Im relocating the battery to the boot tomorrow if i can find all the parts needed - 2 questions if anyone knows:

1. the negative battery terminal is grounded on the body and the transmission. Can i just ground the battery to the body in the boot, or do I have to run a negative wire all the way back to the transmission also?

2. what is a power distributor? i've heard people connect them between the new positive wire and the existing (+) wire. otherwise i've seen the two wires just joined together??

Thanks, i'll post up pics and info if anyone is interested in doing this.

why bother dude? is it a high profile show car? does the battery bother under th hood in anyway? your engine bay will look empty? its up to you though but its a *****.

I have the batt in the boot of my old Galant.
Make sure you use good quality cable, thickest gauge you can get your hands on.
You can gound the Transmission or engine block by using some cable and wire it from the chassis in the engine bay to the block/trans, just make sure you choose a good spot and clean the conection point for a good earth. (Aswell as grounding it in the boot)
Best to talk to an elctrician before you attempt this, you'll probbably need one to make your cable's up anyways.
As far as the connection your refering to, I've no idea. Mine's wired straight through to the starter except for a isolator switch in the cabin.

thanks - i might go have a talk to a car sound shop, it is a very simple job but probably easily screwed up.

as for the reason - solves CAI pod problem by allowing it to sit behind the headlight + transfers weight to back = less understeer, better balance. and should be simple to swap back if required.

thanks - i might go have a talk to a car sound shop, it is a very simple job but probably easily screwed up.

as for the reason - solves CAI pod problem by allowing it to sit behind the headlight + transfers weight to back = less understeer, better balance. and should be simple to swap back if required.

I spose car sound places would do alot of that type of thing these days but I would still recommend you go to an auto good electrician. You'd probbably get a much better price on your cables at the very least. Up to you though. :D

You could make two terminal points in the engine bay (mount it on a pvc bracket or something so it doesnt conduct electricity) ... attach your leads that normally go to your battery onto them, then attached to your new pvc terminal brackety mojo, run some slightly thicker gauge wire through the firewall, under your carpet, into your boot and connect it to your newly mounted battery which is now in your boot.


Or something.

Exactly - you need the thickest wire that you can get (1/0 or 0 guage preferably) - car audio power cable is ideal as it is very flexible. Welding cable also works very well too. It is just as flexible and has thicker (and more heat-proof) insulation.

The wires need to be run in such a fashion that they will not contact any sharp edges, so running grommets, and also running in conduit, is highly reccomended.

You only need to run the ground wire to the chassis of the vehicle - if you run the ground wire to its original location, you will double the resistance between the battery and starter motor. The chassis of the vehicle is a far better conductor (lower resistance) than another wire.

Your terminations should be crimped *and* soldered, you should remove all of the paint around your grounding points, use contact cleaner, star washers etc.

An isolation switch is a good idea, makes an excellent theft deterrant as well - place a 10A fuse across the terminals of the isolation switch, turn it off an take the key, someone tries to start the car - pop - no power (to anything) - but in normal circumstances keeps the power to the ECU, clock etc. Can be a bit embarrasing if you forget yourself :P

I would reccomend doing this with the help of a competent autoelectrician - and have a really good reason for doing it as well... It is a PITA of a job.

Cheers
Heath Young

why bother dude? is it a high profile show car? does the battery bother under th hood in anyway? your engine bay will look empty? its up to you though but its a *****.

Why make a pointless post?

Why make a pointless post?


BAM! lol

Yeah, listen to Heath Young ... he seems to know stuff.

I'm considering the same project later on down the road for the purposes of relocation the pod by the area where the battery would normally be. There are kits out there for relocating the battery to the rear. Check out a couple of these from ebay for idea purposes only, you could check EBay on your side of the world and I'm sure it could be found.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33575&item=7948757038&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33575&item=7948757038&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33575&item=7948191525&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW


Good luck :)

as for the reason - solves CAI pod problem by allowing it to sit behind the headlight + transfers weight to back = less understeer, better balance. and should be simple to swap back if required.

Hmm, I would have said more weight at the back would increase understeer because there's less weight on the front wheels.




Exactly - you need the thickest wire that you can get (1/0 or 0 guage preferably) - car audio power cable is ideal as it is very flexible. Welding cable also works very well too. It is just as flexible and has thicker (and more heat-proof) insulation.


