Power concerns for a 03 civic

I am gong to be putting a decent setup in an 03 civic in the next month or two so now I am just planning things out.

I amp planning on doing ~1700w with three amps.

A crossfire cfa-1000d (1000w x1 @1ohm)for subs. reccomended 80-120a fuse
A crossfire cfa-404s (200w x2 @4ohm) for the fronts (30a fuse)
A crossfire cfa-354 (140w x2 @4ohm) for the rears 25a fuse.

I will be replacing the stock battery with a kinetik 1400 battery

I will be using 0ga from the battery to a fused distro block then 4ga to each amp. I will also be adding a few other electronical gizmos to the car, kenwood flip out indash, kenwood navigation, kenwood sirius, bluetooth and some headrest monitors. I will also be putting in HID headlight kit (higher voltage, less amp draw)

Now my question is, should I upgrade my stock 70a alternator to a high output one, or will the new battery do the job? a 2nd battery?

Have you upgraded the wiring? Look up "the big 3 upgrade" if you haven't.

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'85 Toy

70 amp is a tiny alt.   You should upgrade. I am only running a 380 wrms amp in my matrix and it has an 80 amp alt and my headlights blink when I get on it. I don't have a battery upgrade or the big 3 yet though.

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fiberglass reminds me of peanut brittle... but fiberglass tastes better!

I will be doing a big 3 upgrade, but still need to know if the alt is decent enough for the system, or if I need just two batteries..

I haven't touched the car yet, I am just planning right now, figuring out what I need to order, where I need to spend money etc etc.

I agree that you'll probably need to get the HO alt, but the "big 3" will do a lot. Try it first, you'll need to do it anyway. 

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'85 Toy

You posted right before I did. I'd go with the HO alt instead of 2 batteries.

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'85 Toy

Yeah I figure the HO alternator is the correct way to go, I was just looking to skim the stereo budget down a little and was hoping that could go.

I will go with a HO alt and a single battery, no cap.

That will be as cheap as two or more high end batteries anyway. Let me know where you get the HO from and how much they charge please, I need one desperately.

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fiberglass reminds me of peanut brittle... but fiberglass tastes better!

There are several places to get them. You can do a Google web search on "high output alternators" at the bottom of this page. I have heard good things about Dominick Irraggi's on ebay also. I had a terrible experience with alterstart.com, so I can't reccommend them to anybody.

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'85 Toy

Yes! Get the alternator upgrade. The battery is more of a bandaid. The Kinetic will only give you about 5-7 seconds of extra juice before it gets spent and deep cycles. After that, the 1400 will only be a 1050 after that and only give a 3-5 second boost. You really can't recover it back to 1400 again... I was told of a procedure one time that can recover some of it back to about 1200, but I can't recall it right now. I think out Tech guy might know it.

For this setup, you'll need at least a 225 amp alternator. 175 Will be spent on the amps, 35 for the car, and an extra 15 for the head unit itself. You can get away with a 200 amp or 190 combined with the kinetic, but it isn't recommended if you plan on extended play.

Anytime you draw 120% of the alternators rated power for more than a few of seconds you risk damaging it severely. The battery will provide a small buffer, with a 150 amp (for example) and the kinetic 1400, you can burp the system full power for about 30 seconds. 200 will give you about a minute. The 225 will give you pretty much as long as the heat doesn't shut off the system or the system doesn't blow out (overclipping, etc.)

For your primary wire, the size is fine, but make sure your wire has enough strands to support it without stressing the wire. 3400+ strand OFC wire will be excellent for it. Stinger and KnuKonceptz are our prefered cables for it.
KnuKonceptz: 3920 Strands and supports 250 amps through them
Stinger: 4284 Strands and supports about 270 amps through them

Good Luck!

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Never send your ducks to eagle school.
The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.
The 3Ls of life: Learn from the Past, Live for the Present, Look to the Future.

Thanks for the detailed response, I will be using knukonceptz 0ga..

But I just can't get a 225amp alt, I would be limited to ~160. Its the highest I have seen availible. and that is 70 at idle.

supradude wrote:

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There are several places to get them. You can do a Google web search on "high output alternators" at the bottom of this page. I have heard good things about Dominick Irraggi's on ebay also. I had a terrible experience with alterstart.com, so I can't reccommend them to anybody.

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I have an iraggi alt in my nissan titan and am pleased with it.

Grunge, I have used the alterstart alternators on several civics, and I have one in my own car - an '01 Civic. It's a 165 amp model, and it does a fine job of running my system.

I think that Altersart is about the only place you can get a drop-in replacememnt for your OEM Civic alternator. Here's the 170 amp model for your car, and it's the same one I have in mine.

While you CAN, with some modification, drop a large case GM in there, for up to about 225A (easily), this is a far easier route, and requires no system (either hardware OR electrical) modification at all.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

You can also consider doing a dual amp setup... rare, but possible for the civic. All of the ones we have seen used custom made brackets.

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Never send your ducks to eagle school.
The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.
The 3Ls of life: Learn from the Past, Live for the Present, Look to the Future.

haemphyst wrote:

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Grunge, I have used the alterstart alternators on several civics, and I have one in my own car - an '01 Civic. It's a 165 amp model, and it does a fine job of running my system.

I think that Altersart is about the only place you can get a drop-in replacememnt for your OEM Civic alternator. Here's the 170 amp model for your car, and it's the same one I have in mine.

While you CAN, with some modification, drop a large case GM in there, for up to about 225A (easily), this is a far easier route, and requires no system (either hardware OR electrical) modification at all.

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That is one of the two I am considering. The other being an Ohiogen, I don't have the price quote yet from them, but they were very knowledgeable over the phone about the civic and explained to me that they don't use a modified OEM because the OEM is imposible to get any more juice out of, instead they use one from an older acura (forgot the model) because its a direct bolt on over the civic OEM.

Now I am just waiting for the price quote.

If you buy from alterstart and have a problem you'll get jacked around for weeks. I know how I was treated and it was very bad.

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'85 Toy