proctorsilex

so... notice anything?
anything different?




it's not finished yet, mind you, but i got it together into running shape and took it out for a spin. it's not a drastic difference, but it's hard to tell on the street. my car always pulls to the left when accelerating hard. it still does, but it didn't seem so hard tonight.

i'll be autocrossing this weekend, so i hope to see a positive difference.
at the very least, it hasn't been negative so far.

btw, i took some pictures of what i did and i will take some more after i've cleaned it up. i wouldn't mind doing a write up about it, but where can i host images? will scionlife host images for tutorials?

BrianxB

now you have a perch to sit on while you work under the hood.

proctorsilex

verily. i stood on the place where the air box used to be when i was trying to get the old header out. it's much roomier now.

jct

get LSD???

proctorsilex

^^ no. not sure about that yet. i'd love to try driving a car with an lsd before sinking in the time and cash.

i moved the battery to the rear to even out weight distribution between the front and rear.
i still need to find a junction for the positive wire. i just have it taped up right now.
i modified the plastic lid in the rear and took out the plastic tub so that there is room for an optima 75/25. i have the stock in there now, so i can't put the lid on. plus it's kind of ghetto because the j-bolts are too long and don't have enough threads so i had to put a bushing on one.

jct

might wanna shorten the postive cable under the hood just a bit

you also can get a cheap tap and die kit and just tap the threads longer

INSIDEOUT

Not to sound negative, but that is just redic!! There is no point in the dumb batteryto be back there!! JUST MY .02 cents worth! Good luck!!

proctorsilex

^^ thanks. it'd be nice to have a reason why you think that

hornet, yeah, i'm gonna shorten the positive when i get a junction box and tie it down better. i'll probably have to use a die on the existing j-bolts because i don't think anyone makes any short enough. but i'm in no hurry right now. thanks for the suggestions.

i was worried about throwing the left-right balance off because the engine is shifted to the passenger side, but i haven't noticed any issue there yet. i'm hoping that the front end will roll a bit less now.

can't wait for the weekend!

proctorsilex

i finally finished up the rear... mostly. i am still thinking about how to hold down the lid.
the lid only makes any noise when i hit something hard, so i'm not too worried.

some really crappy car store tried to sell me an orbital battery as an optima equivalent. i don't know about the orbital, but i didn't trust the store at all.

i still have to trim and tie down the wire in the front and install some sort of plastic junction box.

the car handled pretty well over the weekend. everybody whom i spoke with thought that it was a fine idea to relocate it, but some thought it would do more than others did. unfortunately, i do not have the opportunity to compare front and rear battery locations back to back. so it's staying in the back.

i might put a horn up front some day.

JDMJim

I know how to put an end to excessive body roll. And it's prolly easier and safer than what you are doing now. Try thicker front and rear sway vars. That battery wire looks very unsafe jusrt draped across the engine and looks to be sitting next to the header. There's a lot of racket going on.

proctorsilex

it ain't draped. it's tied down with nylon zip ties.
like i said, i'll clean up the front later, but it's not unsafe.

the wire does go by the header. i didn't want it to, but i didn't feel like taking apart more of the dash to move it elsewhere. it's not close enough to melt though. there is even a STOCK rubber tube that runs right next to the heat shield.

there are definitely more effective ways to reduce rolling. my springs and rear bar are way better. i never thought that this would be a monumental change.

but it is a change none the less and it adds to the tweaking of handling performance.

the redistributed weight should also help a little with braking.

if anyone wants to do an experiment, meet me at a philly scca autocrosing event and we can swap cars for a run or something.

thus far, it's been handling nicely.

jct

i would of thought you'd run the wire from underneath the car not thru the cab

proctorsilex

i thought about running it under the car, but it'd probably be subject to a lot of torture. further, i'd have to have found enough points to attach it so that it doesn't sag.
i was also afraid of running it by the gas tank. if the wire were damaged and arcing. very unlikely.

from what i've read, most people run the wire through the inside of the car.
it was easy enough to do. i ran it under the plastic panels on the bottom of the door frames and through the bottom of the vertical plastic covering the center beam. then under the rear side plastic panel and out just under the hatch.

if, like me, you've ever wondered how the hell toyota got the wiper fluid to the hatch, you'll find a tube that follows the very same path to the rear wheel.

this is where i got the idea:
http://www.echodrivers.com/forums/vi...t=battery+rear

he ran his wire in through the driver's side. i did it on the passenger's side because there are a lot of wires and other things going through the driver's side that i did not want to risk damaging.

JDMJim

You can run the wire thru the cowl and into the car from the passenger side. We have done that on xB amp installs already.

proctorsilex

jdmjim, what is the cowl?
i didn't see any threads on it.

thanks

JDMJim

the area where the wiper assembly is. Run your power into that and into the car from there.