ZT-R Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Has anyone moved their batter to inside the wheel well, pretty much right under where its mounted in the S30? I need more engine bay room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitsnaugle Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 (edited) <br>Has anyone moved their batter to inside the wheel well, pretty much right under where its mounted in the S30? I need more engine bay room.<br><br><br><br>It might work if your using a small lightweight battery. But thats a tight spot with the wheel turned, not to mention all debris that will be hitting the area. <br>(I just cut out my battery tray and counter sinking the battery down was an idea for a bit...) Edited April 18, 2012 by spitsnaugle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emeraldlion Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 There are a few people that have welded an open box into the fenderwell and dropped the battery down inside the box very similar to what you are suggesting. I doubt you would be able to drop a full size battery and run very wide wheel/tire combo without issues. I would search the body and fabrication subforums for something like "dropping battery" and "Fender battery" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luseboy Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Lol I've been working on one for the past week. Mine gets the battery down another 10.5" into the wheel well. It will be for a medium sized battery, and I made it out of angle iron and 16 gauge sheet steel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZT-R Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 I have a red optima battery currently, but I have alot of electronics in my car. No system yet but i probably will put (2) 10" subs in there at some point. I would build a box for it if i where to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitsnaugle Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 (edited) I have a red optima battery currently, but I have alot of electronics in my car. No system yet but i probably will put (2) 10" subs in there at some point. I would build a box for it if i where to do it. I did some searching. Found only only one mention of a dropped/sunk battery, from RTz (ron?), but all I saw was a finished photo from the top, no sizes or in-process shots. So, since my car is shell with a cut out battery area at the moment I took some measurements at lunch. A full sized battery will probably not fit with wheels at full lock. I measured according to a Braille b2015 // Deka EXT20L battery (what I'll be running) which roughly 7x4x6ish. These are real rough numbers: At 7.5 inches in from the frame and 4 inches from the firewall, there is roughly 3 inches of clearance from the wheels. So you probably dont want a box bigger than 5 inches from the firewall. Took this shot while I was at it, appears a bit deceiving but its roughly 3 inches from the edge of the tape measure to the wheel. Edited April 18, 2012 by spitsnaugle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 I've seen pics of cars (I think Ron Tyler and Paul Ruschman either built the cars or had something to do with them) where the front inner fender was cut out under the battery tray and a new battery mount location was built off of the frame rail. Same position basically, but down a foot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luseboy Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 (edited) I did some searching. Found only only one mention of a dropped/sunk battery, from RTz (ron?), but all I saw was a finished photo from the top, no sizes or in-process shots. So, since my car is shell with a cut out battery area at the moment I took some measurements at lunch. A full sized battery will probably not fit with wheels at full lock. I measured according to a Braille b2015 // Deka EXT20L battery (what I'll be running) which roughly 7x4x6ish. These are real rough numbers: At 7.5 inches in from the frame and 4 inches from the firewall, there is roughly 3 inches of clearance from the wheels. So you probably dont want a box bigger than 5 inches from the firewall. Took this shot while I was at it, appears a bit deceiving but its roughly 3 inches from the edge of the tape measure to the wheel. Mine is 7" wide and about 3" lower than the frame rail. I won't have a huge amount of clearance, but I will be running 15" wheels with a 50 aspect ratio, and I will have quite a bit of caster over stock (using t3 T/C rods). Also I will be running pretty spaced out wheels (ZG flares). I'm pretty confident that I will have enough clearance. Here's a pic of my battery box, it's not quite done, but close. I will have a pic from the engine bay soon, I still have a little more work to do in there. Excuse the shitty welds, I still need to grind them down. I feel that there will be enough clearance, the stock fender well comes down at the same point too. Edited April 18, 2012 by luseboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitsnaugle Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 (edited) Bought myself a small metal brake yesterday and made a 16gage 8.5 x 4.5 x 6 battery box. Did a rough mock up: Not sure if I'm going to locate it a closer or further from the frame, or leave it where it is, thats a very tight space between the box and frame - I may have a problem with rustproofing in there. Edited April 20, 2012 by spitsnaugle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZT-R Posted April 21, 2012 Author Share Posted April 21, 2012 What battery are you running? Will that odyssey battery replace a red top optima? My Z is electronically endowed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitsnaugle Posted May 11, 2012 Share Posted May 11, 2012 (edited) Photo update attached. I've welded the box in, (excuse my welds, I burnt through a few spots), and have the surrounding metal about 90% mocked up (a bit extra long in the photo). I'll be using a Deka ETX20L battery, (its a Braille minus the name). Edited May 11, 2012 by spitsnaugle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators RTz Posted May 11, 2012 Administrators Share Posted May 11, 2012 Guilty. I've done it twice now. If you've got a rusted out battery tray and apron, I think it's easier to do this than it is to repair it back to original. The first time I saw this done was by BRAAP's dad (Ron Ruschman) in '92 or '93. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZT-R Posted May 11, 2012 Author Share Posted May 11, 2012 That looks good. Is there enough to leave the wiring where it comes though the firewall though? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AkumaNoZeta Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 (edited) You figure as long as you keep to the profile of the wheel well like RTZ posted that you should be just fine for tire clearance, right? I really like this idea since I've been thinking what to do about my car's cancer problem there. Edited May 12, 2012 by Grim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitsnaugle Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 (edited) That looks good. Is there enough to leave the wiring where it comes though the firewall though? I built my battery box to be a little more than an inch extra space on all sides than the battery, so it would of been too tight. So I'll be welding the wiring loom hole closed from the inside and relocating it the hole right above the frame rail. I could of just put the box lower, to avoid relocating it- but I wanted the wiring in line frame rail since thats the line it'll follow through the engine bay. Edited May 13, 2012 by spitsnaugle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luseboy Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 Well I finished mine up. Painted it, including the engine bay, and primered then undercoated underneath as well. Mine looks about the same as the one RTZ posted. I was measuring up how much space I'd have at full lock with the wheels/tires I want, and there's only about an inch or less. This is with 17x9's, with 225 35r17 tires, and my techno toy tuning T/C rods are pretty extended. I will spin the T/C rods more probably, and see where it's at in a few months when I get an alignment. Otherwise pretty happy with it, it turned out well. I still need to get a battery and wire it in though. But I don't need to for a while since my car isn't very near done. I can fit a god sized battery in mine though, which is good since my car will be a DD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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