This cannot be stressed enough. You MUST use large guage cable. Not standard battery cable. The longer the cable the more resistance = lower voltage at the starter (and everywhere else).
Lots of people have used std cable and come to grief because of it.

BAM! lol

Yeah, listen to Heath Young ... he seems to know stuff.

Hey, thats pretty much what I said! :gtfo:

:D :D

thanks for the replies - I'll run 0 ga wire with a fuse and switch to the front. the battery will be sealed in a battery box and vented externally. I'm just having some trouble getting all the necessary parts (no one seems to sell 0 ga wire or sealed battery boxes). any suggestions of shops or suppliers?

less weight in the front will be worse for straight line launching :doubt: , but when cornering there will be less momentum which previously keeps the front end ploughing forwards. if you load up the boot with a few sandbags (or anything heavy) then you can feel the balance of the car change during hard cornering - the back will start to come round which turns the front around the corner, resulting in less understeer :)

I got mine from the local auto elec. Pirelli cable and all connections etc made to length for $55 :D

An alternative to relocating if you simply want to change weight distribution, is to change to a compact gel battery that is often half the weight of a comparable capacity lead acid. This leads to overall weight savings as you don't have to fit 10kg or so of 0gauge cable, fuses, terminals etc.

most of the "issues" have been covered here - but can i just say that when we did our battery relocation to the boot - we had problems, yes we ran the 0guage, we did the fusing, we did all the earthing and what have you not...

but my conclusion - if you DONT need to to this (we had to if you look at the pic of my engine bay) and it didnt come with the battery in the boot - its not worth it... it took us 5 hours to move + diag problems with the battery....

also good chance you will need to get a new battery with a much higher CC rating as our "normal" battery didnt cut the cake. - more cost again (we had to buy a new battery - solved a lot of problems)

having a battery in the boot on a normal car will also do a few more things.
a) you will have to make sure you battery is 'easy' to get to as a 15kg battery is hard to move once there (i mean if you ever needed to change the bloody thing)
b) you *may* have difficulty jumpstarting - depending on location.

The image below gives you an idea where our battery sits. - actually its more "back" on the wall of the boot - bolted in 2 places.

we moved the battery to the boot for a few reasons;
a) to make more room in the engine bay to "show off" the work (turbo and what have you not)
b) there is a total of 2x holley lift pumps and 2x bosch MS 700hp pumps. they need a damn'd amount of power + current - battery in boot - very little loss of power.
c) in case of front end accident *touch wood* electronic equiptment will still funciton (hazards + power to satellite phone - haha.. never told you guys much about this mod :P) and of course - while waiting for the tow truck - you can still use the HU and dvd player :bowrofl:

sorry for babbling on :gtfo:

oh - and i think if your trying to move to battery to "shift" weight - i think its a bit off.... a good suspension setup could do a better job of "shifting" weight - or get a brake bias controller

yah, well said.

I dont know Booya, if he wants to do it, his reasons are his own. And if you're gonna do it, you'd be upgrading the battery anyway, well I would, as your not restricted by size anymore.
Personally I wouldn't, mainly cause I've got a wagon and like to make the most of the space in the back.
The battery in my galant is mounted on the LH side of the boot towards the back. Its rigged up so you can disconnect the box easily and move it out from under the guard to disconnect and remove easily.
I understand however that its and old car and lees complicated electrically.
Just my 2 cents
:D

I dont know Booya, if he wants to do it, his reasons are his own.

i didnt tell him *not* to do it, but i pointed out some info that may/ be relivent - since ive done this, and my post is based on *experience* not *if, what about, where about, how about, maybe if...*


my 2cents :)

"I believe I'll vote for an independant party!"
"Go ahead, throwww your vote away!! HHAHAHAHAHAHA"

lol


P.S. may not be completely correct.

