stuck Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Gent's, As some of you will know since fitting the 4.6 I've had nothing but problems. I couldn't get the thing to tick over properly (it was hunting like mad), when using a strobe the timing appeared to be miles out & it just didn't sound as a V8 should ( I put this down to the timing etc ). Since fitting the engine I knew that the alternator wasn't charging (I think I blew the regulator by wiring it up incorrectly ) but as I have twin batteries I just left it coupled to a "smart charger" when in the garage & relied on the batteries when out & about ( truck was still a pig sat on the drive with the charger connected drawing less than 1 Amp ) To draw an end to a boring post tonight I finally got around to fitting a new alternator ( out of desperation if I'm honest ) & for some reason everything is suddenly ok! Timing is a couple of degrees out but I know I can sort that in the morning. No matter how much I think about this the only explanation I can come up with is that the engine is configured to "expect" a certain load from the alternator & the load advances the timing ?! Sorry for the waffle but I'm baffled... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRecklessEngineer Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Noise from a fried alternator causing grief to the electrikwizardry? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybrid_From_Hell Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 A EFI System requires a fair amount of power to run "Cleanly" if the alternator doesn't produce enough the system can be a "Nasty" running one. Had this on the old hybrid, new alternator, and it was like 2 cylinders were back up and running Odd but yes it does Nige Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 You can also get problems with the battery voltage compensation setting in MS. It's supposed to compensate for low voltages by increasing the amount of time the injectors are open, the assumption being that a low voltage means the fuel pump will run at a lower pressure and the injectors will take longer to open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuck Posted February 17, 2012 Author Share Posted February 17, 2012 Cheers chaps, I've obviously been a bit dim, didn't associate a buggered alternator with the problems I've experienced. I shall now go and lie under a rock & dream about Weber 500 carbs, Lucas dizzys & how reliable they are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoltan Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Noise from a fried alternator causing grief to the electrikwizardry? Non LR but relevant to MS topic, are different designs of alternators nosier than others? My Russian Gaz which I am trying to get running nicely (4.2 V8 on MS1 and EDIS) is running like a bag of **** and I'm wondering if noise is part of the problem as the loom back to the ECU runs very close to the big old basic Russian alternator. Ive been through everything twice over so am moving onto these kind of reasons in order to get it to pull crisply and cleanly. Which is more effective? Screening or moving the loom away where practical? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zim Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Why not run an RV8 alternator on it ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoltan Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 It churns out plenty of amps and it runs two belts and the waterpump is the other load with a whopping great cooling fan on so the load on the diminuative Lucas alternator would be way too much. Plus I'd have the aggro of mounting the RV8 one. I was more interested in whether different alternators have different EMF characteristics and whether my issues are related to the proximity of the loom to the alternator. If the RV8 one is just as noisy I'g gain nothing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 I'd wager the russian one is not going to be very EMC-friendly as it has no reason to be on a vehicle with no electronics as standard. Try measuring the alternator output with your multimeter set to volts AC, that'll tell you roughly how much it's jumping around. Bolting some smoothing caps in near the MS ECU might sort it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoltan Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 The smoothing capacitors would go where? Between the ECU case and ground? I drove it today from work to home with the loom moved well away from the alternator and it is still completely gutless, I ended up more or less in first gear to get up the miniscule hill to home. Useless machine. Found myself looking at GMC 6.2 diesel V8's on Youtube. Not a good sign Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRecklessEngineer Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Between the +12V power and ground at the ECU connector. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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