Hi, id like to get my battery in soon, as i should be able to turn the engine over for the first time shortly which will be good to check its all ok.
Other than this the battery wont be used till the cars finished - easily a few months. Is it worth filling my battery with its water just for this or
should i get a donor battery for this one off. If i was to use my battery is it recommended to keep it on trickle charge?
Thanks
Adam
Filling it with water?? Has it got the concentrated acid in the battery already??? Normally you get a seperate bottle of sulphuric to go with a
battery.
Bike batteries don't like being left for long periods (especially over winter when it's cold), so quite a few BECers end up with optimates
to keep the battery in top notch over the winter anyway.
You could use the donor to get it started. But personally I'd get an optimate and use the bike battery....
yeah just meant the container it comes with
Ben dont suppose you know of a site that sells the optimate as thinking about it im probably going to need to check all the lights switches gauges as well as and when they are connected.
I got mine from Ebay cos it was slightly cheaper than direct via the manafacturer:
http://www.accumate.co.uk/it010003.htm
I've got the older model but I don't think the newer one actually does anything that the old was doesn't. Might be possible to find an
old style one cheaper on Ebay...
Here we go:
ebay linky
quote:
Originally posted by bassett
yeah just meant the container it comes with
I'd be careful with bike batteries.
When I built my car I used the original battery from the Sierra donor. That worked fine for the build / sva etc.
Then I changed to a bike battery, and again that worked fine, if I left it connected to an optimate.
But about 8 weeks ago I unplugged the optimate as the car wasn't in the garage. When it came to the track day the battery was completely
drained. Although the car would run OK, and the alternator was enough to run the car and the lights, the battery wouldn't take a charge.
Replaced the battery and cured it.
So in summary, bike batteries are fine, if you look after them constantly! If you neglect them they won't be as resilient as a car battery.
Mike
quote:
Originally posted by Guinness
I'd be careful with bike batteries.
When I built my car I used the original battery from the Sierra donor. That worked fine for the build / sva etc.
Then I changed to a bike battery, and again that worked fine, if I left it connected to an optimate.
But about 8 weeks ago I unplugged the optimate as the car wasn't in the garage. When it came to the track day the battery was completely drained. Although the car would run OK, and the alternator was enough to run the car and the lights, the battery wouldn't take a charge.
Replaced the battery and cured it.
So in summary, bike batteries are fine, if you look after them constantly! If you neglect them they won't be as resilient as a car battery.
Mike
Could it be the make of battery? I've had no problems with my gell bike battery and it churns a high compression V8 over no problem.
Gell batteries have a completely different charging regime from wet batteries and Optimate is a gell battery. Using a gell battery cvharger on a wet
battery will overcharge it and sulphate the plates. Bu**er it in layspeak.
By the way Lidl are selling optimate clone battery chargers for less than a tenner just now and they are the bees knees - all the functionality at a
silly price - and they will charge wet batteries as well as gell batteries - the winter setting is the gell setting.
Blessed if I know how optimate sell their stuff, probably playing on peoples lack of specialist knowledgeI suppose.
Anyhow bike gell batteries should be OK but wet ones will have a short life even if well looked after if they are deep cycled.
Forgot to say the gell bike batteries are eye wateringly dear!!!
[Edited on 13-11-08 by v8kid]
to the original question; id borrow a battery if you only want to "test" your engine
quote:
By the way Lidl are selling optimate clone battery chargers for less than a tenner just now and they are the bees knees - all the functionality at a silly price - and they will charge wet batteries as well as gell batteries - the winter setting is the gell setting.
Sorry I forgot to mention that its one of those silly byproducts of the safety culture.
To make sure the Darwinian principle is not invoked the manufacturers have introduced a no volt sensor to prevent sparks in an explosive atmosphere,
and as Stu says it makes it pretty useless if the battery is dead flat.
Having said that flattening the battery drastically shortens its life so I suppose it could be considered a usefull warning. Blessed inconvenient
though and I suspect it will shortly be introduced to all "consumer" equipment to "protect" us .
Ho Hum!