Cibea vs Hella lenses (1 Viewer)

[lovetoski]

Oh, an upgraded alternater that can actually push ~14 volts in conjunction with an upgraded wiring harness really helps as well (and upgraded alt to battery wiring). I never got more than ~13.5 volts from my stock rebuilt unit and even that wasn't until ~1300 rpms. Now I get 14 volts at 800 rpms.

Joel,

I'd love to get 14 volts at idle...what alt did you install as an upgrade?

 

[FJ40Jim]

One thing to consider about the H1/H4 type headlamps. They are not waterproof. This is not a problem for street cars (I have 330 watts of H-bulbs in the nose of my Quattro), but if the non-sealed beam lamp is dunked underwater for any length of time, it will fill w/ river water which will corrode the polished reflector. I just had to discard a pair of E-codes from my 60 and replace w/ seal beams for this problem.

Wark W has mentioned this previously, but I had to find out for myself.

FWIW, my current plan is to upgrade to a relayed hi-power harness and Sylvania XtraVision sealed beams. From past experience, this is way better than stock, though not as good as Cibie w/ 100W bulbs.

 

[Moby]

Joel,

I'd love to get 14 volts at idle...what alt did you install as an upgrade?

Idle voltage is my biggest pet peeve. I don't quite get 14 volts at idle, it's anywhere from ~12.5 to 13 at 650 idle. However it comes on strong at around 800 rpm. My current plan is to highjack the A/C idle up circuit in the ECU and turn the idle up whenever I need more output (either directly when the headlights or fan are on or with a voltage sensing switch). A/C idle up is ~850-900 rpms. I'm testing this now, looks like it should work. With the holidays and some other projects I probably won't get it done until after the new year. This obviously isn't much help your '60 though.

At any rate the alternator is a Mechman unit http://www.mechman.com/. It is custom built using a Ford case and is available at various output levels (I've got the 175 amp version, they go up to 225). Dennis at Mechman turned the pulley down to get better idle output. He made a couple different pulleys for me. I've got one that is a little smaller than what I'm currently running and I've been meaning to try it to see if the belt bottoms out. I especially like that they put a ground stud on the alternator body itself.

The fit is a little finicky - I finally had James at Over the Hill make a custom top bracket that secures it better while they were re-gearing the axles - but over all I really like the alt. Dennis is great to work with as well. I think they do everything in house, they have a machine shop and fab all the brackets themselves.

 

[Moby]

One thing to consider about the H1/H4 type headlamps. They are not waterproof.

Interesting, I had wondered about that. My Hella's have a rubber gasket that does a pretty good job but I'm not sure that it would survive a dunking. I'm hoping to re-use this gasket when I get my Cibies.

 

[lovetoski]

Interesting, I had wondered about that. My Hella's have a rubber gasket that does a pretty good job but I'm not sure that it would survive a dunking. I'm hoping to re-use this gasket when I get my Cibies.

My Cibies came with a rubber gasket - similar to the one that came with my Hella's.