The race to Fest!

[EternalOne]

At this point you need to do a one-by-one diag of the system.

Basically you are pulling WAY too much power for the Cougar to produce. Then on top of that, you've got a rapid charge/discharge (cap) that is pushing surges of demand through the alt, not a good thing. A dual battery will not help you, because of the massive draw you've got.

In my Yukon my two amps rate at 120amps, and I've upgraded my alt to a 250amp HO unit and dual batteries. The Cougar alt can be rewound to produce about 130-150amps, but that's about as high as you can go with it. With the car draw you're still above. My recommendation would be 4-fold...

#1 - Remove the cap, with proper power you should not need it and right now it's hurting you.
#2 - Buy a NEW alt and spend the $100 or so to get it rewound. (Don't rewind a used one, especially if you're smoking them constantly. Don't want to waste money.)
#3 - Install a second battery, Optima Yellow top recommended, or go with a SERIOUS Marine battery, such as the Interstate Marine batteries. (Note these are VERY heavy, and VERY large.)
#4 - Install an isolator. With the way you're smoking alts you need to seperate your power systems. Keep the feedback from the system off the car power system before you smoke more than your alt (ie your computer, which runs MUCH more than a replacement alt...)

Just suggestions, but once you go with a large stereo the issues and cost multiplies in a big way. This is why a lot of people go real big, and then 2 weeks later have no sound. You're in a whole new realm now...

E1

[kwg2371]

Originally Posted by EternalOne

At this point you need to do a one-by-one diag of the system.

Basically you are pulling WAY too much power for the Cougar to produce. Then on top of that, you've got a rapid charge/discharge (cap) that is pushing surges of demand through the alt, not a good thing. A dual battery will not help you, because of the massive draw you've got.

In my Yukon my two amps rate at 120amps, and I've upgraded my alt to a 250amp HO unit and dual batteries. The Cougar alt can be rewound to produce about 130-150amps, but that's about as high as you can go with it. With the car draw you're still above. My recommendation would be 4-fold...

#1 - Remove the cap, with proper power you should not need it and right now it's hurting you.
#2 - Buy a NEW alt and spend the $100 or so to get it rewound. (Don't rewind a used one, especially if you're smoking them constantly. Don't want to waste money.)
#3 - Install a second battery, Optima Yellow top recommended, or go with a SERIOUS Marine battery, such as the Interstate Marine batteries. (Note these are VERY heavy, and VERY large.)
#4 - Install an isolator. With the way you're smoking alts you need to seperate your power systems. Keep the feedback from the system off the car power system before you smoke more than your alt (ie your computer, which runs MUCH more than a replacement alt...)

Just suggestions, but once you go with a large stereo the issues and cost multiplies in a big way. This is why a lot of people go real big, and then 2 weeks later have no sound. You're in a whole new realm now...

E1

So in other words get (1) amp big enough to run the subs say about 3500 mono that runs about 80-90 amp??? and scrap the idea of running 2 amps.

would my 300amp anl fuse have any thing to do with it I have a buddy saying that, that is my problem he says I should switch to a 100 amp fuse

[EternalOne]

No, fuse size doesn't matter there. The only thing the fuse does is protect what's behind it. Ie, if a spike (from a ground-out or something else) tries to draw 500amps thru the wire, the 300amp fuse will pop. It's just a safety measure and unless its UNDERsized it won't cause an issue. Although it should be more closely mated to the amps to protect them. In my new setup we ran 2 4guage wires from the batteries back to the amps, each power wire is fused with 100amp ANL at 6" from the battery...

Also, as a side note, a 3500w amp that pulls under 100amps is not putting out 3500w. 50amps per 1000w is the avg, but with most of the "cheaper" amps being a lot less efficient you normally see them waste a lot of juice.

E1

[kwg2371]

well here is a thought the way I have my system ran is , the 0-1 gauge wire is ran back from the battery to a distrabution block the splits 4 ways one splits into the the power cap the other 2 go to the amps, I my self have never hooked a system up like that before but thats how the diagram said to do it on the new stuff I had bought. would it help if I ran the 0-1 into the cap FIRST then split them?

[Teebs]

Originally Posted by EternalOne

Just suggestions, but once you go with a large stereo the issues and cost multiplies in a big way. This is why a lot of people go real big, and then 2 weeks later have no sound. You're in a whole new realm now...

E1

So right now, while I'm still shopping would be a good time to downsize alittle right? The mono amp was actually 900w rms, my mistake. And my subs are 400w rms x 2. So I was considering coming down alittle to a 600watt rms amp. Which would drop my max load by 20amps.

[kwg2371]

EternalOne what vehicle do you have your compition system in??? and what are you running in your cougar???

[Teebs]

So just to clarify, our alternator is 130a max, and 70-90 at idle with a 20a draw to run the car? I've been trying to find the specs which are sprinkled through random posts on the forum but haven't found much other than the 130a max...

I'm trying to keep my install within spec of the stock alternator, down the road I may install a rewound alt, but until then I have the stock alt to work with.

And I should probably stay close to the idle output correct? Also, the dual battery, although it would be nice, seems to be out of my budget at the moment. :S

[kwg2371]

Here I found this on another forum.

Cap or Alternator? - DSMtalk Forums

[EternalOne]

EternalOne what vehicle do you have your compition system in??? and what are you running in your cougar???

My competition stuff is in my Yukon, with the truck built solely for SPL and dB Drags. In the Cougar I have no subs/amps/etc, I am not even sure I'll be keeping a radio this year (It's in there for the rear-view screen right now). The Cougar is built for speed, and adding 100+lbs for a stereo is not a viable option to me.

E1