Optima batteries

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mopar4406bbl

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I am going to redo trunk area & going to use just one battery.The optima was recommended by a round de round friend. For a car with NO charging system witch one does people like, red or yellow top? Or is there a better battery?I am hoping to find one that will start car many times & run fan & water pump without charging at track. some say to use 2 batteries 1 for motor & one for fan & water pump. The one I 'm looking at is yellow top with 870 ca with 120 min. reserve. They have one I really like except price & it weights 60 lbs.

Kilburn:read2:
 
Never used the yellow Optima...

Have been using the red top for many years.

They cost more up front, but will last at least 5+ years and had one go 7+ , JMO
 
I had a red one in my off road W-150 for eight years. Was constantly sloshing electrolyte out of regular batteries when the truck got in some "unusual" angles so I put in the Optima. It worked great!
 
I am using the red top. I don't drive my car every day. Some times I can go two or more weeks with out driving it. With a standerd battery I some times would have to jump it. Not with the optima I don't.

I think you will still want to charge it in between runs though. A high output ignition is going to want all the juice it can get.
 
I've got a red top but in your case I think a yellow top would be better suited because of their "deep cycle" properties - but only because you're not running a charging system.
 
If this is a vehicle with no charging sysyem then the best battery would be the Turbo start 16 volt battery as it will keep the voltage up longer and it won't hurt anything as this voltage is fine for any ignition such as an MSD. Check out their website. It does require a special charger. If you think it is something you want let me know as I have both from a previous race car and I will let them go for a fair price.
 
How long can you run that 16 before you start lossing the msd without a alternater?
 
i have heard nothing but bad thing about optima batteries even since johnson controls bought them out. i have one in my car from 5 years ago and its great. i've seen many people on many forums that have had problems with the ones bought in the last year or so.
 
just bought one today. its a red top and looks graet lol. it was also fully charged when i brought it home that was impressive. but i have not had it on the road yet or started anything with it so we will find out
 
tyler_s18 said:
just bought one today. its a red top and looks graet lol. it was also fully charged when i brought it home that was impressive. but i have not had it on the road yet or started anything with it so we will find out
Click to expand...

did the prices go up on those i think i heard sumthin like $220
 
i got the smaller one at 150. the bigger was 200. it wasnt to much bigger and for my car the little one is still more then i need.
 
I think there a couple of things you need to figure out first. How many amps are you drawing, and for how long will you be drawing them (amp-hrs), then you can go shopping and not get ripped off. For what it worth, my battery guy recommended the Odyssey Battery over the Optima. But this could be biased.. he is a sales guy after all;)
 
The idea is that the lowest the voltage would be during a run is 12 to 13 volts which is more than enough to keep the MSD going. This is dependent upon the draw on the battery but this is 2 volts higher than a standard 12 volt. After evey round just charge it up and you will have no problems.
 
Used a red top for years drag racing w/ no alternator.

Just used a trickle charger between rounds....Never a problem
 
I have 8 optima batteries, the best battery there is.
I have one that I bought new in 94, still works great.
One time I was driving down the road and my water pump broke and the fan hit the shroud, broke all the blades off. This was in 94 also. I was a punk kid. I put a new water pump and fan on and drove it that way for two more months. I was changing the oil and I was laying under the truck. Here I had a fan blade that was sticking out of my optima battery. I had been driving this thing for two months liek that. I right then knew these batteries were good. It went through two cells, or all the way through one and a little into another, It still worked but I bought a new one to be a little more reliable I guess, I mean how long was that going to last.
Sams club (walmart) has the best prices on them, 130 bucks for the big red ones. They also have the yellow ones and blue ones at awesome prices.
 
Have had bad luck with them recently. 2 out 3 went bad right away.
 
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