| So far things with my electric fan set up have been great. The one "issue" I have seen it the slight dip in the rpms at idle when the fan would kick on. While driving I could never tell it was on other than seeing the temp drop on my gauge. I have done a few road trips now to Branson and Phoenix and had no issues. Lately I started noticing my optima battery would be running down in the 11-12 volt range after a while on hot days with AC. I've had the bad luck with Optimas that most people to. So I figured either the battery was going bad again or my stock alternator is slowly dying off and can't keep up on the charging. So I looked into an aftermarket unit that has higher amps at idle as well to help with the fan. I found a few people used the DC Power unit. Pricey but has good reviews and is one of the few that provides more idle amps, not just over all. I called and the guy I spoke with was great. He has a 240sx that he was putting a Taurus fan into so he knew exactly what I was looking for and what would work. I got the 180amp version which does 130amps at idle. After my order things seemed to go down hill. Attitudes on the phone were not as caring or helpful anymore. They said it would take 3-4 weeks. At week 5 I called and was told they just got a stock core to use for mock up which was weird as they have made them for a Z before. At 7 weeks I was told it was shipping out the next day. I called a week and half later as nothing had shown up. I got a tracking number the next day and it was actually over night shipped which was nice. It took over 2 months to get it. Opened the box and it was different than the other I had seen. It had no rear mounting bracket like the stock one uses. Also the pulley had 5 ribs on it, the other one I had seen was the normal 3 to match stock. I was told this is how they make them now as far as the bracket and the pulley they were out of stock but would send me the correct one once they got them in stock. Well with Zcon coming I couldn't wait and had to get the car running so I installed it as is. Appears they just threw something together that would work to get something in the mail. 
Here is the other guys they made. They had a back bracket on his and the correct pulley. They said they are going to make a bracket and can send it to me but again I couldn't wait any longer so I'll have to look into that later if I really get one from them. 
Install was pretty easy. I installed it from the bottom. Unbolted the sway bar and pushed it out of the way. Got the old one out. Had to get clever on a few things with the new one. They recommend you run an additional 4 gauge wire to the positive of the battery. I had some on hand from past amp installs. I drilled out and used a stock valve cover bracket so that I would bolt the stock harness on and use the larger stud on the alternator for the 4 gauge wire. They include an adaptor harness as well to plug the stock harness up to the main alternator plug. 
The stock ground bolts on to the rear of the alternator. The design of this new one has those sunk in a bit. So I removed one of the nuts and bought a coupler to use instead. Then I bolted the stock grand wire to the other end of the coupler. 
Got it all bolted up. I went and bought a shorter main bolt because of the lack of rear mount on the alt. I was able to still use the stock nut which made tightening it down easier (they give you a generic bolt that's too long and locknut and a stack of washers). I lined up the belt to use the ribs that lined up. Once thing I noticed is the generic pulley they have is small that stock. So I ended up using all the adjustment range on the bracket. It got to the correct tension right as I hit the range limit. Being it's a used belt it wont need to stretch so I'm good for now. But I will probably put a smaller belt on there later. 
Ran the extra 4 gauge up to the battery. I used a 150amp fuse and put it where I used to have my car amp fuse holder at. I swapped out my 3 port terminals to some 4 port ones. They also recommend that you add a ground wire as well. They said we would be fine without it since our ground is short and goes right to the firewall. I had the wire and parts so I added another one for the hell of it. Since my Optima is past warranty and I had it out, I threw some black paint on it as well. Unlike Greg, yellow doesn't really work with my engine color layout :). 
Impressions so far are great. When I first started up the car I was seeing a nice 14.5+ volts. With my underdrive pulley I haven't seen anything in the 14 volt range for years, even before the fan. Also with the eletric fan my idle used to dip when it kicked on. Now my idle actually blips up which is a nice change. I have a volt meter on my turbo timer and everything has been stable and good so far. The drive to zcon will test it out for sure.
JackB nimble JackB quick JackB can suck my dick =P - james-lee 11/02/01
Arrogance is the #1 weapon against Supra Owners - MikeH 08/06/02
Dallas with a Z: I like the bulge dude 05/02/03
Bezbefootball: Does dick have anything for me? 10/21/03 |
Another new addition, high amp alternator. - 