I'm still not convinced that extra weight down the back will reduce understeer. There won't be a change in momentum as it's directly related to overall weight which isn't changing. Moving the weight off the front lightens it which means less grip which will encourage understeer.

i didnt tell him *not* to do it, but i pointed out some info that may/ be relivent - since ive done this, and my post is based on *experience* not *if, what about, where about, how about, maybe if...*


my 2cents :)

Geez ease up mate. I know youve been there done that on everything magna.
I've also had experiance on relocating battery to boot but on an older car, pretty sure i mentioned that.
Also "if you dont have to, dont do it" sounds pretty negative to me but also I never said that you said dont do this under any circumstances or something just that.
We all know ya credentials, but you've no idea about mine so just take it easy ok :D

Geez ease up mate. I know youve been there done that on everything magna.
I've also had experiance on relocating battery to boot but on an older car, pretty sure i mentioned that.
Also "if you dont have to, dont do it" sounds pretty negative to me but also I never said that you said dont do this under any circumstances or something just that.
We all know ya credentials, but you've no idea about mine so just take it easy ok :D


ease up, i was never tense- after read that part "if you dont have to, dont do it" only did i realise that i sounded a bit harsh - was never ment to be that way....

and i dont claim to have done everthing magna and hence everything i say is right... lol

i thought using words such as "relivent", "based" and "info that may" i wasnt trying to be aggressive...

sorry if it appeared that way - only trying to help a fellow modder

ease up, i was never tense- after read that part "if you dont have to, dont do it" only did i realise that i sounded a bit harsh - was never ment to be that way....

and i dont claim to have done everthing magna and hence everything i say is right... lol

i thought using words such as "relivent", "based" and "info that may" i wasnt trying to be aggressive...

sorry if it appeared that way - only trying to help a fellow modder

Cool, just came a over a bit that way is all.
I would value all you have to say as you've done a **** load on magnas and I'm still learning.
I have done a fair bit with my old galants and stuff but they are old school tech so I cant say with a great deal of certanty whats good for magnas, but alots the same or simmilar. But I still try to help out fellow modders as much as I can too.
Chill pill taken and all is sweet.

:D

it is off-putting when someone says don't do it, but it is so helpful knowing peoples experiences with these things. everyones case is unique so only yourself can decide . Im going to do it, but i will wait a while to get some recall and warranty work done first, so i don't have to rush, then remove it all again. in the mean time i'll talk to an auto electrician and track down the right bits.

AbbO i found some good FWD handling articles that agree with me.- the first one is excellent because it translates well to magnas.

http://www.sentra.net/tech/garage/suspension.php

http://www.turbomopar.com/handling.html

Dude,
If you are not in any hurry, I have a mate that works for the power company who was just telling me the other day that he can get excellent low resistance, cable perfect for battery wiring.
Since I've just noticed your in QLD too, maybe I can see if he can get me a length long enough for your project :D

if you load up the boot with a few sandbags (or anything heavy) then you can feel the balance of the car change during hard cornering - the back will start to come round which turns the front around the corner, resulting in less understeer :)
Hence my running around with the bag of cement until I could get the springs fixed.

AbbO i found some good FWD handling articles that agree with me.- the first one is excellent because it translates well to magnas.

http://www.sentra.net/tech/garage/suspension.php

http://www.turbomopar.com/handling.html


Hey jowet,

Well, I can go home now as I've learnt something new!!! :)

Thanks for the info'. I stand corrected.

Does anyone know the legality of doing this? It requires a sealed vented box even in the boot to be registerable in qld.

If you are racing, run R compound tires on the widest wheels that will fit. These tires can get more than 2 seconds for every 30 seconds on a slalom course or 3 seconds for every minute on a road course. These tires usually have a vestigial tread and a really short tread life so you don’t want to run these as a daily driver tire.

That article was great except for this. There is no point in having huge tyres if you cannot hold temperature in them. The only thing i can manage to think he is talking about is just normal road tyres which arnt really affected by temperature... but if your racing you are hardly using street tyres

other than that it was a great read

Does anyone know the legality of doing this? It requires a sealed vented box even in the boot to be registerable in qld.

I figured that, though couldn't find where the rules and regulations for this sort of thing exist.. Do you know where this documentation can be found?

to let people know - Magna's don't have a rear fire wall, (ie it is unsealed to the cabin), therefore gases from the boot can make their way to the cabin. a sealed battery box vented externally is essential for safety.

