Hey guys,

Has anyone tried something crazy like this for the 7.3?

 

 

Maxwell Technologies makes some.

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Thanks guys, not sure I am going to experiment with this setup but seems very interesting.

 

 

The cranking sounded really weak.

 

I have been messing around with the idea of running capacitors on the commuter car (2004 jetta tdi). They would be in addition to the battery. Capacitors instead of batteries would only work on gas engine vehicles or modified diesels in warm weather only. The capacitors can put out some serious amps, but can't hold much of a charge. Glow plugs would bleed capacitors dry before you ever attempted the starter.

batteries have great capacity, but resistance, especially with age, becomes the bottleneck.
capacitors have very low resistance, but low capacity.

People talk about replacing car batteries with capacitors, but nobody talks about supplementing the batteries with capacitors. This would provide the best of both worlds. The capacitors recharge nearly instantly from the battery, so you would have plenty of amps, even after multiple failed starting attempts and tired batteries. Batteries would also last longer, due to significantly lowering peak amp draw.

A 7.3 owner could potentially delete 1 battery and use capacitors. Capacitors will basically last the life of the truck. It would be nice to only replace 1 battery at a time. Capacitors have also gotten cheap enough in recent years for this to be a practical mod.