Running an engine without a battery + a few other modifications
 

Sorry if this explination is a bit long. I figure I need to provide some context for my question.

I'm working on a school project for a class. First I'd like to mention this is all hypothetical I won't actually have to do anything so things like saftey aren't really my concern in this case. As long as it should work it's fine.

Anyway in this project I need to power a satelite for 97 minutes using two power lines at 12v at 30 A and 5 V at 45A. I have a 1987 ford pick up with a v8 engine. After doing research I found this was most likely it's engine Ford 302 V8 (5.0L) | Specs & History

The pickup in this senario has no battery, transmission, or rear wheels.

In the area is also a 35Kw disel generator.

However I have no disel or gasoline for that matter. What I do have though is a propane gas grill and several 20# propane tanks.

So my plan is to take out the electrical generator from the disel generator, attach it to the crank shaft of the 302 (basically the gas engine is replacing the disel one) and then use the truck's alternator to get my 12v at 30 amps and use the generator's output to get my 5 v at 45 amps.


What I'm not sure about is what's the best way to start this engine? I'm pretty sure I can get it going if I can just apply enough torque to get it's cycles going but I'm pretty sure I can't do that by hand.

I do however has a 7 HP roto-tiller with a pull start. would this give me enough torque to get the engine started?

Assuming that is enough to I have to rewire anything? I don't need anything in the truck besides the engine and alternator working so I don't care about power getting to most of the car but do I need to do some re-wiring so electricity gets to the spark plugs? Or will the engine run without a battery just fine as is? Remember I only need about 97 minutes in this scenario so how bad this is for the alternator isn't my concern.

The reason I ask is because when telling my teacher my plan he said
"you can assume it would fit and that you can make the connections. please remember that you need to show a thought out and reasonable plan for how you are moving the items around and how long this work might take. also remember that you have to start the engine. you also need to look into the fact that the truck engine has no battery. You need to look at some wiring changes to account for that.

Just a thought why don’t you leave the truck where it is and take the generator section out of the gen unit and place it in the bed of the truck and then figure out how to connect it?"

But nothing I read online mentions any rewiring. So I'm not sure what he means.

Someone I was talking to brought this to my attention
https://www.google.com/search?q=Ford...302+alternator
so if I'm looking at some of these links right the Alternator I'm dealing with may actually be giving me 100A instead of 30A. But I'm not certain if these results are for the 1987 alternator or just a newer one.

Also to keep in mind the 302 had a special varient called the boss 302. So what do you guys think? Am I actually dealing with 12V at 100A instead of 30A?

If so is this really just a matter of setting up a circuit to split that up into 12V at 30A and 5 volts at 45A? There is still the matter of fuel consumption and starting the engine itself. But this would make things after getting it started much simpler.

I wouldn't do it. Automotive electrical systems are designed to use the battery as a voltage regulator of sorts. If you tried to run a vehicle solely off the alternator I'd imagine you would end up wearing out your alternator fairly quickly.

Again this is just a hypothetical senario. Just need it to last about 97 minutes. It can fry in the end for all I care. I just need to work out a possible solution to the senario for the project.