehicles.. Considering you could have this alternator for 10 years, it's really a pretty outstanding value.. Let me know what you think.. Rob

The XP cases for these are supposed to be done next week sometime, trust me, as soon as they are done I'll let everyone know... Rob

Nah, that was his old Avalon, I think that happened at the end of '09 and then he got his Camry which thankfully "Crash" hasn't hit anything with yet... lol Hmmm for a minuet reading this I was hoping you were referring to my car as that "local car ready" Im the guy with the RX 300 who has been bugging Kyle to get my car in for a 270XP. If you are that person, then your the lucky candidate... He didn't give me any specifics, just that we had a local customer with a 1MZ motor.. I think I spent 6 hours doing Kyles bracket the first time we did it, and it was a PAIN.. But we also didn't have the alternator cases available that we do now so this time around it shouldn't be so bad.. You'll notice any alternator that you put in your car above stock.. The 390's aren't that bad really especially at speed.. Amperage is amperage, once you get to a certain point, X amperage no matter what form it's in is going to cause a certain amount of "drag"... Compare a 390XP against say a 320 amp lg case GM, and the XP will pull less because its 30% more efficient.. We could spend hours on this, but it all boils down to your going to pay a certain price to play, its just a matter of how much your willing to pay in a sense..

I got a local car ready... Just need some free time.. We did Kyles old one, but was not real happy with it... Then a certain nameless person (Kyle) totalled his car the next day. Anyways, I digress.. We'll have it done soon though, next 30 days or so...

Since I'm chief of that dept, I make the changes as either they are requested or we find a need to make them in house.. I'm always open to suggestions though, I love prototyping and R&D'ing new things/products... As soon as we get our CNC machines in, we will be free to make whatever changes our customers want/need as well as making any kind of product we want to offer, or our customers need... I sent my recommendations for corrections on my car's kit with my alternator last time I sent it in. I sent a detailed letter explaining the wrong bolt lenght and pitch on one of the bolts, and also the wrong belt. I sent the package to the correct belt and a the package to the die I had to buy to fix the threads on my engine block, plus specified correct bolt lenght. Needless to say you guy's sent me another wrong belt, so I don't think much was gained. We will see if you send me a third one this time. Furthermore, I returned my alternator in the original box the first time, which was easily 2 inches bigger than the alt. I get it back in a box thats SO undersized its bulging, with the mounting ear punched through the box. Needless to say the ear was mashed over and had to be filed. Poor packaging could also be leading to stressed case's. I will surely recommend a third mounting ear on the back of the case in my car's kit if the case breaks agian after your new case design. Thanks for your time. Jared There will be no issues with the new ones breaking... The case you have, is the ONLY case we've had problems with, on the ONLY car we've had problems with. The reason they broke was due to how far the machinist cut a relief to deep so there is not much support in that area. Now, on say a Toyota, we've never seen a single failure, with hundreds in the field, on diesel engines primarily. The whole reason for that is the torsional loading of the alternator on that car due to the extreme loading at idle.. I wont publicly give numbers, but the torque that alternator requires at idle is retarded, but at high RPM it takes less than most stock alts it replaces. Electric motors of any kind require the maximum torque at low speeds, just the facts. On that car at idle, they shake, violently, and thats enough to shear the case, plain and simple.. The new case is cast, and cast from 356T6 which is very strong, and it's got a TON of reinforcement. IF these break, I give up... On the other items for input, I dont know why you got your other alternator that way, but that's definitely not normal. And the belt, had to be in shipping something got crossed, but we're implementing a bunch of new procedures to prevent most mixups so that's been addressed as well. You'll have your new alt in the next 30 days or so, and I expect to hear about it if its not perfect.. Let me know what you think, Rob

Run an XP and be done with it.. 320HPs are good in cars like yours, but much more suited to other vehicles because of pulley ratio's.. XP's aren't too bad on V6 cars, it's 4 bangers that have a hard time.. We're going to re-do the 1MZ Toyota setup we have, just have to have a car come in.. The big things with the XP, you can never have too much alternator, EVER, and you can always change it to fit a different vehicle if you change. In essence, you buy an XP, you have a high output alternator for life.. For most people, that more than justifies the small premium, especially to step up to that kind of performance.. Let us know what you think.. Rob

Randy, I tried calling you today.. I have some questions for you so please call me tomorrow (Fri 1/14) Rob

One for the same year would be fine.. Because your PCM really wont drive an XP to it's full potential, you really should run our PCM bypass/internal regulator kit on your car.. You can *not* run it and be fine, but it just wont drive it as hard as the new Chrysler PCMs will.. It will still do good, but they are set to a pretty low voltage, and most people aren't happy with 13.8v, even with 180 amps at idle behind it. They assume that low voltage = low output.. If you have any other questions though, feel free to ask.. Thanks again, Rob

