**** im ****in pissed

[BooLeaN 10+ year member]

I'd say that it will be close with alternator size. someone had a thread on here a week or so back and they had a 70 amp alternator. someone told them that they could run 1000-1500 watts, so you would be nearly the same.

you have about 1250 so you might be alright.

just check to see if you get dimming. if you have a voltmeter you can check the voltage at the amp, play the music and see what it drops to. I was told if it goes below 12 volts when you are playing music you have problems and need more power for the amp, so another alternator.

 

[infinity1412 10+ year member]

if it was not receiving enough power from the battery, would a capacitor help it at all????

 

[BooLeaN 10+ year member]

probably not. most people here say that caps are useless. the only thing i could think a cap would help out (and i may be completely wrong) is if you are drawing an average of say 35 amps of current, but you peak at 60 for a second. If your alternator can't put out the 60, maybe a cap would help for that second.

If you are averaging 60 amps of draw, and your alternator can't put that much out, then a cap would not help anything and just add an additional load to your alternator(since the alt has to charge the battery + cap now as well as run everythign else)

Go ahead and say that i'm wrong, cause as I stated above that I might be. I was just using some logical thinking //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Peace

 

[chronicblazen 10+ year member]

that sounds right, it makes sense... a capacitor would be a smart investment then.... never seen these installed tho, where do they go? in the engine bay? or inside the car?

 

[infinity1412 10+ year member]

i have mine installed in the trunk right next to my amp, its installed just like an amp pretty much, a ground wire, the main battery wire connects to it, then you connect another peice of battery wire from the capacitor to the battery terminal on the amp, its pretty simple. I have an X power 1 farad digital capacitor and it tells u the volts and i noticed teh volts dont fall nearly as much anymore, it used to go down to 12.5 volts, now the lowest it goes is around 13.8, so its been a big help to my system, plus its cool looking with the digital reading : )

 

[chronicblazen 10+ year member]

i never knew much about capacitors, if anything at all. i assume they're measured by farads... how do you know how many farads your system needs for it to handle? i see ones that are 1, 1.1, 2 and 3 for sale, and also, does brand name matter in the shopping for a capacitor? thanks

 

[80_Cutlass_mn 10+ year member]

Ok heres my two cents. The reason why your amp may have blown was because since the fuse holder near your battery was I think you said melted maybe or discolored, whatever, then it may have gotten hot enough to cause a significant amount of resistance which lowered the voltage you amplifier was seing resulting in a current drop which may have caused the amp to overheat and maybe blow a FET somewhere. Did you feel how hot the amp was after it quit working? If so and it wasnt even warm then I dont see how it could have blown to be honest.

Now for my 2 cents on that cap. I would say dont waste your money on it and just get your alternator rewound to a higher output if you need it. I know there will be people who are going to argue and say that they do make a difference well ill tell you straight up right now. Capacitors in reality are useless. Yes they do make a difference but its so small that you wont ever notice it, you will only think you notice it. And then the only way for it to work is if you have an alternator powerful enough to charge the cap, power the amp, and then power everything else in the car sufficeiently. If your alternator cannot do this then all your doing is hurting the situation. Capacitors dont hold enough power to make any real difference anyway and like I said before its such a small difference and it will only happen every once in a blue moon that your only hurting the situation if you get one and dont have an alternator powerful enough to power everything besides the cap because its only going to draw power just like everything else. But anyway sorry for my rant, thats just my two cents.

 

[LoudCrownVic 5,000+ posts]

I have to agree with you there, 80 cutlass, that caps don't do much. I've found that the most they might do is keep dimmage at bay for awhile, then they become useless little toys that probably hurt the situation more than help. But, it helps enough for me to keep one in my system.