As I would think the audio buffs will tell you, the magna boot is pretty well sealled. Not too good for subs in your boot, but good for keeping the bad stuff out :D

but not good enough for mr plod

Yeah, your probably right, although no QLD constables have defected my GTO for it.
Still wouldn't be that hard to do to satisfy the ****s. :D

battery has finally made its way to the boot. - finished install tonight, it took time, but no problems, car started first time .... everything is running fine.
if anyones interested in doing this i'll write a diy, as it's a pain trying to get all the parts and figure it out.

battery has finally made its way to the boot. - finished install tonight, it took time, but no problems, car started first time .... everything is running fine.
if anyones interested in doing this i'll write a diy, as it's a pain trying to get all the parts and figure it out.

Nice work dude. Not that hard hey.
I like positioning the battery in the back corner so its a bit easier to get to but thats just me.
Where did you run your cables?

thanks, i would have placed the battery in the rear corner but it doesn't fit - the battery + box would hit the timber floor piece that lifts for access to the spare. i had to get into the boot to get the battery in, but after spending so much time in there recently its really not that bad :rant: .
cable (+) runs through backseat, along the left side floor sill under the carpet, then through a front firewall electrical grommet up to the original battery location. (-) is grounded to a spare hole in the boot above the battery.

That looks pretty good, did you use a relocation kit or did you buy the part separately? Can't wait to see you DIY, I'm considering doing this myself.

Yup, I am going to be relocating the battery too ... I take it you got a kit? Who'd you buy the bits from?

Depending on how well you get on with your auto elecrician, I still reckon it'd be cheaper getting the stuff custom made and doing the install yourself.
for those in SE QLD that are keen on doing this I may be able to get good quality batt cable for nicks. But you have to ask really really nice like :D

How to move the original battery to the boot, into a sealed and externally vented battery box with an in line circuit breaker. No kit was used, all parts were bought separately and made up to suit. This worked fine for me, but i'm not an auto electrician, so do at your cars electrical systems risk. :cool:

PARTS to BUY and where to get it

- 7 metres of 2 - 0 gauge wound copper cable (jaycar) (i used 2 guage as i have stock standard electrical system, but if you run extra electricals it might be safer to go up to 0 guage)
- Battery Box (supercheap)
- Metal Battery Tray (supercheap)
- 6 x ring ends/battery lugs to fit wire (i used a 5/16" hole version) (supercheap)
- Set of Battery Terminal connectors with ring end connections (supercheap)
- Heat shrink 15 - 7.5mm (jaycar)
- 5 x M7x35mm high tensile bolts and nuts (hardware)
- Washers to suit the above bolts
- zip ties
- electrical tape
- 1m of 10mm clear plastic hose (hardware)
- 100 or 75 amp in line circuit breaker (jaycar)


1. make a negative grounding cable by cutting about a metre of cable, wrap it in black electrical tape. Strip about 15mm off the ends and crimp on the lugs, then slip on heat shrink over the join using a heat gun to shrink. Attach the (-) battery terminal connector to one end.

2. make a (+) cable to run from the battery terminal to the circuit breaker (do same as above except that it will be shorter). You'll have to get the battery out and have a play to line it up and measure how long the cable needs to be etc. Drill some holes in the battery box to allow these cables to run out. Attach a lug to one end of the long leftover length of cable (to attach to circuit breaker).

3. Bolt circuit breaker to side of battery box. drill a hole below this to run the clear tubing through.

4. Make sure the battery tray will sit inside the battery box ( i had to cut mine down ). Line up 4 holes (you will need to use 2 middle row holes and 2 towards the rear of the car, the boot floor pan has little space as you'll see when under the car) and drill them through the battery box base. Now get in the boot, lift up the carpet and line the box up (i put the rear edge of the base at the edge of the lifting timber floor. This position is really the only one that the battery will fit). Mark out the holes, then get under the car to see where they will come through.....don't drill into the fuel tank or any structural beams!!! Drill them starting with a small drill bit then work up to the required size. Cut holes in the carpet to match. Put the carpet back and bolt battery box together with the battery tray to the floor (use large washers on top and bottom of bolts).

5. Feed (-) terminal through the box and connect to earth as shown in the picture. all paint surrounding the hole needs to be removed first with sandpaper to allow contact.

6. Hook up the short (+) cable through the box to the circuit breaker, and the end of the long cable to the other side of the circuit breaker. seal end of clear tubing into the box, then run it to the rear left to under the timber plate, then out through the spare rubber grommet (see pic).

