I plan on upgrading to a 16 volt battery and I was wondering if I have to worry about anything electrically being harmed. I'm gonna upgrade the headlights and wiring to 9006/9006 because I found a site that has a kit for our cars and I just want to make sure everyhting else will run ok. Mainly upgrading the battery for a stereo system. Thanks for any help you have!

MERLIN

 

I would be very interested in seeing that site. Going to 16 poses all sorts of problems not the least being how you will charge the battery. Unless they use some sort of DC-DC converter or change the alt or alt regulator IC the stock system simply won't maintain the battery. Target max voltage for stock regulators is max 14.9 volts. The ECM in the car if it has one has an internal MOV that begins to conduct at around 17-17.5 volts and to charge a 16 volt battery you will need more than 16, our stock batteries are 12.6 volts and they charge at 13.5-14.5 volts typically. Instrument bulbs and many other things will suffer from that much overvoltage. If you can post a link I will look at it and get the scoop, but there are a lot of issues I need to know before I would recommend that sort of radical voltage change.

 

maybe ,if possible, he could run dual batterys with some kind of stepdown transformer or voltage regulator to 14v to the stock side and 16v to the other battery that only runs the stereo equipment. Or dual alternators and dual batterys.
I'm sure there's somebody here with the experties(sp?) to deal with this.

 

I was wrong about the headlights they are just more stupid H4 conversions. As for the battery, it requires a step-down resistor, a 19V charger and something else. I'm not getting it. I'm just gonna run a 140 amp alternator, thanks for thrying to help out though.

MERLIN

 

You don't even need the 140 amp alternator...simply wire the system correctly....and use a good Optima along with a cap.

If your system is really that powerful, run a second Optima in the trunk and have it wired into the main one up front. There is a lot of bad info on this especially in the car audio retail market.

My info comes from not only my own experience but also that of my best friend...an Ultimate Electronics (formerly Audio King) install manager in the Twin Cities.

Good luck...

 

I agree with the previous post. I have worked and taught electronics most of my life and there are many myths regarding auto charging systems. The battery is the primary source of current in any auto. High peak current demands such as high power audio amps are difficult to address. Stock current rating for most GM batteries is 75 amp/hr. Look for a battery with a higher amp/hr rating. The use of a large smoothing capacitor will help keep the DC level up during peak power demand of the amp. Proper guage wire and good tight connections are a must. Upgrading to a 140 amp alt will help to maintain the battery but be aware that you will sacrifice some charging at low rpm. The newer CS-130D version alt addresses these problems. I posted an article here about converting a TG to a "D" version. I did it with my 89 and it was the single best change I have ever made. I no longer suffer from the the turn signals slowing down and radical voltage swings with high accessory load. You might want to look into it at some point, it's a very worthwile change.