50w ballasts with stock HID housings

[rkneeshaw]

The stock HID ballast mounts to the bottom of the OEM HID headlight and acts to "seal" the housing.

If I were to replace the projectors and upgrade to a 50w ballast, I'm not sure how I'll find a 50w ballast that "seals" to the bottom of the OEM HID headlight housing exactly the way the stock ballast does.

Those of you who have upgraded to a 50w ballast, what are you doing about mounting location and keeping the headlight sealed?

 

[Mick VT]

The stock HID ballast mounts to the bottom of the OEM HID headlight and acts to "seal" the housing.

If I were to replace the projectors and upgrade to a 50w ballast, I'm not sure how I'll find a 50w ballast that "seals" to the bottom of the OEM HID headlight housing exactly the way the stock ballast does.

Those of you who have upgraded to a 50w ballast, what are you doing about mounting location and keeping the headlight sealed?

Not 50W - but close - The Retrofit Source does upgraded 45w ballasts that fit the stock location

 

[Gsteve]

what is stock watts? are these 45s much of a gain?

 

[rkneeshaw]

Stock is 35w

 

[rkneeshaw]

Here's how its done, custom backing plate bolts in place of the stock ballasts, or I guess you could just leave them there unplugged.

 

[icecoldak]

You will gain a little more brightness with the higher wattage ballast and at the same time less life on your HID bulbs because you are essentially overdriving the bulbs to produce more power!

 

[ARH1956]

I ran my CBI's with 50W ballasts for 6 years with no problems at all. I recently swapped over to CBB's but the CBI's were still great. So overdriving good bulbs IMO isn't a huge issue. My HIDs are on about 20hrs. a week, so mine had 6K+ hours on them with no degradation.

 

[Raptor Retrofit]

You will gain a little more brightness with the higher wattage ballast and at the same time less life on your HID bulbs because you are essentially overdriving the bulbs to produce more power!

We used Morimoto's new 50w bulbs for this build. They are claiming same lifespan as 35w bulbs with 35w ballasts. And its a gain of around 2400 more lumen with the 50w ballasts so they are significantly brighter.

---------- Post added at 02:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:46 PM ----------

I ran my CBI's with 50W ballasts for 4 years with no problems at all. I recently swapped over to CBB's but the CBI's were still great. So overdriving good bulbs IMO isn't a huge issue. My HIDs are on about 20hrs. a week, so mine had 4K+ hours on them with no degradation.

Good to hear buddy! I just noticed your "Ducati LS460's" in your sig, hahaha that was pre Raptor Retrofit, way back in the day!

 

[EricM]

So is it worth running a 50 W ballast in the stock projector? I don't accumulate a lot of hours on the lights, so shortening the lifespan of the lamp isn't a huge deal if the additional light output is significant.

 

[SZDZMTR]

I went with brand new Ozram light bulbs keeping same ballast. A lot brighter output and the factory ballast is made by Ozram anyway.