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Posted by: william harris Jul 18 2006, 02:18 PM

OK, so we are about to rejoin the car with it's motor and fire her up for the first time ever with the 2.0+. Time has come to buy a battery. Like the Odyessey PC680MJT cause its small and only weighs 15.4 lbs. Thats 25 lbs less than the Optima. But how the heck do you secure it in place. Anyone installed one? How did you secure it? The factory clamp seems awfully weak for this battery. The reason being there is no real pad at the bottom of this battery.

Posted by: Joe Ricard Jul 18 2006, 02:24 PM

Steel strap and some fasteners.

my rule book doesn't care as long as it in secured. I put mine on the forward part of he engine bay "just above the hell hole"
put a 1/4-20 bolt through a 1/2" wide 16ga. steel strap. bent it to fit battery shape laying on it's side. secured the other end of strap to engine bay apron???? what ever you call it. with 1/4-20 bolt and wing nut.
Very secure and is lower than stock. mine only weighs 12 pounds???? not metal cased.

Posted by: nebreitling Jul 18 2006, 02:38 PM

got mine in the cabin (behind pass. seat) secured with a custom aluminum hinge strap.

Posted by: mskala Jul 18 2006, 03:26 PM

William,
I had some 16ga metal around, made a plate that matched the shape
of the battery tray, fastened the odyssey to it. The plate is held in by
the original hold-down bolt and by fitting under the opposite side.
Hard to describe.

Posted by: william harris Jul 18 2006, 03:29 PM

Hey Mark. Maybe I better drive up to Newbury and check it out. How did you attach the battery to the 16ga plate? Are you generally happy with the battery. I like the small size and 15lbs or so weight.

Posted by: rickyhgarcia Jul 18 2006, 03:43 PM

In the August issue of Excellence Magazine (just out) there is an article about installing the Odyssey battery in a 944. They have some pretty neat brackets to mount it in the 944 battery tray. They claim a weight reduction of 22 pounds...with the actual weight of the battery ar 13.5 pounds. I was so impressed with the article, that I would like to buy one for my car.

Where did you get yours?

Posted by: JPB Jul 18 2006, 03:54 PM

Wee, just busted my cheery!

Posted by: turboman808 Jul 18 2006, 04:09 PM

I bought a custom oddessey battery holder on ebay. Not that expensive really and looks really nice.

Here is one I haven't seen. Really cheap also.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Odyssey-PC680MJ-BATTERY-HOLD-DOWN-PC680-Tray- EM680AS_W0QQitemZ320006552158QQihZ011QQcategoryZ6763QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmd
ZViewItem

This is the same one I have
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Odyssey-PC680MJ-BILLET-BATTERY-HOLD-DOWN- PC680_W0QQitemZ8050239163QQihZ019QQcategoryZ6763QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZVie
wItem

Posted by: r_towle Jul 18 2006, 04:26 PM

QUOTE(william harris @ Jul 18 2006, 04:18 PM)

OK, so we are about to rejoin the car with it's motor and fire her up for the first time ever with the 2.0+. Time has come to buy a battery. Like the Odyessey PC680MJT cause its small and only weighs 15.4 lbs. Thats 25 lbs less than the Optima. But how the heck do you secure it in place. Anyone installed one? How did you secure it? The factory clamp seems awfully weak for this battery. The reason being there is no real pad at the bottom of this battery.

Posted by: TimT Jul 18 2006, 04:40 PM

I got the Odyssey mount for the 680 from

http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/battery2a.htm

Posted by: anthony Jul 18 2006, 04:46 PM

What does one give up with an Odyssey over an Optima? The extra 22 pounds in the Optima must do something beneficial.

Posted by: TimT Jul 18 2006, 04:54 PM

With the odyssey, your engine should be in the state of tune wherer it will fire up quickly. The Odyssey 680 will not crank &crank

Posted by: lapuwali Jul 18 2006, 05:09 PM

I'd speculate that what you're giving up is cold (arctic conditions) starting ability, and the ability to crank and crank to get a tempermental engine lit. For a racing car or a California daily driver in good tune, this should be fine. If you're running and really need a high-torque starter, you might not be able to use one of these batteries.

According to Optima's site, the Group 34 (the most common, fits in the 914) weighs 43lbs. Various sources have the PC680 at 12-14lbs. Excellence said 22lbs, but this looks like 29-32lbs to me.

Posted by: J P Stein Jul 18 2006, 05:29 PM

It don't even twitch.


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Posted by: Andyrew Jul 18 2006, 06:22 PM

Optima is one of the strongest, hardest cranking, coldest starting battery's, that doesnt have any acid/dry cell...

odyssey is a light weight racing battery.

Andrew

Posted by: william harris Jul 18 2006, 06:26 PM

Well seeing as how I'm captive in freakin' freezin' Massachusetts, maybe I had better go with the Optima. Mark, how has your experience been with the Odyssey? Any problems firing up the 6er?

Posted by: mskala Jul 18 2006, 06:31 PM

Okay, I found a pic.

I have been very surprised by the power of this battery. It takes time for my
-6 to start, and it has not given me any trouble at all even when it's in the 30's
here in the spring mornings. (I'm sure it helps to have a low compression
motor ).


I also got the aluminum mount. But was not about to mess with the car, so
screwed it to a separate steel plate with flat head screws. You can't tell in
the picture, but on the fender the tray metal looks like this (looking down):


tray side

_________/--------\______/--------\____________
fender side

And the metal sticks under the the protrusion.


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Posted by: drew365 Jul 18 2006, 07:04 PM

I hate posting my pitifull pic after JPs buffed out trunk, but here goes. I made a light weight shroud out of foam and balsa wood to fill out a full size battery holder in the trunk. The Odyssey sits in the middle. I did this in case the battery quit at the track, I could pick up a standard size, pop it in and be ready to go. So far the Odyssey always has plenty of power.






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Posted by: william harris Jul 18 2006, 07:11 PM

OK, for those that asked, I am going to order from AJUSA. Had nothing but good experiences with them and their price is about $120. Based on Mark's comments, we will see how it works in my "new" 2.0. This board is really the source of all knowledge 914 wise.

Posted by: Joe Ricard Jul 18 2006, 07:20 PM

Well bought my PC 680 from Evil bay 75 bucks. Brand new shipping was like 10 more.
Been cranking my car for over a year now. never let me down. Accidentally left the driving lights on once (three days). sorta drained the battery. Hooked up a jumper fired car and worked good ever since.

You can not go wrong with a PC680.

Posted by: TimT Jul 18 2006, 07:20 PM

I agree AJUSA has good service, and I have bought things from them before..

However the 680 can be had for around $85 elsewhere

Posted by: mskala Jul 18 2006, 08:07 PM

It almost goes without saying, but be sure to get the car-type terminals
rather than the small terminals