[Cali_ST]

This one's for @XRJoe :big smile:

 

[XRJoe]

View attachment 106717

This one's for @XRJoe :big smile:

Very nice!!!! I'll be making a big order from them soon. Getting into the wiring harness on the XR

 

[Cali_ST]

Very nice!!!! I'll be making a big order from them soon. Getting into the wiring harness on the XR

Nice!!
Ordered on Sunday at my door today.
That kind of shipping speed is ridiculous.

Make sure to post pics of the XR.

I made up my mind on that fuse panel that attaches to the oem battery tray, I'm moving all those wires to 2 fused mini anl blocks that will be attached to where the ECU is in the driver fender well. Will do a full parts list for anyone interested in cleaning up the engine bay.

 

[kcrichardson08]

really interested how it looks all cleaned up and 100% in the end might do this also so I can put a WMI tank there!

 

[Cali_ST]

So.....

I'm at a cross road. Here is what I am pondering regarding mounting of the new Braille 11 lb agm battery.

Mounting position "a"

Or

Mounting position "b"

Just waiting on ONE thing to finish off the power distribution up front. That is scheduled to be here Saturday.

I "should" have everything wrapped up by Monday or Tuesday as I've got some things to handle this weekend.

 

[XRJoe]

I like Option A the best, provided you don't care about the spare tire.

 

[Cali_ST]

I'm leaning heavily to option a as well.
I didn't think about option b until I disconnected the battery, and the rear hatch wouldn't open. So I started thinking worse case scenario situation. Although access to the battery in the trunk would not be difficult at all if I did lose power (rear door, back seat down) climb in the back seat area to get to it, having it mounted low on the back seat would make servicing a ton easier.

Just something to mull over while I wait for that last piece.

Appreciate the input Joe.

 

[ZX3ST]

Are you planning on removing all hardware under the hood to where you wouldn't be able to hook up there?

I would rather hook up under the hood then pop the trunk from there. The back of the seat looks really messy to me.



As an alternative, I've seen some pretty nice insulated battery hardware for boats that could work here. I used a set once on the outside-side of the spare tire well as a place for easy power supply hookup. It was a show car, but I don't see why it couldn't work here.

Something like this, I can research the actual parts I used if you wanted to go this route. Basically just cut a hole (or 2 if you do ground cable also) in the sidewall of the spare tire well and hook up some cables.
Cole Hersee 46211-R Battery Feeder Stud Red

 

[Cali_ST]

Are you planning on removing all hardware under the hood to where you wouldn't be able to hook up there?

I would rather hook up under the hood then pop the trunk from there. The back of the seat looks really messy to me.



As an alternative, I've seen some pretty nice insulated battery hardware for boats that could work here. I used a set once on the outside-side of the spare tire well as a place for easy power supply hookup. It was a show car, but I don't see why it couldn't work here.

Something like this, I can research the actual parts I used if you wanted to go this route. Basically just cut a hole (or 2 if you do ground cable also) in the sidewall of the spare tire well and hook up some cables.
Cole Hersee 46211-R Battery Feeder Stud Red

Yep, all the under the hood hook up stuff is going.

I eventually will be putting in some remote battery charging posts in the engine bay, somewhere (similar to the ones you've linked) but they actually look like charging posts. Just haven't found a spot I want to do that just yet.

Waiting on a custom dual OCC and a new front strut bar set up first, to determine how much space I will have and mounting locations.

The back of the seat method would be about as clean as an amp install.
If I were to go that route, I'd turn the battery 90° clockwise, so the charging posts were to sit facing the passenger door. Wires would be loomed and honestly you wouldn't see much other then the battery, an in line fuse holder and some wire loom.

Thanks for the input!

 

[Cali_ST]

...... no going back meow!

Little teaser. :saint:

 

[ZX3ST]

The back of the seat method would be about as clean as an amp install.
If I were to go that route, I'd turn the battery 90° clockwise, so the charging posts were to sit facing the passenger door. Wires would be loomed and honestly you wouldn't see much other then the battery, an in line fuse holder and some wire loom.

My comment was assuming all that. My opinion is the same for amp installs. It's messy and I consider it a shortcut. I hate seeing things just screwed to the back of seats, especially the fold-down variety.

I vote option A.

Also FYI, there are battery terminals made that have a mini-ANL fuse built directly into the top of the terminal. Example:

 

[Cali_ST]

My comment was assuming all that. My opinion is the same for amp installs. It's messy and I consider it a shortcut. I hate seeing things just screwed to the back of seats, especially the fold-down variety.

I vote option A.

Also FYI, there are battery terminals made that have a mini-ANL fuse built directly into the top of the terminal. Example:

Good call on the battery terminal fuse block. Never seen that before. That might clean up the install a bit more.

Now to see if they have mini anl fuses that got past 150amp.

 

[waltermitty]

Lithium battery technology is coming along and prices are coming down. Think I would go with deltran or shorai and save 30 lbs or so.

 

[ZX3ST]

Now to see if they have mini anl fuses that got past 150amp.

Nope. Even if some company has managed to manufacture one, I would recommend against it. Max amperage for fuse types is based on their form factor (ability to disperse heat), and connection capacity.

The terminal I linked (and most others I think) have 2 sections. 1 is fused, the other not. Being a small modern 4cyl, I'd suspect you can get away with the 150A mini-ANL on the starter feed (disclaimer: I've not tried this). Otherwise you're looking at doing a fusible link. It'd sure be a bad day if you popped the fuse!!! My truck's big block would make short work out of a 150A fuse, time-delay or not.

