16 volt batteries

[mstrdinan]

anyone use 16 v batteries without an alternator??
  what kind of luck did you have??

[BALS aSALT]

have great luck at the drag strip. need 16 volt charger though, might have better luck running two 16s. only because you're running engine for a much greater amount of time than a 1/4 mile.

[jimmy six]

Just an observation, but if you don't have a room problem I would use an alternator. Mine is set at a little over 14VDC...Good Luck

[olepaw]

used 16v in late model stock car. we run up to 50 laps (1/3 mile track) and never had a prblem . with no alt. they are correct need a 16v charger.

[JimL]

At which point do you need the 16V?

I ran the ignition on our G/BGMR at 18 volts (because the engine spends all its time at high RPM).  I learned from the American Indy Car guys that they run a Honda Mini-Trail/Trail 70 battery in series, before the coils, on their Menards.  This worked fine for me, and always had enough spark, despite the very short saturation time at 7500 RPM.  It'll let you run Ford Ranger coils to very high RPM (Ranger coils were the magic under the hood of some pretty good Rolex Series cars; lots of windings in them....really heavy).

Pretty cheap way to get good spark.

JimL

[1212FBGS]

what years of Rangers ya talkin 'bout Jim?
kent

[JimL]

Those coils were used in the mid-late 90s when they needed to run BIG plug gaps to avoid misfire codes (sooo....after OBDII, which became 100% models, all manufactureres, in 1996.).  My coils are from the 4-cyl Rangers...they could be pretty lean and still make fat spark.  The two coil pack has 4 plug wires and two trigger/signal terminals, so they are for waste spark.  I was steered onto these by Pectel, the folks who made the EFI systems for Ivan Stewarts trucks (TRD), as well as the Ford WRC turbo car EFI systems.  I ran Pectel T2 in our roadster; will only run 4 cyl....T6 could run anything up to 12 cylinders.

sorry bout the late reply....days get shorter and the nights get tired-er.

JimL

[Rex Schimmer]

JML,
A little off topic but are you working on the double again???

Rex

[John Burk]

JimL , my 96 4 cyl ranger had dual spark plugs and direct ignition , 8 coils . Are these the ones you're speaking of ?

[TNTHEMIENGINES]

I have been running at Bonneville for the last 8 years, first with a 12Volt system and now with a 12 Volt and !6 Volt system and never had an alternator. I started of with 2 12 Volt RV batteries for about the first 6 years. Two years ago I switched to a 16 Volt for my ignition and MSD Box. I start my truck on the two 12 Volt batteries but run the ignition and MSD on 16 Volts. Never had any battery problems and I only recharge ever 3 or 4 days. I do a mechanical drive water pump and no cooling fan.

[fastman614]

We run a six volt battery in series with our 12 volt battery to the MSD.... the MSD will take 18 volts no problem.... the 12 volt battery still cranks the engine over... and, of course, a regular 6V/12V charger will do the charging.... just not at the same time though...

About alternators and 16 volt batteries.... I had a voltage reglator fail in acar I once owner....(a mid 70s Dart Sport).... I noticed that the charge guage was at WAY to the max.... and I had 190 miles to drive home.... well, I disconnected the battery so as to not evaporate it out and discovered that turn signal lights and headlights got burned out at the volts being generated.... the voltage regulator was external on Chrysler products in that era.... so it was an easy fix when I got home... but, before changing it, curiousity got the better of me and I put a volt meter on to the battery leads.....it was producing over 18 volts at 2500 rpm.... I asked one of my friends who was an elctrical engineering technologist about this and he said yeah... they will produce increasing voltage as they are revved higher.... so.... is it just a matter of getting a voltage regulator to regulate to a higher voltage and the charging issue is solved?