Ignition voltage

What is your thought on running a 14-16 volt ignition system on a weekend / show truck project of mine. It wouldn't be that hard to run two alternators. I figure one running 16 volt and a smaller one running you typical voltage for head lights etc.

Do you know if the MSD 6al series will tolerate the higher voltage?

Is my questions silly or something? This isn't the first time I have posted a question and no one seems to want to talk.

The only negatives I can see to running a higher voltage is the wear on the rotor and cap. When you get down to the bottom of my question I'm asking if there is any benefit at all to running the higher voltage?

I find it funny that the manufacturers base all there information on 14+ voltage when a typical electrical system see's 13 volts if its a good system. I am swapping all my lights over to led's besides the head lights and then I'm wondering how they might run on the higher voltage. I know the electric fuel pumps are rated at 14 volts from the manufacturer. I'm also swapping the gauges over to Autometer as nothing on the factory dash works.

I'd run it all on a 16volt system. I dont run an alternator but the 16v Rock battery isthe schizt!

cool40 wrote:I'd run it all on a 16volt system. I dont run an alternator but the 16v Rock battery isthe schizt!

Mechman can build me alternator at any voltage and I plan on running XS batteries.

The 6Al will be fine with the voltage. If it was a Digital 6 it might be suspect. An alternator set up for a 16V system will typically put out 18 volts, the 16V battery chargers are close to 19 volts and you need to turn off the master switch before hooking the charger up. There are several batteries out there with dual voltage setups. They have a neg post and 2 positive posts. A 12V and a 16V. With those you can run the starter and ignition off 16V and the rest off 12.

You can run it all on 16, but the headlights may not last as long. You can also get a 16v to 12V stepdown box.

Yep x2 on what David said about the dual post 16&12 battery. I forgot thats what mine is even though i don't use the 12v post.