It does give you more power but depending on amp that you use. Most have to be modded to run higher voltages and some dont. but it has to be a separate charging system than the rest of your equipment which could be damaged including your can ECM.
Like i said not just any amp can run at higher voltages so do some home work before dumping a 16 volt setup on it and make sure its isolated from the 12volt of your car.

 

I was thinking that the stock electrical system would have to be regulated to it's normal values. Assuming I run a second alternator at 18 volts or so, would I have to find a battery capable of 18 volts and then run dedicated lines to the audio equipment of both positive and negative or can the chassis as a ground support 18 and 14.4?

I have a pair of RF 800a2's in one of my cars, would these be a good choice for more volts?

 

nice... ya the guy i work for actually repairs amps and has built one before and from what hes herd they have state of the art technology vs the china rip offs. If you take er apart to see the guts i would love a pic or 2

well equation for wattage is volts*amp=watts. So bumping up the voltage can get you some power but doing so in a car is tricky. RF amps are rated up to 15.5v

A good example of that is my setup honestly. The alternator is completely isolated from the charging system whatsoever. Its a ohio gen with an external regulator that goes from 12v-20v. Thats connected via RF 2/0 wire to the 2 batteries in the wheel well (kinetik hc16v) Im probably going to have the alt running around 17v depending on what it needs to keep the batteries charged. Ground is ground and theres not really an easy or nice way of making a isolated ground

Fosgate rates their amps at 15.5v max so im not sure how pissy they would get at extra voltage but im going to find out myself with my T30001bd. For just those amps thou i wouldnt look at a 16v setup. Its going to be a pita (not saying adding an alternator isnt)

Overall I wouldnt really recommend what im doing to anyone because its expensive and pretty damn hard. I mean in the end while i have alot done i still have alot of work to go to even really get this all setup and i have quite a bit of help considering i work at an audio shop, my boss is an electrical engineer that repairs amps daily, and the guy who built alot of my stuff is a badass welder and has worked in car audio for 11 years doing tons of custom stuff.

 

ah, ok, so basicaly, Unless I'm willing to blow up everything and redo it, I should wait a bit to get into the >14 volt systems....(somewhere I heard cars are trying to go to 42 or something....)

Good luck there Emp, Your system looks like it's coming together nicely. (My cavalier is coming apart slowly, i.e. being sold.) I think my 800a2's are leaving tomorrow...$400 for the pair. Does that sound reasonable for them?

 

well im not saying wait persay but going from a 12v system up is a big step and takes quite a bit of effort and knowledge. Unless you have an SUV that has prefab dual alt brakets just getting a second alternator in a car isnt easy.... i figured i would bump it up to the 16v setup not because i needed to or had to but because i figured could get more power a little easier for a daily setup. Well i got a feeling if i stuck with a 12v setup i would be alot closer to having everything running but its all good

bought my 801x for 200 so sounds pretty reasonable.

 

I can only say I hope you don't street this car. With the radiator support cut out like it is, if you ever collide with something you've lost a significant amount of structural rigidity with the car, you're gonna kcuf some $#!% up big time. Good luck with that.

 

i honestly dont think i lost that much support. considering theres a veritcal metal piece right under the part i cut

 

So yesterday I went to this shop, I don't know if yoy have them in the States but theres a few of them around here , Its called Visions. I went there to grab a couple JL subs. I got talking to the guy and he asked me what kind of car I had. When I told him a Cobalt he proceeded to show me some pics of a Cobalt they had done and guess what it had...2 alts!!
Its has a two tone paint job,red and black, lambo doors, I couldn't tell from the pictures what kind but some 20" crome rims and a I'm guessing the bill for the stereo work he had done would feed a third world country for a year or two. Oh yeah no wing. I wonder if he is a member here.

 

got a friend in CA and i think hes mentioned visions before.... U should somehow get a hold of those pics or somthing im interested

 

I'm sure I can work something out with them, but I think they have a place that they send work of this nature out to. There not equiped to do it themselves, so I'll find out the name of the place they send it to as well. Give me about a week or so.

 

hell ya thanks

 

I'm going there tomorrow, wish me luck

 

GL thanks again

 

And with that the alt is running tonight!!! whew tons of work

 

is it working emp?

 

From what I understand if you have a ss/sc then the car comes with a 140amp alternator. I was running a 3k rms amp to a set of 12 with another 800rms watts feeding the mids and highs. Granted these where allat 12 volts. Onceit saw 13.8 volts power increased, All I had was a 5 farad cap berfore the sub amp. Never had any issues with voltage drop. I could run it all day long . I was pushing in excess of 150dbs. Did it like that for 3 years before I had my daughter and sold the stuff.

 

Took a few pics of the finished work. Due to not being able to find the correct sized belt we had to add 2 idler pulleys to take up some slack.... Unfortunately that left only 2 options on routing of the belt around those pulleys. Going under the first pulley would have allowed more belt area on the AC but the belt would end up hitting the metal support... Going under the first pulley ultimately reduced the belt coverage on the AC even more but cleared everything up top. We tested the AC running and there really isn't any slippage. Mind you this is still "freshly finished" so the next few weeks will be keeping it slow and popping the hood often. And with that hopefully ill be lucky and be issue free for a long time.

 

so does this mean the car is done? Or are you just getting started again?

 

while its not done im probably not going to work on it for some time

 

Anyone find a reasonable 42 volt alternator yet?

 

nope this ones rated at 20v max.... either way 20v will blow my amp to ****

 

Right, you'd have to set it down, just like they do on the hybrids.

 

I'm guessing that "not working on it for a while" means it's done enough to enjoy?

 

and the point of that is what? With the size and length of my wires im not loosing any real voltage. Adding any type of step down module is going to loose more voltage then what i have right now

yup its very enjoyable. Mainly its that this hobby is a money pit and ive been working on it for forever. Im going to add a sheet of Lux Liner Pro in the quarter panels then be done with it until i get more modivation

 

why not just run a larger alt with a Capacitor(spl) and a yellow top.?