For non-alternator drag car with electronics.

If you are asking about an AGM type and not lithium I believe the best battery is Odyssey brand. Yes, it is what I run but because I looked into the construction of them compared to others and I am on my 2nd one. Usually last 8-9 years. I actually had one previous to that but it was a Sears that was private labeled by Odyssey for them and in my daily driver.

Twice I have left power on and ran down my Odyssey batteries to 6 volts. I followed their procedure to bring it back and they showed no loss of power after. JMO

I use a Group 31. Truck battery.
Slightly larger than a Group 27, but built to withstand vibration. Big reserve capacity, and great cold cranking amps.

I switched from Optima red tops to Odyssey in my dragster before last season. I don't think enough time has passed to make any sort of ruling, but it's been fine.

To me, the sign of a good battery is that you don't really notice or think about it.

We still run the Optima Red Tops with an alternator. We take them out after 5 years but they're still going strong. We give them to friends & they get many more years out of them.

2BKING

I really like the Optima batteries and have had excellent results with them. Still going strong after 7 years and more, at some point I will pull them out of racecar and use them in trailer but they keep on going. Where I have had many problems is the 16 volt junk and that has cost me races and a Championship. Would not recommend. Zero Stars. For safety reasons I recommend an AGM type battery.

With all that said I believe more important than brand of battery you buy is that you keep it on a trickle type charger when not in use. The other thing is never let it get ran completely down and we have all done it at some point in our racing career, leave water pump on to cool motor and forgot about it and run battery completely dead and killed it. Those batteries will last many years with trickle charger if you do not kill it.

I'm totally over the 16v stuff. I will just never own another one..

Thanks Guys, much appreciated.

What battery charger did you have for 16v?

Once I switched to the Rock / Moroso battery charger my experience changed dramatically.

I have seen plenty of racers blame 16v for their trouble when their battery chargers were the culpruit.

2)OF THE xs'S and then bought a Moroso..

Went through 2)xs'S 16v batteries and chargers and finally put a ROCK (Lineline) in the car before I sold it. The roadster I just bought back has a xs and xs charger. Same nightmare I went through with the Cavalier. Holds volts but not amps.

Over all of them. Give me a 12v, worked for decades.

I went with the Lifeline Race 1257TB AGM 12v and the Summit 3 step 12-16v AGM charger. PS, batery same as the ROCK offering.

Volts: 12
Rated Cap. Amps Hours @ 20hr Rate: 57
Length In (mm)- 9.78 (248.4)
Width In (mm)- 4.97 (126.2)
Height In (mm)- 6.38 (175.5)
Weight LB (kg)- 31 (14.06)
MCA- 600
CCA- 495

Do any of you run a Total Power battery?

I've had zero issues with my 16v batteries since switching years ago and won't switch back. A 12v battery will barely crank my engine. 16v spins it like nothing. It's not amps that affects cranking speed, it's volts. If you're having problems with a 16v battery, then it's something on your end, likely not the battery. Not keeping it charged, wrong charger, something.....I've run the same XSPower 16v agm for over five years, no alternator, zero issue. Went to a full spectrum lithium this year, engine spins faster, I have more available voltage during the run, it's 33lbs lighter, and charges very quickly....I won't go back to 12v unless I have no other choice, which I do....

quote:

Originally posted by Alaskaracer:
I've had zero issues with my 16v batteries since switching years ago and won't switch back. A 12v battery will barely crank my engine. 16v spins it like nothing. It's not amps that affects cranking speed, it's volts. If you're having problems with a 16v battery, then it's something on your end, likely not the battery. Not keeping it charged, wrong charger, something.....I've run the same XSPower 16v agm for over five years, no alternator, zero issue. Went to a full spectrum lithium this year, engine spins faster, I have more available voltage during the run, it's 33lbs lighter, and charges very quickly....I won't go back to 12v unless I have no other choice, which I do....

Yep, all my fault for keep buying them.

Jerry Fritz put a TS 16v in my Comp dragster he built me in 1998. It was good but all it ran was the ignition and taillight.

