16 volt

[tsanchez]

My buddy is building a car and wants to use his 16 volt battery and alternator from the race car. Do any of you know someone that is running one successfully on drag week? I think he should stick to 12 volt for the drive and parts avail during the run, not to mention all accessories are going to be over voltage, may blow out bulbs etc. He also runs elect fans and water pump.

What say you

[JeffMcKC]

I would stick 12 volt not many of those 16 volt systems are made for 10 hr days with all the drain and charging going on

[alain]

I'm with Jeff. A good 12V system should work fine too.

[tsanchez]

Thanks,I believe its for the best too. Now to convince him..

[Joe Barry]

Im not sure if Im the exception but I run two Braille 16 volt light weight batteries that I was told would only last a year. I have had them going on 4 years now. I have had no problems running any accessories exceept for the electric shocks which i have stepped down the voltage. I also run a mini alternator that is rated at 80 amps and I have it charging about 16.5 at night and about 17 during the daytime.

[tsanchez]

The reason we switched on the other car is because of no starts at the end of track after picking up the chute, it would crank but batt voltage was low enough that the ign wouldnt spark. It was running 12 volts and a 140 amp alt but with the ecu, msd, twin fuel pumps, twin electric fans, electric water pump and intercooler pump it just couldnt maintain. Added a 16 volt alt and battery and it worked. Plugs even looked better. That was a turbo car and this one will be nitrous.

[greenXpress]

I do know the blue vet had problems and they were magnified due to the fact everyone else there to help had 12 volt stuff. I stopped the first night right outside of Muskogee and it took a generator with a charger plus a battery pack I had to get it fired up.

[tsanchez]

That is my other concern, but he says hell bring two of everything since the two cars are similar

[CDMBill]

Two of everything sounds good except for batteries. I had a spare one of those last year too as I needed the tongue weight and Doc needed it in 2011.

It sounds like the turbo car's issue was too small of a battery and too little alternator output, and likely starter heat soak. I used to have the same problem, usually when hot lapping back into lanes.

My night time down the road amp draw is over 140 due to all the electric everything stuff, and I don't have tunes anymore, sadly. I have heat shield around the starter, coated headers and the heat shield material is formed like a scoop to force air into and around the starter. Starter is a 3 HP, 4.44:1 ratio, 340 ft/lbs. unit that really spins it up but pulls significant amperage. Not cheap, and it let me down only once after six years, on the CC Anti-tour in Phoenix of course. Now I have a spare for that too. I have to pull the header to change it though.

[BlueCuda340]

I agree with either having a spare, or haveing the ability to switch back to 12V if need be. That way you can buy a battery on the road and switch it out if needed. Don't forget batteries make shitty spare parts because lack of use kills them, so if you go this route its best to rotate the batteries in and out of the vehicle to keep them healthy. It would be an expensive pain in the ass

I run an Interstate Batteries distributorship and have the occasional panicked racer calling for a 16V battery on a thursday night before a race weekend. Since 16V stuff is not for anything other than race car stuff its not available anywhere else. The only way I can come up with 16V is doing two 8 volt batteries which are also uncommon but stocked most of the time. Its still a heavy and less than ideal thing to do and would likely involve rebuilding a battery tray and hold down.

I imagine that in a bind you could run a 12 volt Optima battery with a 16v alternator feeding it. It might be best to run at times with the alt unplugged but an Optima could live against a 16v alternator if it didn't kill the alternator.

[JeffMcKC]

Joe man I would never figure 80 amps would keep up. Mine is about the same with 2/ 12 volt batts but Doc went up this year on alt mine is on the lower edge I carry a spare alt with me for mine.

[tsanchez]

We talked about using the 16 and off needed we can adjust the alt down to 12 in a emergency.

[Joe Barry]

Joe man I would never figure 80 amps would keep up. Mine is about the same with 2/ 12 volt batts but Doc went up this year on alt mine is on the lower edge I carry a spare alt with me for mine.

Jeff, I started with a 60 amp and it was definitely questionable unless i was on the highway, I went to the 80 AMP but still wasnt sure if it would work or if it would have issues so I bought a second one, which I have been hauling around for the last couple years. However I did find where it does become an issue, we all went crusing the strip again this year but we decided to do it on Saturday night with tons of traffic. We sat in traffic at an idle for well over an hour from one end to the other. When we pulled up to meet everyone my lights seemed a bit dim and my battery voltage was down to about 13.5, so I kept on going hopped on the interstate and drove back to the track. After about 5 minutes of 2000 RPMs the batteries were back up to 16 and definitely charging. This was the first and only time I have had a problem but it definitely took along time to happen.

[tsanchez]

80 amps at 16 volts is 1280watts
80 amps at 12 volts is 960 watts

[Rat Infested]

Joe, what make and brand of alternator do you run?

We have burnt up 2 alternators in 2 years, this year I will bring 2 spares.
Both 16 volt.

16v is a pain in the ass and I don't know if it was the right thing to do, when ours works it charged as high as 18.25v, but now what is the max voltage for all of our relays? I know... its like 16.5v and yes we will have voltage drop through the system, but I think this still may cause them to drop out...... We had a situation going into Ennis were our fans were kicking out for 5 min. at a time (caused things to get pretty hot) and I think this may have been the problem.

The reason we only cruised 1 curcuit at Houston is because that is where we realized the alt had calfed, so we ran the 15 miles on battery alone.

That is the bitch with EVERYTHING on the car being electrical.