My car has an OEM replacement 40 lb beast. I'm thinking of getting a lighter battery and I'm just concerned about it having enough juice to start the car. The Camaro isn't my daily driver but sits in a garage. I had a Miata battery (just under 20 lbs) on my 2.0L Nissan Sentra SE-R, ran for two years or so with zero issues, even in cold weather. I figure it should be OK for the Camaro, but ... ????

Pat

 

Just to follow up, I ended up getting a Big Crank ETX14, $70 shipped, 12 pounds (old battery weighed 36lbs on a bathroom scale). The car fired right up after the initial install, and no issues so far even when starting it about 20 times over the weekend to troubleshoot/tune some startup idle issues on the Megasquirt.

Pat

 

200 CCA seems very low for an 8 cylinder, especially when it gets colder out...

 

As long as you don't drive in the winter, it should be fine. I've always considered installing a smaller battery in my race car. I have a spare group 78 Optima battery in the garage that I use to start my 454SS truck every now and then. The race car itself has a big, heavy group 31 commercial battery in the back. The nice thing about this group 31 battery is that it has a 180 minute reserve capacity.

I left the water pump and rad fan on for about an hour while walking through the pits one day. The car still fired up with no problems.

A group 31 battery, depending on the brand, is around 68 pounds. At least at the back of the car, it helps compensate for the nose heavy weight ratio.

 

Good luck in the cold - think my battery is 850 CCA - most all cars need well above 400CCA - that battery specifically states it's for a motorcycle, ATV, snowmobile, etc. - those small starters on those small rides don't draw half the juice.

 

I figured, what the hell. I'm after that 8 second timeslip so lets go see what kind of weight reduction I can do with a battery swap.

Group 31 battery. 58 pounds
Group 75 Optima battery 33 pounds.

That might do it.

As for the tiny battery, there are race batteries just like that but they're not cheap. They're also not designed for cold weather. If you have very low electrical demand such as no massive stereo system etc, then you should be able to get by during the warm season with such a small battery. I've considered such a small gel cell battery like that myself but even for the race car, I didn't feel it would be enough.

Here's one of the racing type small batteries. At least it has terminals more designed for a higher amp draw. It's only 11.4 pounds.

http://www.jegs.com/i/Odyssey+Batter...PC545/10002/-1

One that's a bit stronger and 15.4 pounds

http://www.jegs.com/i/Odyssey+Batter...680MJ/10002/-1

These racing batteries have a very short reserve capacity. They're not designed to provide voltage for a long period of time when the engine is off.

 

Try using a Honda battery (group 51 or51r)

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...ier=330110_0_0_

 

I'm not going to be driving it much if at all during the winter, and it's a garage queen, too. No radio, no AC, just OEM interior and exterior lights and an A/F gauge.

Pat

 

I just installed a braille battery, my car had set for 4 months during the IRS install. the battery had no problem starting.