Battery-go-Bye-Bye

As this track day gets ever closer, I decided the next thing to do would be to relocate the battery.  Performance wise it will probably have no effect what soever (4 kg weight re-distribution, woot), however it's another thing that I wanted to sort out from the defect list.  One great cause of motivation was a friend in a pretty clean S13 getting pinned for a whole heap of stuff... I know mine is a pretty messy one, so, yeah...  Anyway, enough history, lets look at the present :)



This is what I had to work with...  Messy, dirty, and just outright cramped.

Here's the main reason for it though...  Rust, corrosion, and one very poorly cut intercooler hole.  Cutting through a battery tray is illegal of course, so the goal is to remove the battery tray, tidy up all that rust, and make a neater/better finished hole so the intercooler piping doesn't foul on the metal.

In order to relocate the battery, I first had to run the wiring I needed from the engine bay to the boot.  Luckily there was some 8ga that had been run for a stereo install at some point, so I used that as a pull wire to take the 4ga through.

It's always good practise to put in a circuit breaker/fuseable link just in case things go south... It's a bit further away from the battery than I would've liked (within 30cm is ideal, I think I installed it around the 60-70cm mark), but the cable length wouldn't allow me to mount it any closer.  I was going to order 4m, decided it's better safe than sorry and ordered 5m, and that STILL wasn't enough!!

After I finished running and terminating the positive wire, I got the earth cable mounted, as well as the removable earth strap for a bit of extra piece of mind!!  The good thing about it is that you can't see it when the battery box is in place - instead it just looks like the earth cable runs straight to ground (which it effectively does)

This photo here is symbolic of a really stupid product designer.. You buy a battery box.  You buy a battery tray from the same retailer.  And the bloody tray doesn't fit in the box!!  Had to sit there with a dremel for the better part of half an hour, cutting it back until it fat (you don't say 'sitted', you say 'sat'.  Ergo, it didn't 'fitted', it 'fat') ;)

^^ The battery box all mounted and properly secured.  There's 4 bolts going through the floor pan, a metal strap held down via hooks to the battery tray, and then a fabric strap to keep the lid on.  Can't ever say it's going to get loose!!

The end result (in the boot at least)

The end result (under the bonnet at least)

I decided that this is where I'm going to leave this post... I've still got to actually remove the battery tray and tidy up the hole around the intercooler plumbing.  The other work I want to do before the track day include replacing my front brakes (FINALLY!!!) and trying some clear coat on the front of the car to remove the half matte/half gloss look I've got going on.

So this is where I love you and leave you... Happy perusing and happy Friday!!