Battery suggestion and IC Option
 

Currently I have a standard battery in my car but it’s barely holding charge. So, while installing a new Fluidyne radiator and an aluminum AST along with a complete water hose replacement I have decided to buy a new battery.

Having said that, I need to know what is the best recommendation for a replacement battery with my setup. At this time, I have a stock IC. I am intersted in a smaller type battery for now and later on when I get enough $$$ but a new IC. I have seen posts on battery relocation for those huge IC’s.

I am sort of leaning towards a medium or large IC that will accommodate my new battery.

Need help with Battery type and best selection on IC…. Complete setup and stock set-up on radiator.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Trying to avoid butying two batteries.

optima yellow top is a good battery for stock or relocated to the bins/trunk. with the optima it will hold its charge for weeks and will start right up everytime. most of everyone i know with those mini odyssey batteries have a hard time starting their car when its been sitting for only a couple days. do you daily drive your fd?

I drive it at best once every two weeks for about 50-100 miles or so. I average about 2,000 miles per year.

Are most IC's designed to fit with a this yellow type battery?

If the remember correctly, the yellow tops are full size batteries. They might make a smaller one that will work with 7's.
http://www.optimabatteries.com/publi...ec_sheets.html

I'm using the westco miata battery under the hood. Worked great so far and it is significantly slimmer than stock.

How many CCA's is that battery?

Found it, 475 CCA. How much is the stock battery?

The Yellow Top is not a full sized battery (93silverbullet's car):

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...hmentid=122140

TurboJeff has a battery tray that will fit that battery (as well as ones similar in size).


It depends on the IC and the intake for some of them. For instance, you could probably fit that battery in that location there with an ASP/M2 Large SMIC, however, you would have to move things over into the intake area which would limit what type of intake you could use.

Most likely, for FMIC's, it won't work with Jeff's battery tray as it would interfere with most FMIC piping. You'd have to create your own mounting for the battery (or relocate it).

I'm using Jeff's tray with the Optima Yellow Top and the Pettit Coolcharge II SMIC (old style). Fits just fine.

Mahjik,

There are 2 Optima yellow top batteries - the full size one and the 51R which is the one in the pic you posted. I used to have a full size one in my last FD.

Mahjik used to get things right when he was a moderator :D

Yes, that is true. However, when people are talking about 'smaller batteries' and 'Optima', I would assume they are referring to the 51R.

Ah, thanks Mahjik. I had never seen the small yellow top before.

I use the small optima yellow top in my trunk to fit my M2 large... works perfectly.

Thanks guys, I am leaning towards the small optima yellow top with either an M2 IC or a Pettit IC or an equivalent. As far as the tray, I will most likely will make my own although I will look at Jeff's battery tray.

Thanks to all again.

could a large stock mount similar in size to the asp large, fit under the hood with a optima yellow 51r? or do you pretty much have to relocate it? ill be using a ic similar in size to the asp large and i have a petit intake, with one filter sitting on top of the other. is there enough room for the battery and large ic using this intake setup?

Optima 51R Yellow Top mounted in Turbojeff tray with Greddy SMIC, Fluidyne Rad, Pettit AST and stock intake box. Setup leave air space from rad. and battery works sitting for a few weeks at a time.

thats some cool weave in that CF duct, how did you make that ?

Its a 50/50 Carbon Kelvar cloth. When I get some free time I plan to make some for this ppl on this site. You can search for some photos I took while making it.

cool man keep me updated, i also do the red black colour theme in my engine bay, taht would be a nice addition to the duct of the Ebay ic right now

please look at jeffs tray! we are short one hand on a group buy.

Julian, That it's a pretty awesome ducting to from your IC to I what I believe is the same area the old/stock IC used (for intake air or did you also modified that area to increase airflow?). r u using stock twins? I will also look into your IC since you have the same type radiator and the AST from Pettit.

It is also good to know the battery will hold charge for a few weeks.

Guys wanting to run ASP/Pettit/M2 Large SMICs, you cannot run a 51R battery. You CAN squeeze in a PC680 battery. A PC680 doesn't have a whole lot of extra juice though...

I strongly recommend to anyone running a Medium or smaller SMIC to get one of Jeff's battery trays (or make your own) and run a 51R. It saves a little over 10 lbs and has plenty of juice to start the car, run the fans after shutdown, etc. Much cheaper than a PC680 too, at least if you just stick with a maintenance-free battery like my 7-year Costco brand battery.

I have an M2 Large SMIC with an Optima 51r in the Driver's Side rear Bin. I used to have the Hawker PC 680 for two years and I hated it. I always had trouble with it discharging. I finally relocated the battery, best thing I ever did.

Rynberg, you got a good point. I have not performed the fan mods to my car yet but it is somthing I will be doing soon. Can this yellow top battery hold enough charge after running the radiator fans for 10 minutes? Even say on a cold day.... here in SC anyways cold days are no lower than 30 degrees.

how about sotck turbos... is the Greddy SMIC an overkill. To those that own a Greddy SMIC satisfied or if you had to do it all over again would you select a different type IC? Just a thought.

Greddy is far from overkill....

The best stock mount by far is the ASP IC's (either medium or large). If you can afford one, get one. Otherwise look for a used PFS IC or the old style pettit CCII IC. IMHO, I would get the greddy only if I got a killer deal on one and wasn't running much more than stock boost levels.

I have been running my Costco 51R battery for 2-1/2 years or so...through several track events with leaving the fans running for several minutes after shutdown. Not to mention doing that occasionally after street driving. Never had a problem with the battery at all. Theoretically, the expensive Optima 51R should be even better at that.

Obviously, there are limits but I've yet to exceed them with this battery. Although, I don't know why you would feel the need to run the fans, especially for 10 minutes, on a cold day! I've never done the fan mod. I have the PFC, with the fans set to turn on at 89C. Who needs a fan mod? :)

Thanks again, I've decided to skip the fan mods and buy a PFC (I was thinking about it).... then down the road will buy the intercooler. Buying the battery tomorrrow. Good point about running the fan mod in the winter... not sure what I was thinking.

Re Mini Battery Kit 250.00 I Got It And Its Perfect Help's The Rad Fans Blow Out The Hot Air Aswell

can jeff's tray be used in conjuction with relocating the battery to one of the bins?

and can any generic 51R battery be used? i know optima sells one but ive seen posts where people get them for sears or costco. same size but maybe the optima lasts longer

The ducting fits in the same spot as stock. I have a fluidyne radiator so gap is a little less to work with, but trout is still bigger than stock as I used all of the available area. Front opening is larger in cross section and extends down a little more that stock .. in general whole flow cross section is larger than stock not just fit up to SMIC. Stock intake box modified to take air in from bottom, started with Adam's cheap bastard kit and sealed and modified some more.

If you go the 51R Optima yellow top route, check out pricing at AJ-USA

http://www.ajusa.com/cgi-bin/optima/...d8d28529341c30

Threre mmust be high demand for them 51R. Three places I've checked out of stock.