I think my two year old AC Delco "Professional" alternator died. Car charges at normal voltage for the first minute or two then clearly the voltage shows battery only.

Since I am after reliability and I have a few loads, I went with the not so cheap Powermaster 200 Amp replacement.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/PWM-48203

So now I don't want to make a toaster element out of my alternator wire and I'm not sure how big the factory one is.

According to ampacity charts, I need to run two 3-gauge alternator cables or bigger for 200 amps.

Then I might need to boost up the negative side.

Loads (conservatively rated):

85A: Factory IROC Camaro except for:
70A: 800W of audio amps
50A: Additional Fans

205A Total. Should work great.

I am thinking I may split off the alternator to a separate fused load block for the audio and additional fans.

Thoughts and experiences welcome.

 

Well - I would return it and get something else. Unfortunately Powermaster is FTL. I have bought 3 of their products and their alternators (and starters) are garbage......

You can see my post on the subject including tear down, failure analysis, and repair in the product reviews subforum.

Ultimately there are no producers of quality components for the CS alternators. Look at DC Power Engineering or Mechman for CS conversion alternators that are worth your time.

GD

 

Thanks GD. I just installed the Powermaster 200 amp. It's huge. And a 2 gauge alternator cable. Works great so far. Voltage doesn't move- no matter what.

 

My first one worked for 3 months. Second for about 9 months. Assembly fit and finish and parts used were terrible quality. As I said I would return it. Don't make the mistake I did. My DC Power Engineering alt has been flawless. Newer technology that is still supported. And it's 180 amps from a CS130 sized case.

GD

 

Those are gorgeous. I hear you. But since it's in, I will roll the dice. Should it give me the same trouble, I will drop the coin on the DCPE one's.

 

Well. I wish you good luck with it. But after 4 Powermaster products failed on me - two starters and two alternators. All in unreasonably short time frames..... I can not and will not ever buy one of their products again.

I know what their game is after the experiences I had. They are banking on 90% of what they are selling going to garage-kept cars that are driven 10 times a years to car shows and that's it. They know that the sub-standard Chinese components won't last but that's where the cut the corners. *Assemble* it in the US so they can waive the BIG American flag on the box and appeal to all the old timers that have a nicely restored hot rod that's never driven in their garage, and make their money on buying Chinese hot garbage in bulk to build them out of. No one will know if you polish that turd up real shiny and wrap it in an American flag! And the old timer ends up dead before the garbage fails anyway because again - driven 10 times a year. So 20 start/stops times 20 years..... the thing has to do about 500 cycles and it's served it's purpose.

GD