 

[Cali_ST]

Nope. Even if some company has managed to manufacture one, I would recommend against it. Max amperage for fuse types is based on their form factor (ability to disperse heat), and connection capacity.

The terminal I linked (and most others I think) have 2 sections. 1 is fused, the other not. Being a small modern 4cyl, I'd suspect you can get away with the 150A mini-ANL on the starter feed (disclaimer: I've not tried this). Otherwise you're looking at doing a fusible link. It'd sure be a bad day if you popped the fuse!!! My truck's big block would make short work out of a 150A fuse, time-delay or not.

Good to know. I searched for quite a while before I pulled the trigger ordering parts. This is why I went with a full size ANL inline fuse for the relocation main wire, which is Knukoncepts 0awg.

The stock alternator /starter wire is a combo wire that could draw up to 150amp by itself. Probably never going to draw that much, but just to be safe, I went with a full size ANL fuse on that wire alone.

The rest of the oem distribution block consists of smaller 50amp, 70amp, 80amp and 100 amp fuses, well within the realm of a mini anl fuse, which is what I used in the relocation part. I'll have a bunch of pics posted when I am done. I'm just waiting on one last piece. Then it will all be put back together.

 

[Cali_ST]

Lithium battery technology is coming along and prices are coming down. Think I would go with deltran or shorai and save 30 lbs or so.

Cool, let me know how that works out for you.

Braille is a tried and true battery. I'm perfectly happy shedding 21lbs. +-1lb.

 

[waltermitty]

I went from the AGM technology to Lithium on the motorcycles, no problem. Since Shorai and Deltran went to larger batteries I am going to use a Shorai in the Corvette.

 

[ZX3ST]

Good to know. I searched for quite a while before I pulled the trigger ordering parts. This is why I went with a full size ANL inline fuse for the relocation main wire, which is Knukoncepts 0awg.

The stock alternator /starter wire is a combo wire that could draw up to 150amp by itself. Probably never going to draw that much, but just to be safe, I went with a full size ANL fuse on that wire alone.

During crank, the battery is sourcing (and the cable is conducting) way more than 150A. It's just hopefully for short enough duration. It's why the OEM harness doesn't have a conventional fuse in it as they are thermal devices. They use a fusible link instead, more of a "oh ****" device when compared to a fuse... We can almost get away with murder these days with small engines since they require so much less juice to crank.

You're on the right track with the full-size ANL, but as I'm sure you've noticed it's another device you'll need to hide and/or make pretty with installation option B.

Just an idea:
What if you redid the right side foam filler and put the battery there? You'd retain unimpeded access to the spare tire well and wouldn't have to remove the tire to get to the battery. Maybe even fab an access panel in the floor?

 

[Cali_ST]

How it looks under the hood.
Waiting for the new strut bar before I the rest back together

 

[Cali_ST]

Copy pasta from my build thread

Well, it worked. Lol.
I just need to finish buttoning up everything but here are some of the preliminary pictures.

View attachment 107987
Battery and mount used.
Braille 11 lb AGM battery.
Braille Battery mount

View attachment 107988
Knukoncepts 0awg Power
Knukoncepts 0awg Ground

What I did for power routing. I started with one end of the cable in the engine bay.
View attachment 107996
●Fished it through the passenger side grommet.
●Pulled the passenger floor interior panels. (Removed the glove box)
●Fished the wire under the carpet.
☆There was a channel that went under the passenger seat that I routed the cable through
●Popped the passenger rear floor panels up
●Grabbed the wire under the carpet. (Hardest part)
●Removed the rear lower seat, passenger side
●Routed the cable to the hatch compartment.

Laid down a layer of Knukoncepts sound deadening material
View attachment 107992
●Used a couple strips of 3M Double Sided Tape (back of battery

●Mounted battery to where the spare tire hold down piece was (used angle grinder to get that section out of the hatch floor)

●Used 1 1/2" Sheet metal screws to temporarily secure the battery. Going to end up replacing with nuts/nylon lock and bolts in the future.

The wiring is NOT finished. I wanted to see if the damn thing would start, since I removed the OEM fuse block (that attached to the battery) and built my own out of some Bullz Audio components I picked up off ebay.

Here is a picture of the OEM fuse block
View attachment 107993
View attachment 107999
RIP!

Here is what the engine bay looks like now (minus strut bar and top plastic cover.
View attachment 107994
View attachment 107995

The wires moved were
(4) 10 awg power wires (50amp x 3, 70amp x1)
6ft total were used
(2) 8 awg power wires (80amp x 1, 100 amp x 1)
4ft total were used
(1) 4 awg power wire (150amp x 1)
Reused factory cable

Here are the new distribution blocks (added black silicone sealant to everything to keep the h20 out).

●Red wire is 0awg, running directory to the battery inline fuse holder in the trunk.
●Black wire is 4awg, running to 150amp inline fuse holder for the starter/alternator wire
●Blue wire (1) 4awg goes to distribution block 1
●Blue wire (2) 4awg goes to distribution block 2
View attachment 107997
View attachment 107998

All and all, this wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It just took time and patience and waiting for parts to arrive. I wanted to keep this as modular as possible, as I might move the distribution blocks to under the cowl area or to a different area later on. Now that I know it works and the car fired right up without any issues, no codes thrown and no melt downs, I feel a little more confident moving them further away.

If you are not comfortable with wiring, don't attempt.

Now, on to finishing up piecing together my custom Seatrab oil cooler kit (a REAL oil cooler) :saint: