shuttlefever Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 Hey all, well my car is coming along nicely, its all in primer and i have repaired almost all the rust. I want to re locate my battery to the rear of the car. Possibly in the well where the spare usually goes. Is anyone familiar with what kind of box it would need to be in so i dont get in trouble if i go do a track day or autocross?? I know that nhra rules make you put the battery in a box, and i think it has to be vented to the outside. But i think those rules only work on a trunk type car, i am not sure what to do with a hatch style car, i can easily run a remote rod style shut off to a box with a switch on it. So does anyone have any experience with what i am going to need to do? I am not afraid to fabricate parts, i am an aircraft structural tech. I actually plan to build a box out of aluminum, i just need to know if it needs to be sealed and vented to the outside, or what. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Dennis~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luseboy Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 Why do you want to move the battery? I had planned on doing the same initially but later learned that the Z has a near perfect weight ratio, and acctually with you sitting in it already has more weight in the back than the front. The other benefit is the battery is closer to the alternator and the distributor/coil pack. I'd say keep it where it's at. You could also get a really small lightweight battery and switch it out for track days or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shuttlefever Posted March 26, 2012 Author Share Posted March 26, 2012 I did considered that. I have done several things to remove weight from the car. the biggest is removal of the carpet, padding and majority of the interior. Although i don't have scales i am figuring that the center and rear of the car is where most of my weight is coming from. And the up side is the cleaner engine compartment. Is the weight bias that close? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluDestiny Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 Yes it is, and honestly all the carpet/tar/panels weighed about 30-40lbs in my 280zx. For comparison my ac system from the firewall forward weighed 60lbs. You can get the clean engine bay with a slim battery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shuttlefever Posted March 26, 2012 Author Share Posted March 26, 2012 Great advice. I will just stick with the stock location. Any advice for a nice inconspicuous place to put a battery shut off switch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 (edited) I relocated my battery so that I could put an engine wiring center in the location of the old battery. I have a bad back and while lots of guys want their engine wiring center on the inside of the firewall, I didn't want to spend that much time under the dash-I can't walk for two weeks after installing a speedometer. It is a little messy, but someday cleaning it up will become a priority and I will combine some of that squirrels nest into fewer wires and connectors. What are you doing fuel tank wise? If I had it to do over again and could weld, I would trash the spare tire well and build a recess in my rear hatch for a fuel tank and another for the battery leaving room on either side for dual exhaust. That way, my tank and battery would drop in from the TOP instead of having to lay under the car and lift the tank up while trying to attach it. In this day and age, a cell phone pretty well makes a spare tire optional. I have the battery in the rear hatch, electric fuel pump powered directly off it thru a relay, main cables traveling thru unibody over inner fender along passenger side rocker panel to a pair of bulkhead connectors from Speedwaymotors.com at the firewall. The bulkhead connectors now become terminals that the rest of the wiring system is built on. If you don't have EFI motor, your firewall would be really clean with just the bulkhead connectors and your power cables coming off of them just like a battery. Put a battery cutoff switch of one style or another in the system - mine has already saved me once from letting a small electrical fire turn into a big one. I had my battery cables made at a local truck parts store, they crimped the 3/8" terminals and heat-shrinked them for me. About $100 just in the cables (copper is expensive). Get BIG gauge cables, this isn't the time to try to save weight. You could probably just use one cable and ground your battery to the chassis, but I have had grounding problems before and just want my system to be bullet proof. Aren't cell phone cameras great? For some reason, the pictures posted in reverse order of my description above, view them from right to left as you read. Edited March 26, 2012 by RebekahsZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FricFrac Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 The bigger deal is getting that weight down low especially if you already balanced - chop the fender and drop the battery down to the rail.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shuttlefever Posted April 2, 2012 Author Share Posted April 2, 2012 hmm i like the idea of dropping the weight down lower. I might use a smaller battery also. I dont have the budget for a high end light weight one, but the battery that was in my honda crx i used to have was a lot smaller. Keep in mind my car is a 2+2. Is the weight as balanced in these cars?? Rebeckasz, the battery box you are running is a good one for street only applications, however if i run at any track day events, or drags, they frown on those (at least around here). I have seen a couple of setups where a separate compartment was fabricated and that was legal. I am pretty sure i am going to keep it near the stock location. I need to come up with a nice hidey hole for my cut off switch, or maybe a piece of the cowl vent that can be removed to reveal the switch... Just thinking.... On another note, i tried using summit racing silver paint on the inside of the hood this last weekend. I forgot how tempermental silver paint is. Its really hard to keep my garage a reasonable temperature so it really didnt like to flow out properly. I used fast reducer and activator but it still didnt want to play nice. So i re evaluated how important it was to keep the car silver, and decided that a nice solid white is just fine!! i do like summit's solid color paints. Fortunately i already had a quart of Summit's pure white paint from another project so i sprayed the inside of the hood, and i am a happy camper again!! Now the fun part of doing the jams... D~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luseboy Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 I've been really thinking of what to do with my battery lately. I'm at the point now where I'm almost ready to paint my engine bay, I just need to finish stripping off the rest of the old paint and figure out my battery situation. Basically what I was thinking was that I could just cut a hole under where the stock battery tray used to be, and make it have sides and a bottom to put a battery in, then just make some sort of strap type thing to hold it down. I acctually think it would be easier to just make a little shelf there, level with the frame rail. I couldn't figure out a reason to have space open under there, am I mistaken that there is no reason to? I need to figure out what battery to get first. Has anyone used a braille battery? The diehard battery I had planned to use weighs 60 lbs so I decided I want something lighter. But I am building my car for the street so I need something I can DD with. Any recommendations? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shuttlefever Posted April 2, 2012 Author Share Posted April 2, 2012 Have heard the braille batteries are great but on a daily driver might not be so great. Something about not a lot of reserve for start up... And they are pretty spendy. But seriously light!! And small. Anyone else heard about any issues?? I think grassroots motorsports magazine did a write up a few months ago. Do your research before stepping up!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shuttlefever Posted April 2, 2012 Author Share Posted April 2, 2012 Have heard the braille batteries are great but on a daily driver might not be so great. Something about not a lot of reserve for start up... And they are pretty spendy. But seriously light!! And small. Anyone else heard about any issues?? I think grassroots motorsports magazine did a write up a few months ago. Do your research before stepping up!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jomz shakes Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 Buy a deka battery. It's the battery braille uses. They then wrap carbon fiber around it and mark the price way up. You can buy two and use them for daily driving then on track days take one out. And the one I have in my lil motorcycle has enough cca's to turn over a dodge viper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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