If I wanted to replace the standard Lead battery by a Lithium battery, would I have to make any adjustments at the alternator / regulator?
After all, Lithium batteries need different voltage levels than Lead batteries.
Any Lithium-based battery for car use will have some electronics within it to do power management. They are typically designed to behave to the car as if it was a lead acid battery ie 12-14v out, ~14v in for charging, discharge protection etc (although the latter seemed to be missing on the Li-based battery that failed on the Grindelweld trip this year - it apparently discharged to zero and became unchargable - mine emptied after the IoM trip and regulator issue a year ago but recovered fine)...
A big question that is difficult to answer from spec sheets is "how good are the Li-based cells" and "how good is the electrics surrounding them". Like Steve's, my battery is LiFePO4 based (as used in power tools) which is safer than the "Li-ion" LiCoO2 based cells used in mobile phones etc.
