This blog is to document my journey from Okinawa, Japan back to the United States, bringing with me knowledge and automotive tuning wisdom I have acquired in The Land of the Rising Sun over the past 3 and a half years. This blog is to document my access and connections to car culture on both sides of the Pacific. I made this blog primarily to educate the younger 240sx enthusiasts getting into the 240/silvia scene.
I own a 1994 Nissan 180sx (Japanese-Spec) equipped with an SR20DET engine and 1992 Nissan 240sx (US-Spec) equipped with a KA24DE engine. I will be tearing down my 180sx and revert it as a parts car for my 240sx in California. Throughout this blog I will be addressing areas in the design of the S13/180sx Chassis that can be tweaked and my progress through my builds and projects.
I will also list sites and information on modifications and tuning theory from my research here in Japan and on the World Wide Web.
First thing's first.
Modification of the Day: Upgraded Alternator for the Nissan 240sx (KA24E and KA24DE)
Info: The S13 and S14 chassis come with either an 80-amp ~ 90-amp alternator. I say either because I do not know if the alternators are different when Nissan of America changed the alternators between their Single-Cam and Dual Cam engines, or when the chassis changed from S13/180 (1989-1994) and S14 (1995-1998).
The almighty 110-amp Nissan Quest Van Alternator is used for the upgrade. Now, if you don't know much about volts and amps, certain electronics require a certain amount of voltage to function properly. Everytime you add-on electronics to your car, i.e. Speakers, Subwoofers, Amplifiers, H.I.D. Headlights, Gauges, Turbo Timers, Boost Controllers, Air Fuel Correction Devices, etc. you drain amps.
Everything that is electronic on the vehicle will draw a certain amount of Amps. A few amps here and a few amps there. If you add on too many electronics, you will draw too many amps that the stock alternator will not be able to support, and your battery will not charge properly. Whenever you see a person with a sound system in their car and the lights/taillights dim when bass hits, it's because they do not have a proper electrical system set-up to support the amount of amps their sound system is drawing off the vehicle. The more amps the alternator is rated at, the more of a pool of amps you can draw from and not have any ill effects.
A trick some hardcore street tuners use to defeat such a problem w/o resorting to an upgraded alternator is to remove such amenities such as Air Conditioning, Head Unit, Cigarette Lighter (yes... a cigarette lighter), etc. and use the Power that supported to those options to power other electronics like Electric Fans and Fuel Correction Devices. Depending on how much of an amp spike is created when these items are used, the stock fuses in the fuse box may need to be downgraded or upgraded due to the fact that the fuse is no longer supporting, say the Air Conditioning, but is used to support your Aftermarket Gauges.
Now to the actual Article. I found this article on NicoForums.
DIY 110 Amp Nissan Quest Alternator into KA24E - adapted from article
by: onosqv
I'm more of a visual person, so I decided to snap a few pictures and elaborate on this article:
Old Alternator: '89 Nissan 240sx KA24E 80 amp alternator
New Alternator: '97 Nissan Quest (VG-SOMETHING?) 110 amp alternator
Valid Applications: KA24E upgrade (verfied by me), KA24DE upgrade (verified by T66240 - aka Mike Lee)
Will Not Work With: SR20 verified in February 2006. Friend tried to install one on his redtop, wouldn't fit because too large - need custom alternator bracket as well as custom pulley.
Benefits: 110 amp instead of 80 amp (or 90 amp for 95+ SE, I believe) - allows you to run electric fans, stereo, etc. Also costs anywhere between 100-200 less than a custom order 150/200amp alternator that must be shipped & then shipped back & forth if anything goes wrong.
My reason: I installed an underdrive pulley a while back, and even w/ my mild sound system it was fine. However, I have put on electric fans (dual altimas), bigger stereo system, and hid lights. Just the fans & regular bosch headlamps from pdm-racing would take up almost all of the alternator power (car would go down to 12.0-12.2 volts & lights would dim dramatically) during night time stop & go city driving. This was not even with my hid's & sound system yet.
Balance: underdrive pulley is estimated around 3-4 hp for n/a & 7-8 hp for turbo last time I checked. 110amp from 80amp is a loss of .77 hp from the freshalloy thread; so, it is still a benefit w/o too much sacrifice.
Install:
0) Disconnect negative battery terminal - take out the whole battery if you have it in your engine bay, makes it much easier (I have mine in the trunk).
1) First off, as per FSM, remove your pulley belts, then the alternator. There are 3 plugs that are attached to the back of the alternator: a small 8mm bolt holding the ground wire, and a 10mm nut holding down the power wire & some other wires, and lastly the electrical connector that needs to be pushed down then pulled out - I did so w/ a screwdriver since it was pretty stuck.
Then there are the 2 bolts - 12mm on top, and 14mm on bottom.
I navigated the alternator toward the radiator and put it down on the floor
2) Prep the Nissan Quest alternator by drilling out the bottom mount holes to 3/8" - actually slightly larger.
3) Prep the electrical connector w/ a 3/8" drill also - pretty sure it was 3/8", haha - the one coupled w/ the power wire in the engine bay to that threading also so it will fit over the bolt on the alternator. This was the part that I finally understood from the freshalloy post after not being able to get it to fit. The nut that goes over these connectors is 13mm.
4) Install in reverse order. Install will be much easier if you can remove your fan & shroud to get them out of the way. The quest alternator is slightly larger. We were able to pull it up leaving the altima fans in after 30 minutes of trial & error, then pure luck.
5) Use the inside 3 ribs of the 4 ribs on the Quest alternator.
6) Start your new baby up.
Impressions:
Before:
- 13.5 volts cruising w/ headlights on
- 12.0-12.2 volts stop & go in city w/ headlights (dimming at low speeds) & 1 of 2 fans going @ 700-750 rpm, some stuttering in the car.
- won't even handle headlights w/ both fans going (climate control didn't make much of a difference, raise in rpms but that was just enough to get the climate control running).
After:
- 13.9-14.0 volts cruising w/ headlights on
- 13.9 volts stop & go w/ 1 fan on & headlights bright as they should be
- 13.5 volts w/ headlights normal & both fans going @ idle (700-750 rpm)
- w/ climate control going & above, the volts do drop down to around 12.5, but idle was relatively low still (700rpm), something I need to fix - this test was done w/o driving the car around, just in the driveway.
This was only done today, so those are the best #'s/tests I can run @. No stereo was being played since it is currently stripped because of pending projects.
this leads to -> ability to install my hid's, hi-flow fuel pump, big stereo again, etc w/o power loss.
Not bad considering the quest alternator costs 25 dollars less than the ka24 alternator.
Comparsion (quest on right):
Hope this article helps some ppl like me.
Thanks.
- Mainichi Tuning
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