Batteries

[daveismissing]

Never found the GN demanding on batteries as a driver.
Does racing significantly increase the requirements/demands on the cells?

[SuperSix]

I don't see why it would, unless you had some race components (fuel pump(s), fans/electric water pump/etc) that pulled a shit ton of power. Even then, a good alternator and battery should be fine.

[daveismissing]

From the way things are portrayed in "Pinks" I'd presume some cars don't use an alternator?

[earlbrown]

Racecars probably lead to more shaking, shocks and harmonics than a street car sees.  X1000 if they are securely bolted to something solid.

[Scoobum]

Norbs Performance 220 amp alternator and a cheapass Walmart battery here.

[SuperSix]

From the way things are portrayed in "Pinks" I'd presume some cars don't use an alternator?

Very serious race cars, possibly. Then they run $500 16V Braille batteries.

[earlbrown]

I'd screw up the polarity if I had to use dots instead of a simple + and -

[Steve Wood]

A GN is seldom a serious race car and seldom requires more current than the factory alternator puts out even with dual fans and fuel pumps.  The battery will easily provide any additional amperage that the alternator might not supply in a short time demand situation. 

For a replacement of the factory alternator, the generation 2 140 amp CS 144 is better built than the generation 1 CS144 that came on our cars and puts out a lot more amps at idle.

These big, cheap 200-240 amp alternators sound good but do absolutely nothing because we never put enuf load on them to make them output their capacity.  And, if we tie a big stereo on the car, they cannot handle the heat generation of the long term pull and die quickly.  Another useless product in other words.

In a circle track application or an offroad situation, vibration can kill a battery quickly.  The gel cells or the dry cells should be better in that application.  Optimas are built in Mexico and have a bad reputation for failure these days.  They cut the warranty back to three years a few uears after they moved the factory down there.

Odyssey has a much better reputation and is built by Enersys but it costs a lot more.  On the other hand, the Sears Platinum is also built by Enersys and appears to be a clone of of the Odyssey from all reports.  These days it has a great reputation and can be found on sale at Sears for less than $200 a few times a year so it is much closer to Optima pricing.

On the other hand, the best batteries I have bought in the past few years for the money is the Autozone yellow top.  Around a $100 and a long warranty period so I have said screw all the ads and saved the money and a lot of Optima  headaches.  If I were running offroad where a gel cell (AGM) battery was a benefit, I would go Sears Platinum.

[daveismissing]

I'd screw up the polarity if I had to use dots instead of a simple + and -

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