Hi there again folks,
There's been a
Major Buzz around these parts lately; and for a very good reason! A very knowledgeable senior member; a gentleman who's work I've admired here on this site, and over on
The Toyota 120 Platforms [MENTION=55815]Okki[/MENTION] (AKA Paul)! He's decided to open a door over at
Nations Starter and Alternator so we might all be able to afford the highly acclaimed
DC Power Engineering 270-XP alternator. He's had a tremendous amount of progress over there with them. He's got their ear, giving us a voice, gathered a high number of our members and is cutting a deal that no one (Here or there) will be able to turn down!
So I've got my sleeves rolled up and will do whatever he asks me to do so we can get this ($690 dollar) 270 ampere alternator for a price that's more than affordable; Thanks Paul! Anyway while reading his thread:
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-g...y-dc-power-engineering-270amp-alternator.html I received a couple of questions about This alternator, the way it works, what kind of voltage can we expect from it, will it have an affect (good or bad) on our
ECU/PCMs and other great Questions like that!
So I wanted to address some of these questions (w/o taking his thread O/T) and to give those of you who want to participate in the group buy; or even if you're not quite ready to take the plunge right now, but just would like to research the subject a little further, I think that's a great idea! When I bought my 270-XP, I spent much time asking myself questions then in turn I would go to different sources and immerse myself in all of that wonderful information that I found out there... I'm the kind of guy who doesn't like surprises (NONE of them are good lol!), so before I ordered my new alternator, I wanted to know what's so different about this aftermarket alternator... they're all the same right??? ...well, no they're not, not at all!
Most of the alternators that you see advertised as
'The BEAST' or
'godzilla' or 100 other names that are just gimmicks designed to grab your attention cannot do what you think they can do. Not because the company lied and told you that it can deliver
590 amps. But in their advertising that you saw it was implied and it was stated in such a way that they let you fill-in the blanks, so you concluded that this product will develop 590A to run an unlimited amount of accessories! I totally believe in the spec sheet. I also believe in gathering the full meaning of all of those
'Weasel words' that mean NOTHING but are just there to make you believe that everyone else except you all know what those words mean; but you're afraid to ask anyone on the forum what that means because you think that everyone may laugh at you and then we'll think you're stupid...
RIGHT?
That's the reason that I love to study! It helps to expose those wives tales, folklore, myth, fairy tales and just plain-ole'
"Spooky bull-ship"! I'm gonna try and keep this post short (it'll be a first). A question was brought up the other day wrt ECU/PCM controlled voltage in some of the newer vehicles being built right now and so I wanted to talk about that briefly! I needed to know this too because I had just ordered the 270xp and was hoping to get a full
14.00 volts from it; that's one of the things that I didn't like about my 2012 limited 4Runner. I mean I guess 13.2 is okay if that's where the factory had set it, but I just couldn't help being a bit... disappointed about that; after all this was to be a rescue vehicle for my family and close friends in the winter; NJ gets snow like Boston used to get back in the day, 30 inches every 14 days is no longer strange these days!
So, what is all this stuff about PCM controlled alternators, and what would be the benefit? To keep it short... it's about fuel economy and longer battery life! Theory is: generating electricity puts more drag on the crankshaft and so the engine must consume more fuel to spin the alternator. So the mechanical engineers decided to find ways to decrease the amount of drag that it takes to turn the alternators pulley as often as it's not needed to work so hard. To start, they set the alternator to develop a maximum output voltage of 15 vdc. Next, they installed a voltage regulator that would prevent the alternator from going anywhere near 15VDC, but instead, they decided that 13.5 volts would be sufficient to run every accessory that the truck would feature... and then some!
The next thing that Toyota decided to do was to create a
'fuel saving option' that would be able to over-ride the alternator's voltage regulator under specific conditions e.g. when it was really hot out. It is at this particular time when the ambient temperatures are elevated that the battery is most vulnerable to an over charge condition which will shorten the (Standard lead) battery's anticipated life span. So the electrical architects/designers decided that
PCM could over-ride the internal voltage regulator under certain conditions. So now the
PCM Controlled Alternator would have more than one advantage over the
'Stand-Alone', self contained alternator. When the conditions are just right, the PCM (a calculating computer) will make decisions wrt how much of a charge the battery will need based on what accessories are on, outdoor temperature...etc
Even though the PCM is allowed to limit the MAX voltage output of the alternator, the Internal voltage regulator acts like a safety device and will prohibit any voltage output above a pre-determined set-point to protect the more critical electronics e.g. ECU, PCM, Instrument cluster, canBUS system...etc! So the PCM does have it's function in the
Fuel consumption domain, and as the Battery life span manager. Even though I was glad that I had learned some important facts about ECU/PCM function, I was glad that the 5'th gen
4Runner doesn't use the fuel consumption PCM to control the Alternator but rather, monitors
(M terminal for Monitor) the use of our electrical system to create a history log, and perhaps to determine when/if a battery is constantly being replaced, just what the cause might be!
Now fast fwd: When I had just dropped my new 270-XP in I was
ALMOST afraid to look at the output voltage for fear that the PCM may have been controlling the output instead of only monitoring it; I had spent some time on the phone speaking with the sales rep to be sure that the
270-XP would be totally independent wrt the output voltage; I didn't mind that the alternator and electrical system were being monitored for the sake of impropriety, but I knew that I needed to see
14.05 at all speeds and even at curb-side idle while using every electrical accessory available. But all of my research had paid off! I was seeing a constant 14.12V at the battery posts and I could load it up e.g., Both JL Audio HD-750s were being pushed for the sake of this test, temp control blower on HIGH BLOW, windshield wipers on high (front and rear) all lights were on, heated seats, A/C, rear defogger grid... and this was before I added the three heavy auxiliary cables (The BIG Three) to provide a multiple path electrical carrier grid! For those of you that are planning to install the
270-XP to your truck, it's a great investment! For those of you who are on the fence, I say take your time and don't buy before you feel that this is right for you! Thanks so much for reading this post,
rigtec,
'Best to you'!
