Went to Parts Plus on Friday on my way home from work and picked up a few parts and some wire.

After a couple hours of work, running and securing wire, etc. I was able to open up tons of room in my engine bay, even out the weight distribution of the car, and save myself from buying a $200 mini battery kit.

I have enough room in the engine bay to run a practically straight pipe from the intercooler to the throttle body. This is next on my mod list.

Although some may argue that the weight of the wire used to relocate the battery eliminates the advantage of moving it, I see it as advantageous. The amount of weight taken from the front of the vehicle is significantly more than the weight of the wire.


Parts list:

Battery tray
14 ft 1 AWG wire
Qty. 2 Marine battery terminals
Qty. 4 Wire Eylets
Miscellaneous bolts and zip ties

Total cost for parts: $45.00

Here's a view from the trunk:


The battery sits right above the rear pumpkin. I'll have to wait until my next Auto-X before I can determine if this makes a noticeable difference to vehicle dynamics on the track.

Hope you like it.

 

Have you noticed any problems with the battery being back there? You will lose a bit of battery power when you run it through that much wire. I jujst don't know if it's enough to worry about.

edit: also, charging can give off hydrogen and oxygen that explode if ignited. Make sure your trunk has some airflow. That's one reason the battery is in the engine bay.

The Optima gel-cel batteries emit less gas than conventional betteries, but still emit some.

Not dissing your idea, just want everyone to be safe.

 

That's a nice job you did, unfortunately, you'd lose space in your trunk =(

 

No Problems experienced yet. I've been keeping an eye on my Volt meter and have not seen anything out of the ordinary.

 

Why didn't you relocate to the passenger rear corner?...Not only would that have saved space, but it would allow fo even better weight distribution.

 

Thanks. That is one of the drawbacks of the relocation, however the space lost is negligible to me.

 

Why would it be better at the passenger rear?

 

cause we sit on the drivers side

 

You also wouldn't lose as much square foot space. I like the idea and you can't beat the price, I just would have put it next to the wiper fluid.

 

and the further back, the better.

 

Whatever floats your boat. I thought it best to locate it as centered as possible.

 

Please don't do this if you plan on drag racing ever, because this will disqualify you from even doing test'n'tune unless you have a cutoff switch sticking out of your trunk, and I doubt anyone wants to do that on their regular daily driver. That sort of thing is usually only seen on all-out race cars.

Additionally, you'd need to make sure this will pass tech in SCCA/NASA/BMWCCA depending on what you run, if anything.

For people who never race, I see no downside.

 

Just because I don't understand.....

Why go through all of this trouble over a few pounds? Are you roadracing for mad money with a major sponsor at a level where weight reduction and balance shave that elusive .10 of a second that was keeping you off the pole?

I'm not being a SA I just don't think it's worth the effort. Most people do this kind of stuff when they can't afford real mods! Not that there's anything wrong with that

 

I've already got plans for where my cutoff switch will be mounted for when I run drag. And it's not going to be sticking out of the trunk.

The SCCA class I'm running in allows for relocation of the battery without a cutoff switch.

 

Well Looking at your mod list, and comparing it to mine... I'm pretty sure I dont have "real" mods. I did this because It was easy, helps (even if just a little bit) equalize weight and saved me money because I'm getting an IC pipe without having to buy a mini battery kit.