Kyles going to have 15k+, trust me, he'll beat the shit out of it.. You just need to hurry up and get your 390!! what year is his Camry? I've got an 05 and am thinking about a new alt eventually His is an '02, but it's exactly the same setup from I think '99-'09.. They didn't change mounting for 10 years... On most ~2500w systems, our 180 does a very good job... XPs are a bit much for the motor, but they run awesome... Either way you go, we have you covered on that... Rob

Im still doing some research on this one.. I have an idea of what Im going to do, I just need to verify it.. Mazda's are their own unique animal, so we are limited to what we can do within that "family" of products... I'll hit you up as soon as I get this one figured out.. Rob

Since I'm chief of that dept, I make the changes as either they are requested or we find a need to make them in house.. I'm always open to suggestions though, I love prototyping and R&D'ing new things/products... As soon as we get our CNC machines in, we will be free to make whatever changes our customers want/need as well as making any kind of product we want to offer, or our customers need...

We did go back to the drawing board, about 2 months ago.. You'll be getting a new alternator, along with everyone who has that particular case.. But to address the issue at hand, we had a problem, we took action to correct it, and a bunch of people are going to get new alts.. Trust me, if we have a problem with something, we dont just sit on it and ignore it hoping it goes away, we fix it.. In this case to the tune of about $10k.. I'll post up a pic of it later when I find it for you...

Kyle just *thinks* we're going to do a dual kit on his Camry.... Maybe when he gets his system done I'll think about it... lol (J/K Kyle, since I know your going to read this)

The only thing we build for the 2.5L Altima right now is the XP series... The good part, it's the best there is hands down and it will pwn any other alternator you could buy, at any cost. The downside for some, XP's aren't cheap... It really boils down to what you want in the end. Your going to pay more for an XP up front, but then you have an alternator for life. If you change cars, pull the XP out, send it back and we can swap it from your Nissan to a Honda Civic, or a Toyota Tacoma, or a Tahoe, or an F-150. NO other manufacturer can do that, if you change vehicles your going to have to buy an alternator. Performance wise though (as anyone on this board will verify who has one) XP alternators are the very best you can get, and well worth the extra $100-$150 above our competitions price, with literally 4x better performance.. Let us know if we can help or if you have any other questions.. Rob

The 320 will do at least 110-120 at idle on most imports, you'll probably be up in the 130-140 range.. I've never had any complaints on the Honda/Acura V6's, so I dont think my numbers are too far off.. If it was one of those gray areas believe me, I would have heard about it.. If your not happy though, I expect to hear about it!! Rob

We will probably be doing a dual kit for the new Camry and run 2 180's... We wil also do an XP for it but it's still 2 months away at least.. Rob

Just to keep this updated... We have the following things done/almost done... As soon as they are done, I'll post up pics/install photos '92-'95 Chevy fullsize truck 5.7L/350V8 dual kit - Done prototyping, will finish in the next ~7 days and put in production '92-'95 Chevy fullsize truck 5.7L/350V8 Triple kit - Done prototyping, will finish in the next ~7 days and put in production '92-'95 Chevy fullsize truck 5.7L/350V8 Quad kit - Done prototyping, will finish in the next ~7 days and put in production '92-'95 Chevy fullsize truck 5.7L/350V8 5 alt kit - Done prototyping, will finish in the next ~7 days and put in production '96-'00 Chevy fullsize truck 5.7L/350V8 dual kit - Done prototyping, will finish in the next ~7 days and put in production '96-'00 Chevy fullsize truck 5.7L/350V8 Triple kit - Done prototyping, will finish in the next ~7 days and put in production '96-'00 Chevy fullsize truck 5.7L/350V8 Quad kit - Done prototyping, will finish in the next ~7 days and put in production '96-'00 Chevy fullsize truck 5.7L/350V8 5 alt kit - Done prototyping, will finish in the next ~7 days and put in production '96-'03 Chevy S-10 4.3L V6 dual kit - Done prototyping, will finish in the next ~7 days and put in production New/Improved '99-Current GM Fullsize truck/SUV triple and quad kits coming very, very soon. New/Improved '99-Current GM Fullsize truck/SUV dual alt kit coming in the next 30 days.. Will be one sexy kit, and hands down the best looking/best built/best value/best LOOKING/Best every which way kit there is.. 4.7L V8 Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep dual kit -Done, pre-production 3.7L V6 Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep dual kit -Done, pre-production 3.8L V6 Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep dual kit -in prototyping 5.7L V8 Hemi dual alternator kit - pre-prototyping Toyota 4.7LV8 2UZ-FE dual alternator kit, in prototyping Toyota 4.0L V6 dual alternator kit, in prototyping Toyota/Scion 2AZ-FE dual alt kit, pre-prototyping

BUMP Per our conversation the other night, I'll try and find a bracket this week.. Cost wise, mid $200's probably, less belt plus whatever a bracket costs me... If you want me to do it, just post up here or call me/IM me on AIM... Will be a cakewalk to do.

The XP's are almost done, we can build a 230 that wont be too bad on the engine.. Hyundai's are KILLING me right now.. I have SO many people waiting, I cant count on all my fingers and toes, literally...