Cam Lope gone under electrical load

[ngerk]

I feel like this is kind of dumb to ask about but it bothers me a little bit. I have BC272s and of course it lopes at idle. Whenever there is a load on the electrical system, say when the fans kick on, the idle smooths out and the lope is gone. I have Spal fans and they claim only 13 amps apiece. I was wondering if this is just the way it is, or would having a high amperage alternator stop this from happening?

 

[Vegas Smith]

I think what you're seeing is the idle increasing with fan load which tends to reduce that lopey sound.

 

[Stapl3]

The load is probably just kicking you to a different cell on the timing table which has a different target value. Post a log if you have 'link.

 

[ngerk]

The idle doesn’t seem to increase much at all but you can tell there is a load on the engine obviously. The timing is something I didn’t think about at all. I do have link and I’ll need to look at it what it’s doing when I get a chance. So higher amp alternator wouldn’t remedy the situation?

 

[Vegas Smith]

There isn't anything to remedy. It sounds like it's operating fine.

 

[ngerk]

Ok, remedy the situation was a poor choice of wording. I know there isn’t an actual problem. Just didn’t know if there was a way to not cause such a load on the engine. I LIKE THE CAM LOPE, there I said it! In the alabama heat, it ends up disappearing.

 

[ngerk]

Ok, I know its been a minute but I feel I should update the thread as dumb as the outcome was. I was driving the car home one night on the interstate and it started to feel like it was missing a bit, and then dash lights started to dim and my headlights (HIDs) started to flicker. I thought great the alternator is giving up. Then the headlights started flashing back and forth like an emergency vehicle and I couldn't make it stop no matter what I did. Even had an SUV pull onto the shoulder in front of me, I felt awful! Anyways, got off the road, parked it, took a video of the lights doing their thing, and went back and got it home the next day.

Long story short, one of my fans was in a bind and it must have been pulling insane amperage. I don't know exactly what happened, the fan was brand new, but I noticed after removing it, the screws on the back of the fan were loose and the blade was contacting the shroud. It burnt the motor up and the wires were about melted. Now, the wiring kit I was using included a breaker and my dumb self had bypassed it and totally forgot. The car started running hot one day not long after installing the fans, and I figured out the breaker was the issue and I just assumed it was defective and bypassed it to get home. A light clicked in my head that it was just doing its job and the one fan was probably already having an issue at the time. It was spinning but was probably already binding up.

In conclusion, my alternator works fine and was just struggling when the fans kicked on. All is well now and I installed a spare (not as good) fan next to the other Spal and the 2 are cooling the car just fine and the car now lopes with both fans running. Not a proud moment.