Quite simply, what are everyone's opinions on disabling the alternator at WOT?

I read somewhere that it was causing problems back in the day on turbo zetecs? what was that all about?

I mostly want to get rid of it because its kind of embarrassing at night to have my lights dim and then get brighter when im done wotting. But I'm not sure if its there to either protect the alternator at high rpm, or because its a 1whp gain on the dyno...

I think it's for both reasons.

It is on a timer , it does not go off right away , I know there are shops that turn it off at WOT as a selling point but I wont do it , I leave it as it is or on turbo cars with higher voltage demand set it a bit higher , In most cases its set high already

Tom

Yeah in the SCT value file it was at 14.4V and set for something like a 2 second delay before turning off and 5 second dwell before it turned back on.

Sounds like I'll be turning this off...

You could just set the Alt WOT voltage turn on to the lowest you want the batt voltage to drop to and this will allow the alt if it turns off to be turned back on even in WOT

The alt voltage turn off is only for 15 sec then it comes back on for 15 sec with a 4 sec delay after you come out of WOT

Tom

You could just set the Alt WOT voltage turn on to the lowest you want the batt voltage to drop to and this will allow the alt if it turns off to be turned back on even in WOT

Tom

Yeah I did this I think I put it at at 13.6 or something to turn back on. But i'd rather not deal with the lights dimming and such. Probly just gonna turn it off and set voltage to 14.2. Been running 13.8 but after I just did some reading im gonna up it to 14.2...

What benefit does this offer? Its not like the alternator has a clutch like the ac compressor that makes it freewheel. It has pretty much the same resistance to turning no matter what. I don't believe its resistance increases even when its full fielding.

the system will draw more current when it needs it, the more current it draws the more load the alternator puts on the engine to meet the draw. Its somewhere around 1hp/25amps. so if youre operating your alternator at full capacity its taking about 4-5hp. normally you only use 30-50amps so it only takes 1-2hp.

Huh. Good to know. Thanks for that little tidbit.

Mine is off, I haven't had problems.

If your NA then your fine , If your FI its best to leave it on even if its a lower voltage

Tom

Mine is off, I haven't had problems.

off as in, you turn it off at WOT, or off as in, the WOT switching is turned off?

hehe, mine is off as in WOT switching is off, as in my alternator doesn't care if I'm WOT.