This thread has me wondering if my slow start issues are from my battery relocation. If some cars have this issue and others don’t, I would assume some cars are just grounded better than others. I bought my car with it already relocated to the rear bin and grounded to the chassis. I might just have to test out a battery in the engine bay and see if it makes it better.

 

What AWG was used? What's the CCA of the battery?

 

If you have jumper cables, jump the battery to the connections in the engine bay and see if it helps. if so, it may be ground or gauge issues.

 

I didn't take any pics, but the paths are clear. Battery positive leaves battery, 150A breaker, along the tunnel to the HVAC panel for my battery disconnect, through the firewall, straight to the starter motor. I have the JP3 battery relocation post in the engine bay. Worth every penny.
For the ground, I grounded the battery locally, and also ran: Negative leaves battery terminal, goes along the tunnel, into a ground buss bar, through firewall, straight to left-hand-side of engine block. The ground buss bar grounds my ECU (extra ground) and gauges.

For the stitch grounds, it's just 10AWG wires with eye terminals that go from rear shock towers to the hatch floor using the little stand-off studs that the rear plastics anchor to. Basically, stitch all the panels together that are only joined with a couple pinch welds and seam joiner glue.

 

Consider an upgrade to an ARD alternator. This solved pretty much every problem I had after my relocation. It is a far superior alternator than the oem. Your grounds this and your wire size that.... chase thisnand chase that. ARD alternator solved it all.

 

Update: installed the battery and terminated the cables on the battery and breaker. Next up: installing P-clips to run the cables to the engine bay and permanently mounting the breaker. The short cable form battery to it somehow ended up wrong - should have measured twice... so i may remake that one. Or flip the battery around and see if that cable works better that way.

I may also remove the battery terminal posts (they screw into the top of the battery on this type) and just use the bolts they came with to save a little weight but more importantly to allow me to use the same rubber boot to cover the positive side for a little extra safety. While I wouldn't store anything in the bin, and would keep it locked, it would give a little extra peace of mind in case anyone else got in there at some point.

Given that the car is not flat under the bottom of the bin, I had to add spacers at 3 of the 4 corners where the tray is bolted down to level it. That kinda sucked because it was a slow process of adding different lengths of spacer, remove, add more or remove, rinse and repeat until the tray was level and not touching the side walls of the bins. But it's done and sits pretty nicely in there.

The rivnuts were a good call for that since it kept me from needing to have one person above and one underneath the car every time I pulled the bolts out to shim up or down at each corner.

The worst is over :-) I had to literally fold myself in half then half again to get in there to install it. Torqued my back doing it, so have to get that back in shape before I get back in there to finish it up.

Also, the stupid Chinese hydraulic cable crimper decided to dump its oil out so I may have to replace the unit before I do the ends in the engine bay. Weirdly, it still worked for 2 of the ends I have done so far. Keeping my fingers crossed I can get two more crimps out of it.

 

Other notes:

• The Odyssey folks have renumbered this battery. It's exactly the same as the older one I used to have under the hood just with a different part number.
• I forget which regulation and which racing series, but the requirement was that the battery box needs to be bolted down at 4 points. This one met that requirement. Not that I am going racing, but that sounded like a good idea.
• Photo of the box below, which also shows how the posts are attached
• Depending on how you order the battery, the posts are optional and you can order them separately

 

Sorry I didn't read the entire thread, but I just wanted to mention that with the battery relocated to the bins, your track days are over with because they wont allow the battery in the cabin of the car. I've seen more than one person get denied because of that.
If you're not planning on tracking it, apologies for seeming negative and the install looks nice and clean. .

 

Thanks for the feedback, Natey.

My understanding for HPDE type events (which is what I would do for track days) is:

• The battery can be in the passenger compartment if it is a dry cell or AGM battery (this is the latter). The new part number (ODS-AGM16L) reflects that.
• It is securely bolted down (which is the reason I went with this box).

On googling this, there is an additional requirement that the battery terminals are covered, so I will remove the terminal posts and get another boot.

 

Cool cool, again, sorry if I seemed negative. My experience is track days with places like Speed Ventures and The Porsche Club of America. It sounds like you've done your homework though and are good to go for Auto Cross!

Not sure if I've ever mentioned it, but that's a beautiful FD you've got there Miles.

 

I will add to the requirement for HPDE that the battery must be sealed, securely anchored, and terminals covered. I will also add this:
Relocated batteries are a necessity for some builds. For instance, my Greddy V-Mount cannot accommodate a full size battery in the stock location. When relocating, the best practice is to run the positive straight to the starter. Finally, I have learned that it's best to use a full size battery. Those little motorcycle batteries may get it started, but I have found that upgraded starters draw most of the CCAs, and the fuel pump does not get enough amps. I'm in the middle of testing this with an Odyssey group 35 battery I have on order.
Basically, upgraded starter and relocated battery should have the stock or better CCAs.

 

Absolutely no worries! I am happy to learn and improve the car.

Do you have a link to the rules?

For PCA: I found the Tech Inspection form (from 2019) for track days and it only said the battery must be secured and no visible signs of corrosion.

For Speed Ventures: same thing - battery must be securely fastened down.

(Note: not trying to be a jerk, just that that was all i could find.)

 

I too had to relocate it to fit the IC. That doesn't mean the track day organizers will like it though :-)

Pardon the mess - plumbing for the the oil catch can in process

 

not much room there to mount our bracket ...