Droping 20lbs WITHOUT gutting interior? (Pics)

Deep6

Registered User
Hello all, I've just completed a little "X"-periment and it turned out great. I've got some pics on a Lightweight battery that I installed.

On a side by side comparison the stock motorcraft battery in my 95 5-speed was starting to give weak starts in the -10degree F weather we've had a couple weeks back. I decided to shop for a battery. Most folks would instantly want to shop for a battery that has double the CCA's (Cold cranking amps) of the stock battery. I decided I would stick to my philosophy "If I gotta replace it, I might as well upgrade it" and shopped for a battery that was basically half the weight of the stock one.

19863376.jpg




Here is a side-to-side comparison of both batteries. I weighed them both on a scale and the stock Motorcraft battery was 34lbs and the lightweight battery was 14.5lbs. Clearly it looks like it belongs in a golf cart or something, but it's got alot of power inside.

Some technical information about the Battery. It is a Hawker Electronics Odyssey PC680 model. It generates 680 amps above freezing. However it's CCA rating below freezing is a paltry 280CCA. I was very skeptical at first considering that the stock battery had 540CCA's. I didn't think the tiny battery would have the kick to get the super coupe going. XR7Dave pointed out that according to the Ford technical manual the starter Amperage draw is between 80-250 loaded amps. So, I concluded this Battery would still have the juice to turn the starter.

Other information about this battery. The Odyssey is what is called a "starved electrolyte" cell. There is no fluid inside as the acid is suspended in a gel mat. These batteries are approved for military tank usage and are capable of handling high G' loads (something like 15 G's). Unlike traditional plate/wet cell batteries, all of the venting is internal, so no fluid is lost and therefore is truly maintenence free.

The Odyssey produces its maximum cranking power in a quickly accelerated plateu over a long time period (30+ seconds), rather than a sharp initial spike and drop like the traditional wet cell. It also recharges extremely fast, about half the time a traditional battery would. Some racers have even ruptured the case in crashes and the battery would still work (due to no fluid leaking out). It's service life is also effectively double that over the traditional battery. Avg expected lifetime is 5-8 years in normal usage. 3 years in Heavy racing. Odyssey warranties their batteries in Automotive use for 3 years against manufacturing defects.

I bought it for $106 at www.batterymart.com. This includes shipping and the optional brass SAE battery terminals.

Now onto my installation. After removing the Old battery, you should also remove the old battery tray. there is no need for it, since this battery will not leak acid. In the process, you will save approx. 1 pound. I weighed the battery tray.

In order to remove the battery tray, you will need to get the two 10mm bolts on top. There is a 3rd 10mm bolt on the side, next to the Intercooler. I found that using a 10mm open end wrench got me the access I needed as my socket would not clear the Intercooler.

You should clean the Positive and Negative terminals until shiny, this ensures a good contact and maximum energy transfer:



19862552.jpg


This picture is hard to see (sorry I don't have a digital camera) but does compare the luster difference between a clean terminal and a dirty one.

Now, onto a method to secure the battery. I used two small steel shelving brackets they were about 4-5" long bent at a 90degree angle in the middle. I placed the battery in the fender between the two existing battery tray hold down bolts and then loosly placed the brackets up against the side of the battery and marked the position of the bolt holes.

Out came the drill (I can't remember the bit size) and I drilled holes in the brackets. I reused two of the Battery tray bolts to hold down each bracket in place. In the pic you can see that I had to modify one of the washers of the bolts as it wouldn't completely clear the bracket. Out came the dremel tool and I cut off some of the washer. Please wear safety glasses as my first cut off wheel decided to shatter and a small hot peice of it hit my face just below the eye!

It should look something like this:


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Also note up on the side of the battery, under the positive terminal, I placed two peices of foam weather stripping to support the battery. The fender is on a slight angle and brackets hold the battery more towards the Negative end of the battery, leaving the positive side to rattle a little bit. This weatherstripping helps level things out.

At this point, you should position the brackets close enough together to hold the battery snugly but not so much as to damage the case. The first time I slid the battery between the brakets, some of the red plastic scraped off. No problem I just bent the bracket back with my fingers a little bit and all was good. Then you just tighten the terminals down on the battery.

