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i am looking at buying a rf punch 800a2 (1999 style) and i am going to be hooking it up into a 2001 Honda Civic EX running a 15" kicker round solobaric and i am wondering if the alternator and such will be good enough to support the amp...i can get a 1 farad cap if needed but i would rather not have to do that or strain the electrical system...please help me out guys

what is the size of the stock alt on a 2k1 EX?

 
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it'll handle it no prob. U won't need a cap.

 
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you won't really need a cap unless you decide to hook up another amp and change out your interior speakers. oh...and sorry, don't know the size of the alternator

 
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ummmm by size do you mean amperage.... i think its around 70 and you can get a 130a for around 250 and i think a 160 for like 400 or something

 
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Personally I would get a cap. It'll help with your hard hitting bass and prevent a shortened life for you alternator and battery.

 
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enough with the silly silly rumors and misinterpretations...
your alternator will laugh at a punch 800... it could take 2 of them...
stock alt is 70 amps...
you CAN buy a 130 for $245, a 160 for $600, or a 200+ for $800+
cap? caps are silly... they have NOTHING to do with how much your alternator can handle, they are "band-aids" for your electrical system... they hide symptoms ... main effect? no dimming of lights... if anything, i think caps are bad, because then you DONT know when your lights are dimming TOO much... also, it wont really ADD to your bass... some people actually see a loss of power when adding a cap...

NEXT TIME S E A R C H

47 thousand people have asked this questions...

go ask whiterabbit how much power hes running off a stock alternator with no cap

 
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Okay,

A Cap is merely a bandaid.. it does actually help bass response through longer bass hots..but can decrease SPL in competitions because it does add a small bit of resistance to your power line. During bass hits voltage drops a little...if you have a tightly regulated amp like a PPI, or JL it's no problem..if you have a more loosely regulated amp like MTX, RF, Kicker...then output might drop a little at the end of each bass hit. A Cap keeps voltage a little more stable for the amp..but has no effect at all on the overall draw from your electrical system.

Whiterabbit has proven that the stock alternator can support tons of power with minimal dimming and still keep the battery charged. Getting a H/O alternator is always still a good investment, spcially if it's externally regulated..it'll keep things cooler and lower the chances of burning out your alternator.. probbaly the bieggest thing to worry about is upgrading your batery and engine ground to 4 guage wiring.. this will lower resistance at the ground and allow power to be more freely drawn without any power compression...

Cheers
Mohawk

 
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where can these H/O alternators be purchased? Or where are some good places to purchase these H/O alternators? I saw a thread that said see "Where can I buy alternator" thread, but I couldn't find that one

 
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if you search, youll find a rather complete post about what the civic alternator can and cant handle.

heres the bottom line of that thread (in case you dont want to search for it):

your car can handle 99% of all the possible situations out there, stock. Like the member here who runs an orion xtr 2400 (2400 rms) on stock electricals. he is fine.

or me, who have run 1925 rms for months and was fine. or when i ran 2710 for days, and was fine.

all on stock electricals.

for all those whom worship richard clark, he says a stock alternaotr can handle 3000 rms, just fine.

and he himself ran four MTX 2300's, no problem for his 70 amp alternator. hmmmmm.....

 
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From my personal experience, replacing the battery and upgrading the battery and engine grounds has made a Huge difference. I have a digital volt indicator on my cap which lets me know how low the volts are dipping when I have my music up loud. The volts used to dip way low to like 10 and 11 before, but now it usually does not dip below 11 anymore.

My feeling on the whole alternator thing is...if it ain't broke don't fix it. But I do know someone who did blow his alternator with a 2k1...I will ask him this weekend how many watts he was pushin.