Track Battery

[Siestarider]

Maybe my tongue was in my cheek a little on the excessive temps issue. I could use it when my wife asks why I am moving my battery to spare tire well, assuming its still operating properly. But she spent enough time in garages and at tracks during her IMSA racing days to know its about weight loss and distribution.

 

[Wimp Lo]

In a RWD car I can see moving a battery for weight distribution. In FWD, I wouldn't move it except to address a problem with space or side to side weight distribution.

 

[RAAMaudio]

I have a lot of experience in batteries, saving weight, back up plans, etc...but am a bit brain dead at the moment, been a very long day, a few great brews....remind me in the AM and I will post a bit of possibly useful information

 

[JPGC]

Just did a little internet research, I suspect the largest failure risk for the Odyssey is heat in the engine compartment, it is not supposed to be used above 113 F.

Temps around here will be moderate until mid spring. If it works up front until then, I will move it to spare tire well. One of the battery's strong points is very high pulse (5 Sec) amperage delivery. Car typically starts in 2 sec. Continuous key off current draw is probably around 15 ma, but I drive it most days, so that should be ok too.

Its an experiment, if it fails to operate satisfactorily up front in the Fist, I have another use for it. Two days in, cannot tell any difference between it and OEM.

Any updates on how the battery is holding up?

 

[RAAMaudio]

Moving a battery to the rear can be done for several reasons, get weight off the drivers side of the car up front, balance front to rear if removed more rear weight than front, etc...combined with a lower weight battery it can drop quite a bit of weight as the stock mount is pretty heavy. I took all that out and am fabricating an aluminum ECU mount. I also found the upper transaxle mount is quite robust as part of it so made a new lower weight mount cover with tighter tolerances to control the movement in the factory mount. I have asked several vendors to come up with an insert for others that would just want it to help with wheel hop, etc....

I will have the WMI kit, tire repair kit, small amp and sub in the rear(quick disconnect on the amp and sub for track days but leave it in if the car behaves better under hard high speed braking)

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Big Crank batteries are well regarded and much less money that other AGM batteries, I have the 14 series but finding I need a bit more battery now that I installed an alarm but also just realized I have been running the wrong charger on it so have to replace it anyway, glad it did not cost much.

I have an Odyssey 680 I was going to install but it seems it died when I forgot to charge it before it was in 8 degree weather, it was in storage for quite some time and I did not take care of it It is not rated much differently than the 14 series below.

I also have a 1200 but 39 lbs is far to heavy, going to put it into my daughters 4 runner if OK in AZ heat, will check that out first.

BatteryMart, Big Crank

14 series, $85, 14lbs, 12ah, 220CCA, worked perfectly fine but would run down in a week or two so if not driving, started the car on very cold days just fine if charged up.

30 series, $107 shipped, 26a, 400CCA, 23lbs is what I will order today.

I really wanted the LI battery but not at the $725 price! With 10% military discount best I found it is still just to much money. Reason for such and expensive battery is matching the charging current to the battery, at least EarthX says I must do so for it to last.

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[RAAMaudio]

OK, I just read the rest of the thread, I did not know the DI engines had such high demands on the battery so I will make sure to keep that in mind.

I have had no apparent issues with the 14 series battery making pulls with 300WHP, fueling is the same, just fine though at the limit of the system on 91 octane.

I am going to look up the stock battery specs next.

 

[Siestarider]

My Odyssey experience is totally normal so far.

This am I heard a clicking sound in dash, seems ventilation related, probably an air shutter or relay malfunction. Don't know yet, just that it is definitely in dash, relatively loud clicking, intermittent, went away. Probably has nothing to do with battery, but might.

 

[RAAMaudio]

When my battery is to low to start the car it clicks fairly loudly and sounds like inside the dash.

I carry an Li jump starter all the time, need to charge it up again but still works very very well.

 

[Siestarider]

When my battery is to low to start the car it clicks fairly loudly and sounds like inside the dash.

I carry an Li jump starter all the time, need to charge it up again but still works very very well.

After you start the car? Mine starts fine, lots of short trips since I live in a small town, made at least three starts and stops after my clicking incident this am, no clicking since, car starts within 2 sec as usual.

 

[GAbOS]

Don't forget to do your big 3 cable upgrade while your messing around with the battery!

 

[RAAMaudio]

Absolutely!

Big cables, not to big as a waste of money and added weight, are very important.

I have a bunch of speaker wire, power cables, RCA's, etc in storage and had the right 4 gauge for the battery on hand and it weighed much less than expected and was pretty easy to run to the back of the car. I do not recall the weight but it was very reasonable.

I grounded the battery back there but to a very solid area.

 

[Wimp Lo]

Looking at aux fuel, E85 and an in tank fuel pump upgrade, moving the battery to the back isn't as much of a penalty because you can shorten and upgrade the fuel pump wires at the same time.

 

[Sourskittle]

One of the first things I did to my car was add 2 4 gauge ground wires. And.... My lights still dim when I roll my windows up, lol. I think its because we a crazy over complicated alternator that is ecu controlled for mpg or something. Next race car mod is going to be a clutch on the alternator to disable it during a 1/4 mile pass, lol

 

[Siestarider]

If the mod alt clutch includes an overdrive gear for short trips around town so a little battery stays fully charged, whether it needs it or not, I am in.

But you have to keep it secret, then leak a little hint, etc.

("Cyborganator" multi-clutch overdrive racing/DD alternator in R & D) There, tried to hold it, but it just leaked out.

 

[RAAMaudio]

That would be pretty tough to design to have an overdrive around town and underdrive or standard drive on the road or road race track but would be very cool.

 

[Wimp Lo]

In my mind, add a GM style partial hybrid alternator, a small lithium pack and a bigger turbo. The alternator will fill in the torque you lose with the big turbo and make it spool quicker.

 

[RAAMaudio]

Find me a reasonable cost lithium battery what will work with our alternator or a partial hybrid alternator please!

I have seen DIY Li battery videos but I do not have a place to work on anything much more than already booked to do so I would prefer to buy one, last quote I got for a 4 lb, 23AH Li battery, minium they said could handle the stock alt output, $750, ouch!

Seriously, if you know of a good battery for a decent price let me know

 

[Wimp Lo]

I know of some surplus cells that are out there but they aren't quite the latest and greatest.

The real partial hybrid solution would be a 48v electric system and a battery pack that weighs at least 40 lbs if I remember correctly. That would be some pretty big changes to pull off in a decent way, too involved for me right now. It would be better for an electrical engineer to tackle that.

 

[Siestarider]

SS and I were just fooling with each other.

The open question is whether there is some realistic water pump option that could increase flow to dump more heat via existing radiator/oil cooler.

 

[FORZDA 2]

The water pump is designed to pump enough coolant to keep the engine cool on a sweltering day with the AC running and the engine at idle. I've found that USUALLY the water pump is turning too many rpms at high revs to allow the coolant enough time to shed heat in the radiator. Slowing the water pump at high revs will USUALLY allow the engine to run cooler in racing conditions.