It's been done before and it is a real strain on the battery cause of the suck when you are really pulling on your electrical system when running down the track. The other one people have tried is taking the belt off so no power loss.

I would just run the battery and be happy or buy a hawker as they are cheap and light as hell.

Steven

 

u mean a strain on the alternator ?! i know about people pulling the belt . im looking for weight savings !

so ur saying that when ur at WOT (with nitrous noids flowing and walbro pumpin) the alternator doesnt make enough juice and the battery contributes to the current to feed the system ?

the thing with the hawker is that .. u have to custom fab a restraint system .. the tech guys at MRP are really **** about battery hold downs !! judging by the picture the hawker is too thin to properly fit in the stock battery tray

 

Custom fabbing a bracket wouldn't be hard really to make it nhra legal.

gotta remember you have...

Nitrous noids
2 fuel pumps
your msd, and coil
your tach
sometimes your lights if it is night
your w/p
your fans
and your computer


Steven

 

I saw the draw for noids , I cant remember off the top of my head but it was huge Big enough to make chris rethink his setup and hes an electrical wizard !! Its listed in the NOS master manual mopac has .

FYI , thunder racing says that the stock battery is 30 - 32 lbs if it helps

 

I know there is a lot of draw on the system at WOT

but the alternator should technically supply enough current to feed a WOT run .. as long as u dont have an underdrive pulley !!

cuz on a regular basis .. it feeds peoples 2000 jigawatt sound systems and bling bling xenon lights along with AC blasing / etc etc and it has enough current to do all of that AND recharge the battery

so going down the track it should have enough output to feed a fuel pump and 2 solenoids and 2 low beams and a coil and not having a draw from the battery

im gonna try this .. but im gonna keep a close eye on my system voltage and take her for a WOT run .. see if the alt holds up ...

or even better, if we can put add up all the current it takes to run the vital systems .. we should be able to tell if the alt is up for the challange ...

 

2 words: Yellow Top

http://www.sunnbattery.com/category.html?UCIDs=814153

How's $160 shipped sound?

(I belive I got mine 2 years ago from them for $145 shipped)


They also sell Hawkers if you want. Never had my yellow top do the crap my stocker did after 70 000 miles and 4 years. The Optima is 40 000 miles / 2 years and going strong.

 

You might also want to use an overdrive pulley on the alternator as well. While it won't affect the voltage (that's the regulator's job), it should give you some extra current to play with.

The police-issue 140 Amp alternator (for most 4th gens as well, although some 93/94 models got the smaller 110 amp version. ) should be plenty for most. At 13.8 volts thats a bit over ~1900 watts. With a 10% overdrive pulley (i.e. the Impalla SS pulley works) you "could" milk the stock stuff for 2100 watts when running.

Malory Billet Aluminum makes an aluminum dress kit for the alternator fan that uses the Impalla SS pulley... about a 10% overdrive for 4th gen set ups. Mine's worked great for 3 years this month.

 

dang... I wonder how much they want for shipping:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2417067125

$99.99 + S&H for a yellow top?!

 

thanx for the helpfull info steve

whats the big deal abuot a yellow top or red top anyway !?

i bought my energizer battery at walmart for $80 cdn .. and it has the same crank and cold crank amps as the optima !?

are they a lot lighter or somethin ?

 

Well a few things really.

1) they are sealed paste/gel units. This means they don't have any fluid electrolite in them... so you never have to worry about the acid "outgassing" hydrogen gas and exploding... AND you can mount them in any orientation.... like upside down, sideways, angled, etc... doesn't matter. This is also the reason they have a higher short-circuit amperage rating. Optima's (and similar designs) can run up to 2500 AMPs without internal short circuits... can't do that in a fluid! paste-cells are closer to capasitors than batteries in some properties (but they are batteries, so don't sweat it )

2) They have high energy capacity compared to most other batteries (although as you said, this is more about battery size than a super design, lead acids can be just a powerful, although the yellow top has a lot more capasity than our stock batteries), so you can last longer without the alternator running (or hooked up if you run a shorter belt at the track, but I wouldn't bother)... longer tail-gates.

3) The yellow top is a deep-cycle battery, basically meaning it can be fully expended and recharged hundred of times without a loss in performance. A car typically doesn't need this feature, if the alternator is working. But if you leave your lights on alot, or play a stereo until the batter dies (or even gets low) you would be better off with a deep cycle. I don't know the particulars of what makes a cell deep-cycle, and what doesn't... but my impression is that the deep cycle gels have a less electrolite between anode/cathode, but have the same charge capacity by increasing the surface area of the anodes/cathodes. Can't get any straight answers on it though. <shrug>

Reccomendation for most car batteries (which cold-crank the engine, they quickly recharge once the alternator starts running) is to use the red top, while anyone who uses the battery with the car off and charges it up when they drive would be better served by the more expensive yellow-top.

Oh yeah, and the paste design makes punctures to the case "ok". You may short circuit the battery, but the electrolite will not drain (no lead-acid fluids to worry about) and you don't have to worry about hydrogen gas build up making that even uglier.

 

How's $160 shipped sound?

No way would i pay that when i have seen the gelcell batteries for 80 bucks local on closeouts. (not the cheap knock off's either)

Street car full trim I wouldn't worry about what kinda battery i would just get a beefy one and be done with it race car is diff though slap what will work i can't use the hawker cause i have too many pumps and things to power up.

 

yeah, that was a sweat deal... although I don't know how often that kind of stuff happens. (Those were red top Optimas weren't they? I've seen those for ~$100 or so regular, although they average around $120... the yellow tops are ~$40 more usually).

For example:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2417160304

Redtops for $65 + $15 S&H... $80 each.

 

Yellow tops. See the deals quite often.

Steven

 

wow... we need to shop together more often! :-O

$80's a killer deal for yellow tops. I'll have to visit the local shops more often. If I can pick up two more I could rig one for amp-duty, slide and isolator between them and kick my current one to my bro.