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Another Crazy thought popped into my head. Looking for feedback.

 
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Old Oct 28, 2004
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Another Crazy thought popped into my head. Looking for feedback.

What if you used a small DC motor with a pulley and belt to drive your alternator and possibly AC(or just drop the AC). This would allow you to remove the belt coming off the crank and free up some hp. Would it work?
Maybe a small second battery would be needed to drive the DC motor so as to not draw current away from your ignition and hurt performance? Or maybe just another battery in parallel for more current capacity? Maybe the stock battery could do it if a low current motor could be used. Probaly would have to get the rpms correct and enough HP to spin at the stock speed and drive the alternator correctly.
I know when I removed the PS belt I felt quite a difference. Not sure how much of a difference removing the other belt would make , but the crank would no longer have to run any extra load.
I don't know evrything about the electrical system of a car so i could be way off.
Any opinions or thoughts?

I found a motor that looks like what I'm talking about but I don't know all the facts to properly size it.

http://www.3rivers.net/~cmac/m23.htm

Last edited by Redline04; Oct 29, 2004 at 12:39 AM.
Old Oct 29, 2004
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hmm
so youre saying get a second battery to drive the alternator which will charge the first battery. from all my experiences in electornics that would be very inefficeint. battery life would suffer as well as the alternator

maybe if you got a better alternator, one that can handle two batteries without wearing out. then have the second battery power the dc motor power the PS pump
i dont know seems like it wont do much
Old Oct 29, 2004
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but in theory it could be done. So lets just say I dissconnected the stock belt going to the crank to see if I noticed any gains. No damage would be done other than the fact that my battery would drain.(Check first to make sure it is fully charged) It should last long enough for me to do a few test runs though. If any substantial gains (5+hp) are noticed then I could persue my options to make the theory come to life.

Last edited by Redline04; Oct 29, 2004 at 12:36 AM.
Old Oct 29, 2004
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A motor powering a generator? Won't work. You also need to spin the alternator about 2000+ rpms to have any major output.
Old Oct 29, 2004
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you say it won't work. Any reasoning beind that?
http://www.3rivers.net/~cmac/m13.htm

this one spins over 2000 rpm
I'm sure I could find the right one to make it work
Old Oct 29, 2004
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then quit asking and do it. and then let's see proof that it works.
Old Oct 29, 2004
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The subaru has a system similar to what you described. Ask the dealer to explain it to you better, but basically the AC runs off a separate system so hp isn't robbed.
Old Oct 29, 2004
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Too much work for too little gain.
Old Oct 29, 2004
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Where is everything gonna go ? engine bay is kinda cramped as is ?
Old Oct 29, 2004
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If you try to power an electric motor off of a generator turned by said motor, you run into what we like to call friction. Now just the A/C compressor turned by an electric motor that is powered by an engine driven alternator would work, however.
Old Oct 29, 2004
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the a/c only drains power when it's on ... the belt running the ac does not drain power unless the ac is on.

agreed .. too much work for too little gains ... ... just get a turbo ;P
Old Oct 29, 2004
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Ok so we established the fact that it could work with the right setup. That's good.
Now to test for gains without the belt to see if it's even worth it. Would it hurt anything to dissconnect the belt that drives the Alternator and the AC and make a few passes?
My understanding is that no harm would be done except for the battery drianing eventually.
Thanks for the input everyone.
I'll have to look into that subaru setup. That right there proves that old saying when you think you have an original idea there are probaly already two other people out there with the same idea. Oh well, maybe I can make the first honda with that system.
Old Oct 29, 2004
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Damn i just noticed their system only powers the ac. So I may have something still if I can make it work and in a Machiavellian sense, the gains justify the means.
Old Oct 29, 2004
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I think your battery my die before you get to far, so bring jumper cables,

Also you still don't have room to fit it. =P

But more power to you bro!
Old Oct 29, 2004
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As far as fit. In my case since I'm running no power steering I would just remove the pump above the alternator. That would give plenty of room and I would be able to align the pulley and belt pretty easy. As far as mounting i could fabricate a mounting bracket to attach to the PS attachment points.
I think that would be an easy solution for that problem, but there is room in that fender area depending on how big of a motor will be needed.
Old Oct 29, 2004
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Here is your problem.... How are you going to keep the battery charged enough? I guess if you have enough power in the battery for startup it would work, but I have a feeling you will drain the battery faster than you can charge it.
Old Nov 4, 2004
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ok I've done some more research on my theory. Looks like an optima battery is what I'll need to power this setup. The optima battery has reserve capicity of 70 min at 25A(the smallest battery they make,there are bigger longer lasting, but also heavy). If I can find a motor that pulls around 6A cont. that would give me about 4.6 hours till full discharge, or 2.3 hrs for 50% discharge. Cool thing about these optimas is the fact that they are deep cycle and can handle being fully discharged several hundreds of times. They also charge in about an hour. Normaly I drive less than an hour per day during the week. So I would be able to keep it from fully discharging and extend the life for quite some time. So that's the power solution.
Now I need to find a motor that will spin fast enough and have enough HP to spin the alternator pulley (maybe the AC if possible) and draw low Amps.
I still have yet to test the car without the belt to see if it's even worth it.
Guess that should be my next step.
Anyone know the reserve capacity of our stock batteries?
Well even if i don't make this all happen I can still say I've gained a great deal of knowlege in an area I had little to begin with, and knowlege is power.
I'll keep you all posted.
Feel free to comment or give suggestions.
Old Nov 4, 2004
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i like your experimental attitude but i'll have to agree with the others... it'll be too much work for too little gain...
 
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