A bracket car doesn't need one.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: SpeierRacingHeads,

I really like alternators, especially higher amp output ones on a race car no matter what battery you choose. I’d like to see a A-B-A-B test of how much ET is lost running with/ without one.

mem… I never charge battery at the track…NEVER!

quote:

Originally posted by SpeierRacingHeads:
I'm totally over the 16v stuff. I will just never own another one..

Thanks Guys, much appreciated.

I am to, I have learned my lesson. Went through I think four of the 16 volt batteries and they always blame the charger or what ever but I was using their charger they recommended. 12 volt has never let me down. A lot of people talk about the optima batteries being junk because they think they are made in Mexico, well they have never let me down.

If you car won't crank on 12v then you have a wiring problem or a starter problem. 16volt dropping to 12 volts due to wiring issues vs 12 volt dropping to 8 volts. The 16 volt is masking your problem. Only motor that I knew needed more than 12 volts was a blown motor with a Magneto, and it wasn't a cranking issue, the mag has to spin fast enough to ignite. We hit it with 36 volts.

Yellowtop Optima is designed for starting and high electrical loads. Charge it correctly and it will last 7 plus years. I only say 7 because I change them at 7.

quote:

Originally posted by Slick Vic:
If you car won't crank on 12v then you have a wiring problem or a starter problem. 16volt dropping to 12 volts due to wiring issues vs 12 volt dropping to 8 volts. The 16 volt is masking your problem. Only motor that I knew needed more than 12 volts was a blown motor with a Magneto, and it wasn't a cranking issue, the mag has to spin fast enough to ignite. We hit it with 36 volts.

Yellowtop Optima is designed for starting and high electrical loads. Charge it correctly and it will last 7 plus years. I only say 7 because I change them at 7.

I'm switching from the Optima red tops I have (2), to the yellow tops my next change out at 5 years.

2BKING

quote:

Originally posted by Slick Vic:
If you car won't crank on 12v then you have a wiring problem or a starter problem. 16volt dropping to 12 volts due to wiring issues vs 12 volt dropping to 8 volts. The 16 volt is masking your problem. Only motor that I knew needed more than 12 volts was a blown motor with a Magneto, and it wasn't a cranking issue, the mag has to spin fast enough to ignite. We hit it with 36 volts.

Yellowtop Optima is designed for starting and high electrical loads. Charge it correctly and it will last 7 plus years. I only say 7 because I change them at 7.

I have no wiring issues. That is one thing I make sure to address. With my combo, a 12v battery will barely crank the engine fast enough to start. If you're dropping 4 volts during cranking, you have something seriously wrong. My 12v stuff would drop to about 10v while cranking, no voltage drop on the cables. My agm 16v would drop from a fully charged 16.7v to about 15.5 or so while cranking, and cranking speed was SIGNIFICANTLY higher due to the higher voltage. Remember, VOLTAGE is what affects the speed of an electric motor, not amperage. With the new full spectrum lithium, I gained another 150 rpm cranking speed, and voltage at the start is 16.9v, dropping to 16.2-16.3 during cranking, which accounts for the higher cranking rpm. It is a physical impossibility for a 12v battery to crank an engine the same rpm as a 16v battery all else being equal. As I stated before, I've had zero issues with 16v stuff since I started running it, and won't switch back. Nice thing is, if it ever came to pass that I needed to, I can still drop a 12v battery in the car to get by, but starting it will be a bear.

12v is for street cars, 16v for racing. It was the best thing I ever did for my stuff and I haven't had a single regret making the switch.

Well one thing that hasn't been addressed here is engine size. The vast majority of small blocks can get away with 12v and never look back. Especially if doing what I do and using a House of Payne Big Dog starter.

The engine in Mark's car is a different animal than what most of us in this thread use.

quote:

Originally posted by CURTIS REED:
Well one thing that hasn't been addressed here is engine size. The vast majority of small blocks can get away with 12v and never look back. Especially if doing what I do and using a House of Payne Big Dog starter.

The engine in Mark's car is a different animal than what most of us in this thread use.

I do know my buddy has a 462 SBC with 16.3 compression and a 12v ACID starts it just fine. Most of the SS or Comp guys I know gave up on the 16 AGM. Now the lithium is different, most run that and about 1/2 of them travel with the battery disconnected from the car or completely removed.

Relays and solenoids are always good, but a completely different thread. Personally I like the solenoid.