Sliva L1 , alternate power mod help needed

hi - the battery boxes on my beloved silva L1 have finally given up the ghost - and attempted repairs are not looking reliable enough

so i have built a wiring extension and harness to enable me to run the lamp from 6V lead acid batteries mounted as belt packs

all well and good - except for the obvious weight issue - not that bad as its a belt pack

but the real question is - could i attach 7.2V lithium rechargables to the L1 unit ?

would it fail immediatly ?

give higher output for a much shorter life ?

or preform normally ?

i dont want to blow my L1 up with ` reckless experimentation ` as its a cracking light for exploring dry places

so any help / advice would be appreciated

There are two versions of the Silva L1, the first one and than one improved version which came out in 2006(?). The improved version had a wider headstrap and a small knob on the power button.

I´ve done a test with the first version and that one failed ... before that I asked Silva how much voltage the L1 could tage. They said that they´d forwarded my questions to their technical staff, but I never got an answer. So some day, I hooked up the L1 to my bench power supply and turned the voltage slowly up to 8.4V which is the highest possible voltage for an 2-cell LiIon. First I was happy because the light didn´t blow, but after turning back the voltage, the dissappointment moment came ... the regulator was blown, the light was on direct drive. Without having big scruples due to Silvas attitude, I returned the blown L1 and got a replacement which was one of the newer ones ...

... and I don´t want to test my new light again, because it´s already modded with a Seoul P4 and I can´t return it for a second time ...

So ... older version will be killed with a 7.2V LiIon pack, newer version is unknown ... someone else volunteering please