battery selection
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Driver School Candidate
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From: Pennsylvania
battery selection
1992 sc400
3 10' kicker subwoofers
770w amp
set up that was given to me for free from family
what would be a good battery selection to optimize performace and not be drained by the sub woofers
3 10' kicker subwoofers
770w amp
set up that was given to me for free from family
what would be a good battery selection to optimize performace and not be drained by the sub woofers
Welcome to the forum !
When you have a lot of power hungry electronics / electrical gadgets in a car , what you need to upgrade first before the battery is your alternator. It is what brings back the charge to the battery. No matter how big your battery is , if it discharges faster than it is being charged by the alternator , then it is of little use having a huge battery.
When you have a lot of power hungry electronics / electrical gadgets in a car , what you need to upgrade first before the battery is your alternator. It is what brings back the charge to the battery. No matter how big your battery is , if it discharges faster than it is being charged by the alternator , then it is of little use having a huge battery.
Yup, stock alternators in these cars don't leave much headroom. I know on the 2JZ you can swap in a tundra or Sequoia alternator with a little grinding and swapping the plug. Maybe look up and see if you can do the same or if there are aftermarket alts available. You're not running a ton of power, may have success with a cap if your amp is efficient and you're not constantly cranking it.
A capacitor won't help insufficient current. In this type of setup a capacitor would just be a waste of money. There are several high output alternators available for the 300, I don't know about the 400 but its worth a search. Some decent companies are: excessive amperage, irragi alternators, mechman, and there are a few more. I'm running a 160 amp HO alternator but currently have no stereo upgrades just yet.
A big 3 upgrade can definitely make your electrical system much more efficient and can cut down on current loss. The big 3 is where you upgrade the wire going from: alt to battery, battery to ground, and battery to fuse box. Going with thicker gauge wire will decrease parasitic losses from heat.
As far as batteries go you would probably do fine with a yellow top, or any deep cycle battery. But just make sure that if its going in the engine bay its safe for heat. Some battery types like AGM batteries have efficiency losses when exposed to engine heat and do better when located inside the car. AGM batteries don't release fumes so they're not gonna kill you if you put them in the trunk or anything like that.
I would just go with a big 3 upgrade and a yellow top and call it a day. If you notice any current drop you can always go HO alternator later but when it comes to listening to music you'll barely if ever see a continual load from the amplifier so HO alts aren't terribly necessary unless you're getting above 1500 Watts rms setups.
My first car (Ford explorer) I was running 1150 rms to two subs with another 400 Watts rms to the front speakers. I bought a second battery and an HO alt. I did the big 3 and installed the second battery and it never even needed the HO alt. I installed it for a bit but it had an external voltage regulator which I didn't enjoy adjusting so I went back to the stock alt and it ran fine on the stock alternator with barely a voltage drop. HO alts are really the last step when modding the electrical system as backwards as that may sound.
A big 3 upgrade can definitely make your electrical system much more efficient and can cut down on current loss. The big 3 is where you upgrade the wire going from: alt to battery, battery to ground, and battery to fuse box. Going with thicker gauge wire will decrease parasitic losses from heat.
As far as batteries go you would probably do fine with a yellow top, or any deep cycle battery. But just make sure that if its going in the engine bay its safe for heat. Some battery types like AGM batteries have efficiency losses when exposed to engine heat and do better when located inside the car. AGM batteries don't release fumes so they're not gonna kill you if you put them in the trunk or anything like that.
I would just go with a big 3 upgrade and a yellow top and call it a day. If you notice any current drop you can always go HO alternator later but when it comes to listening to music you'll barely if ever see a continual load from the amplifier so HO alts aren't terribly necessary unless you're getting above 1500 Watts rms setups.
My first car (Ford explorer) I was running 1150 rms to two subs with another 400 Watts rms to the front speakers. I bought a second battery and an HO alt. I did the big 3 and installed the second battery and it never even needed the HO alt. I installed it for a bit but it had an external voltage regulator which I didn't enjoy adjusting so I went back to the stock alt and it ran fine on the stock alternator with barely a voltage drop. HO alts are really the last step when modding the electrical system as backwards as that may sound.
Driver School Candidate
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As someone who is in the midst of a rather involved stereo build I can't confirm how much headroom is built into the factory alternator. I will say that my car and it seems as others also suffer from a parasitic draw which doesn't help matters- it's like having a hole in a bucket- you're always loosing water. Mine is in my dome light circuit and iirc on the order of .07 amps (it's been several years so I could be off)
That being said each time you start the car you need to refill the bucket along with keeping the car running.
All that said- I'm not sure how you listen to your music but music isn't a sine wave- with a full blown sq system set on 90db with pink noise you could expect to draw between 10 and 20 amps (amp topology dependent of course) now Toyota didn't plan this kind of draw into the mix so even the best battery might not cut it. It's been a bit since I've researched batteries but optima had several years of less than stellar performance after they sold out. The duralast upper lines iirc are great bang for the buck and I've never went wrong with a deka.
Alternator upgrade is the direction I would go- I would shy away from aftermarket if you can as oem's seem to have much better track records- if another alt. (the gs300 may?) id go that route- 15-20 amps extra will go a long way.
I'm building a 20 or so amp iota power supply into my car so I can plug it in for tuning or listening seasons- or to just top the car off.
That being said each time you start the car you need to refill the bucket along with keeping the car running.
All that said- I'm not sure how you listen to your music but music isn't a sine wave- with a full blown sq system set on 90db with pink noise you could expect to draw between 10 and 20 amps (amp topology dependent of course) now Toyota didn't plan this kind of draw into the mix so even the best battery might not cut it. It's been a bit since I've researched batteries but optima had several years of less than stellar performance after they sold out. The duralast upper lines iirc are great bang for the buck and I've never went wrong with a deka.
Alternator upgrade is the direction I would go- I would shy away from aftermarket if you can as oem's seem to have much better track records- if another alt. (the gs300 may?) id go that route- 15-20 amps extra will go a long way.
I'm building a 20 or so amp iota power supply into my car so I can plug it in for tuning or listening seasons- or to just top the car off.
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