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ICE advice

Danfoss2011

Danfoss2011

Danfoss2011

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Need some advice. This is for my chavy weekend play car. I'll stick to the BMW 740i for everything else.

Car - Fiesta Zetec S (bought it for £100)

Kit thats going in the back so far

4 FLI 900S amps (paid £20 for all 4 amps)
4 power caps
2 cross overs/networks
2 distro blocks
1 fuse block

All this is to be built on to a single sheet of MDF to be bolted on the back of the rear seats.

0 AWG cable for main feed and earth then 4 AWG to link everything.

2 subs small as possible (might look at underseat), front is a set of 3 way componets, rears are yet to be sorted.

I've just stripped the amps to get them powdercoated as they have seen better days. All matt black. Should look nicer and with the BLUE LED's build in.

Question is how to lay this all out to look nice (amps, caps etc).

Any ideas, paintshop drawings welcome. Idea is to make it look proper smart, sound nice, not be a case of vibration to death just a bit of a kick in the back.

The car had failed it's MOT as the head gasket had gone. It than had been left for 6 months. Woman that had it wanted rid. Took all day to get the engine out, then a week to strip to nothing. Everything was steam cleaned, milled flat again, new bolts everything. New thermastat, hosing, racing coolant, by pass switch for cooling fan, this took 1 week to do then a day fitting it all back in. Fired back up 1st time, drove 100 miles then steam cleaned the bay and it's been perfect there after. Cost £25 to get the replacment parts and did it all on my own time. Bargin!

This is just for messing about at weekends the 740i is my proper car unless i've the boy with me it's the galaxy as he is in a wheel chair.
 
power caps arent really needed with car batteries

apart from that, it looks like youve got everything you need, i've never heard of fli amps so i have no idea how good they are but i imagine theyll do the job :)
 
There made by VIBE or something. They seam ok. I got 4 power caps for £5, there scratched to hell so i wraped them in the 3m dinoc and sprayed the mounts.
 
Don't bother with the caps, they're only needed for installs with big, thirsty amps powering subs that need the instant power demand to avoid clipping and drop out.

Stick them on the bay, you'll probably make a good few quid out of them.
 
I've 4 amps here! 60A each so total of 240A. I like the idea of them so gonna keep them. I never sell on ebay as i think it's wrong how your charged twice and over the odds
 
if you are really thinking about pulling that sort of current then you should be looking in to a second battery and possibly a heavy duty alternator. 240 amps is a serious amount of current and your standard battery and alternator will likely not hold up to it.
 
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i said a second battery, not an upgraded one. the caps you could take or leave (they are a waste of time but it seems you arent interested) but i would not dream of running that sort of system on a single battery and a stock alternator.
 
Danfoss2011 said:
Battery has been upgraded already. It's not always gonna be on or loud for huge draws of power. Caps are staying
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Why? You've got people here giving you good advice as to why you don't need them, yet you're going to keep them anyway?

The amps will more than likely never pull 60 amps unless you have them cranked right up.

If you're not going for a mega loud setup and mainly for musicality, 2 amps (one for the speakers, one for the subs) will be more than enough without the need for stupid power caps.
 
FLI 900s amp should have a 40amp fuse, that's the current rating that will blow the fuse link, the amp will be running nothing like that sort of amperage unless you're running down into the 1ohm impedance range (which will probably kill the amp v. quickly)

I've had many setups and the only time I've ever found a need for a cap was when running two 15" Cerwin Vega Strokers which had enough punch to crack the windscreen and buckle the roof of the van we shoved them in :)

Another thing to consider is I personally wouldn't put a power cap in any vehicle I will be getting inside, I've seen one crap itself and it's not pretty. Imagine a giant battery exploding and you get close to the idea......
The car concerned was written off due to schrapnel and acid damage.

I would run all the amps in bridged mode, get a couple of dual voice coil subs and use 2 amps for the subs, one for the front components and the other for the rear fill (if you have to have rear speakers). You can then adjust the gains on the amps to balance them.
 
g60dubster said:
FLI 900s amp should have a 40amp fuse, that's the current rating that will blow the fuse link, the amp will be running nothing like that sort of amperage unless you're running down into the 1ohm impedance range (which will probably kill the amp v. quickly)
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you did what i did - looked for the manual and found the 900s. however you're looking at the wrong 900s - there's a FL900s and a Loaded 900s. the loaded 900s does indeed have 1x 60amp fuse. top marks to FLI for making their model numbers easy to distinguish lol.
 
I always upgrade the battery on everything i own. Lasts longer and if i don't use the item it's still got plenty of grunt left.

Full Loaded 900s are the amps. 2 X 30 amp fuses fitted.

Caps stay, sorry. £5 for 4 was a bargin. There fine, not had a problem with them. They will be in the back so no harm to anyone. I never have anyone in the back seat of this car as well. It's also for looks.

I've had a quick play with some of it in my room and some old ATX PSU's to run the amps.

1 amp bridge for the front's running the crossovers for the 3 ways
2 amps mono for the subs (i borrowed a mates 2 15'')
1 amp bridge running some 6x9 as rears

Ran this off a JVC headunit with iphone usb link and it was alright, subs really made some noise in the house.
 
Matt82 said:
the "advice" isnt saying why the caps should go, i guess its just internet hearsay then?
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which reason Matt?

That they draw power from the system reducing voltage further and also add resistance?
That they are really only a filter for the power supply (assuming the charge circuit isn't overtaxed)?
That they're just plain pointless unless you've already done the main 3 upgrades to the charge/supply circuit?
That they will only provide power for milliseconds and have about a 10th of the charge of a PP3 battery?

Or that they're just pointless unless you've got a mega SPL setup and are already running multiple alternators & batteries?

I've probably missed more reasons but I can't forget enough times how many people I've told to set fire to their money rather than buy a power cap.
 
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Sounds like a mess before you've even fitted it to me. It's not gonna sound as good as you expect, they are rubbish amps... what components are you going to be running? 4 caps, completely unneccessary but lol fair play for whacking it all on one sheet of MDF for shizzles and giggles.
 
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