7. Take out the carpet piece on the rear wall of the boot. There is a hole on the lower left hand side that you will see some cable already running, which disappears down to the left. Jam the end of the long (+) cable down there. Now get into the cabin, remove the back seat by pulling on latches located on each side at the base of the seat (and take of plastic foot scraper thing), and find that cable. Pull the cable through the cabin and lay under the carpet as seen in pics.

8. The electrical cable grommet to feed cable through the engine firewall is located in line with the throttle body. Cut a hole in it, then get under the glove compartment and feed it through. (easiest to poke some wire through from engine bay, attach it to the cable then pull back through).

9. Take out battery. Run the new cable to the existing (+) terminal, trim excess, attach a lug, and attach to (+) terminal by placing lug onto the existing bolt. (make sure connections are clean by scruffing with sandpaper and to reattach the secondary (+) wire). Leave the existing (-) terminal unconnected.

10. At the moment i've just wrapped these connections in tape and zip tied them securely. A better way would be to make a rubber holder or something for the (+) connection, as you CANNOT LET THIS COME IN CONTACT WITH THE CAR BODY! dont know exactly what will happen because i didn't do it, but it would probably not be good.

11. Place battery into its new battery box in the boot, hook up (+) terminal first, then the negative. Strap down the battery to the battery tray with a thin luggage strap or similar so that it is secure (sort this out before putting the battery in). If all is good the light in the boot will come on next to your head.

12. Before putting the lid on, it needs to be airtightened, so make up a foam or rubber seal.

hope that helps someone - it's time consuming, but pretty easy.
Go for a drive - car should understeer slightly less and feel more balanced, then go home and make a CAI setup with all that space under the bonnet :P

more pics to go with the above.

Good job mate. Very nice. Looks very neat.

I was also thinking about doing something like this, but i'd have a few problems:
1, Boot space (still need room for the shopping and the fishing rods :P )
2, mounting method
and if these two are overcome then i wouldn't be able to run the wire along side the doors under the plastic trim as you did coz both sides of the car are already full of wires. :redface:

I do have a question about this project that concerns me and it's in ref to
other equipment such as amp and foglights. I have an amp and after market fog lights which are connected right to the battery for power. If one moves the battery to the rear, would I have to rerun all of these wires to the rear to reconnect to the battery for juice?


To be honest it would be a pain to have to reroute all of the wiring.

Thanks

If one moves the battery to the rear, would I have to rerun all of these wires to the rear to reconnect to the battery for juice?
Thanks
Simple answer.....yes. :)

It figures, one little project leads to another and then another.:rant: I sort of expect it though it only makes sense to redo the amp wiring since the battery is in the rear anyway, no sense in having wiring everywhere. The foglights I'm gonna have to figure something out becuase there is noway I'll be able to relocate that wiring.

well finally did the CAI with pod to utilise battery space. just need to make up some brackets, some heat shielding and brush the aluminium. it is 4" aluminium tubing, 3" could have been used but the MAF oval is equal roughly to 4" pipe.

it feels good, better than before though i've only driven in 25+ degrees c

the exhaust now crackles when backing off it sounds really nice :) so if you can relocate the battery this is the way to go. :cool:

That looks very nice, it actually makes the engine bay look very clean.
I would like to know what kind of airflow you're getting in that area. I'm sure since the bay is not sealed that the flow should be ok around the headlight area.

It figures, one little project leads to another and then another.:rant: I sort of expect it though it only makes sense to redo the amp wiring since the battery is in the rear anyway, no sense in having wiring everywhere. The foglights I'm gonna have to figure something out becuase there is noway I'll be able to relocate that wiring.
You don't have to relocate the wiring. Install one of those break out points (a power post or similar) where the battery is now, and then connect it there. The battery shouldn't provide power to your fog lamps etc whilst the engine is running, if it is your battery light will come on and you will end up flattening it..

after reading your post yesterday i spoke to an auto electrician at work and he assured me you only have to ground the battery in the boot, ground the engine to the chassis and it also helps to ground the tranny as well you dont have to but you want the best path for return current and it can only be an advantage. forget a power distributor as its unnecessary dont bother running a neg lead all the way back as youll increase the resistance and decrease the cranking amps on start.