The optional SAE terminals are brass and have allen screws inside to screw into the battery. You should use some Anti-corrosion jelly on the screw threads as the allen screws are steel and the terminal posts themselves are brass. A 3/16" Allen wrench is what is needed for the job. Do not torque more than somethng like 20 ft lbs.

Here is what the final installation looks like in my car, once you install the battery cables, the battery should be secure and not move around much:

19863314.jpg


The red coloration on the terminals is just the anti-corrosive jelly that I applied. Looks pretty tiny in there. This is going to be a semi-permanent installation since I do hope to relocate the battery to the trunk to make more room under the hood for future mods.

If anyone is doubting the cold starting ability of this battery, I have had the oppurtunity to test it just the other day on a 3degree F morning. It started the car, just as good as my stock motorcraft battery was. So overall I'm happy. I would like to get a couple of starts in sub-zero weather before the Canadian people are convinced but I don't know if we're gonna get any more
-15degree days here in Albany NY.

Total weight saved is Stock battery=34lbs, Battery Tray=1lbs

35lbs combined weight
-14.5lbs new battery weight
----------------------------------
20.5lbs of saved weight.

I know some folks must be thinking "Phhfftttph, big deal, our cars weigh something like 2 tons". I know this but a few lbs here and a lbs there can eventually add up to hundreds of lbs shed one day. And I would like to acheive that goal without having to rip out the luxurious and quiet interior of my car.
 
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Already done it.

Nice find.

Your battery looks just like my DynaBatt battery that I've had for some time now. I had the battery last year and I updated the battery mount this year for WFC6. The battery mount is wicked looking and anyone at WFC6 can testify to that. I know Thomas A really like it.

Anyway, these batteries are super nice and very light weight.

The battery mount is a little hard to see in the picture.
http://members.tccoa.com/nettles/wfc5-038.jpg
 
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Duanne, It's a good idea!

The gears are always turning in my head on how to save weight on these cars. Again, to some it may seem pointless, but if it wasn't for the t-bird's awful high weight this would have truly been a serious world class car.


I've had the battery in now since febuary and haven't had any problems with it in the spring and summer. My semi-permanent installation has been holding the battery in just fine.

I do run an alarm system, but most of the time I put it in "valet mode" which essentially disarms it. In the winter time, if the car sits for about 3 or 4 days (and this winter we had some really bone chilling weather) it will run out of juice to crank the car up.

It's odd, but one day it was -2degrees F outside and My car started...it did crank slowly (anything cranks slowly at sub-zero temps) but it did start.

Then on a couple of other days it was 9 and 12 degrees F and it DIDN"T start the car... huh, it was actually WARMER on those days. But my car had sat a little longer since last started, and I was only driving 3 miles to and from work.

I might want to get my Alternator checked out as I don't think it's charging up the battery all the way, and I might want to figure a way out of totally disabling the alarm so It won't draw energy.

I wouldn't recommend this PC680 battery to anyone who runs heavy stereo and alarm equipment.

I did consider the PC925 due to the fact that it does have 470CCA available, but it weighs 25lbs. Which would mean only about a 10lb weight saving. I was trying to get the "most bang for my buck" so to speak. But If someone did pick up a PC925, I would suspect that it would handle anything thrown at it.

Also when I was down at Carlisle, the TCCOA member who had the "Buillit bird" had a DynaBatt too with an excellent holddown case. BTW, that "Bullit bird" was very nice.
 
Deep6,

I would be interested in knowing what kind of mount the "Buillit Bird" used.

It's always fun getting something to work on our cars.

I never have gotten the pictures to show in either IE or Netscape.
 
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My memory is a little fuzzy..

But I seem to remember it had a hold down bracket with plexi-glass on top of it. I think it also had brass wingnuts, kinda like the ones I was able to make out in your pic.
 
Ok, thanks.

Actually, those are gold wingnuts. I tried to get gold terminals but I couldn't get them in time for the show, or at least, one's that I liked.
 
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