The “Big 3″ is a very easy mod to your car’s electrical system that will help it maintain higher voltages for more power hungry amplifiers. If you’ve ever measured your voltage drop when playing music with the volume to the max with your engine running, you’ll see that instead of reading 14.4v or 13.8 (depending on car), your voltmeter will read 13v, 12v, or even lower! You can easily tell if you’re experiencing these voltage drops by watching your headlights. If they dim while playing your system, you most definitely have voltage drop going on. This voltage drop could potentially cause harm to your amp if it is significant enough. I had a Treo SSX 1500.1 blow because I was letting my voltage drop to about 9-10v, which the amp didn’t like very much.
What causes this problem are the stock, small gauge wires used to connect various electrical components. The stock wire is usually 8 gauge, which is sufficient enough for roughly 50 amps. Large amplifiers can pull up and over 200-300amps, so now you see the problem.
I do have vol gauge on dash so I can see it drop and raise as I rev the engine, turn on/off the lights and stuffs. Lucky it never get lower than 13V when everything is on. So I'm guessing 12V is the minimum mark for optimal performance all around ?
The volt meter will let you know your battery condition and charging system.
An ideal,new batterys voltage is 12.6 Volts.
An running, idle cars alternator output will be 12.8 to maybe 13.8 volts
At speeds above 1500rpm, and alternators output should be from 13.8 to 14.4 volts.
At this range is where you get the most power out of the alternator, and does the bulk of recharging to the battery so your car can start next time.
Most car electronics, oem or aftermarkets minimum voltage requirement is 10.8 Volts.
The ignition system on most cars will crap out at about 9 volts.
Also, is that a 1MZ I spot?
Also might want to slap a tiewrap or two on some of those wires running to your alternator. You wouldn't want them to fall or slip and get into a fight with your serpintine belt.
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Click that cool picture above for my cardomain!
I probably would've gone with an AGM battery like ones made by Kinetik. I'm looking at getting an HC1400. The AGM batteries seem to release the power faster than yellow top Optimas.
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Totaled 1996 Corolla DX 2009 Nissan Altima 2.5S with Takeda SRI, stock dual exhausts, mesh grille
LED bulbs for dome/map/turn signal/tail light/3rd brake light/back up bulbs
did you upgrade the factory ground as well? I could not tell. If not then you need to do so otherwise this upgrade is worthless. You cannot output more power unless your battery can accept more from the ground. in other words, your power is only as good as your ground and in most cases people dont see the ground as being very inportant when in fact its actually just as important if not more important. Also, remeber that 4g "amp" wire is almost equal to 6 or 8g "battery wire" depending on the car so instead of replacing your wires al together try just adding more wire to the factory wires. Good Luck. Nice car though.
I probably would've gone with an AGM battery like ones made by Kinetik. I'm looking at getting an HC1400. The AGM batteries seem to release the power faster than yellow top Optimas.
The HC1400 is a decent batt... but there are most deff stronger batteries out there
and to the OP, ill post up what pics i can find of my Big three in the explorer...
the alt: notice the silver 1/0 up top, thats my charge wire from the output post of the alt... red is ground from the engine block/alt casing
the batt: XS power D2700 with a gangsta lean (lol)... its what i had to do to make that thing fit
grounding/negative connections: in from the alt casing, out to frame, and the factory connections at the terminal
ground to body:
charging/positive connections: in from the alt charging post, out to the rear battery (fused on both ends), and the factory connections on the terminal
the reason you cant really see the ground from battery is because, i use the sidepost on the optima battery to ground. All the factory wire is still there plus 2awg and 1/0 awg wire. All the ground are 1/0 awg/
the reason you cant really see the ground from battery is because, i use the sidepost on the optima battery to ground. All the factory wire is still there plus 2awg and 1/0 awg wire. All the ground are 1/0 awg/
yes, you've got a group 34/78 dual post optima... thats one of their pretty standard batteries
where did you ground to the engine block/alt casing at?
also, is this your factory alternator?
and do you have any voltage drop still?
what kind of amp are you running?
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Derek...your local 12 & 16 volt electrical techie:
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