318 Fireball rebuild

**Charger408** · 07-06-2016, 03:41 PM

Originally Posted by Winston!

Hello,

Been driving the car a lot and everything is great. Still needs a diff and bigger wheels on the back and a dyno tune wouldn't go astray. Last week there were a couple of occasions where the car was about to shut off, I noticed the ammeter drop then shoot back up when I gave it throttle. Today the car shut off and wouldnt start again, luckily I'd just pulled into my parking space. I poped the bonnet and the cell light on the battery was black.

There is a brand new tuff stuff 60amp 1 wire alternator fitted, is 60 amp potentially too low an amp alternator to run with thermal fans and gauges? The car did also sit around for a couple of months without being started. I'm just not sure why the battery has died. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

Nice radiator set-up - should have no overheating problems now. Trouble with our weekend cruisers is that they can sit for periods and quite often have a small drain on the battery even when everything is off. This means that it they are quite often not at full charge when you go to start them and sitting in traffic with thermos radio etc running will continue to draw on them (alternator output at idle is probably down to about 30 amp or so - the 60 amp they quote is when engine is spinning above 1500rpm normally). Options might be to upgrade to a better battery able to take the draw (like an Optima) and either disconnect terminal when it is parked or put a cut-out switch in it to eliminate the draw on the battery when she is in the garage. If it it still happens you'll need a bigger alternator (but 60 should really be okay).

**Charger408** · 07-06-2016, 03:43 PM

Originally Posted by Winston!

Ah! The plan was to just run a viscous fan but the radiator I got talked into buying by hemi performance sales staff wasn't up to the task so I went a custom radiator and au fans. Thats a bummer! Thanks for your reply.

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

Hemi Performance - lesson learned for future reference I suppose. A quick search on any of the forums will tell you a lot about their reputation.

**Winston!** · 07-06-2016, 04:03 PM

Originally Posted by Charger408

Hemi Performance - lesson learned for future reference I suppose. A quick search on any of the forums will tell you a lot about their reputation.

Thanks for both of your replies! I bought a 100amp this morning because it was a good price (same price as the last alternator) I'll still keep the 60amp as a backup as ****y shit can happen. It's a fairly new centry ultra high performance 620 cca but an optima battery would be ideal. I like the suggestion of the cut out switch, may be on the agenda.

Yeah I found out pretty soon after dealing with them they don't have a clue. I called them wanting to but a v8 radiator and said that over and over but was convinced by their sales person that a hemi 6 radiator is an upgrade to the standard v8 "trust me, we use it all the time". This was a couple of years ago.

Thanks

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk