viven44 Posted August 9 Share Posted August 9 I'm running an Odyssey Extreme 31M-PC2150 on a later F4TZ 10732-B battery tray. That's the newer battery tray that is much better than the Bullnose tray. And the battery just BARELY fits as the negative post almost touches the hood. That's a Group 31 battery with brass SAE posts & 3/8 inch positive and 5/16 inch negative thread SS stud terminals. And it has an 1150 CCA rating. But I don't recommend the Odyssey batteries as they have a strange shape that standard battery clamps don't fit well. However the later battery tray has a bottom clamping arrangement that might fit most batteries nicely. That sounds like the kind of battery that was on my 1980 F150 I got from the same friend that sold me Big Blue 2WD. It had threaded studs, was massive and had 9 lives!!! He had pulled it from his semi truck apparently. Only had 600CCA left in it vs the capacity of over 1000CCA.... but it worked well during the time I used it. Started that 351m every time without problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
85lebaront2 Posted August 10 Share Posted August 10 I'm running an Odyssey Extreme 31M-PC2150 on a later F4TZ 10732-B battery tray. That's the newer battery tray that is much better than the Bullnose tray. And the battery just BARELY fits as the negative post almost touches the hood. That's a Group 31 battery with brass SAE posts & 3/8 inch positive and 5/16 inch negative thread SS stud terminals. And it has an 1150 CCA rating. But I don't recommend the Odyssey batteries as they have a strange shape that standard battery clamps don't fit well. However the later battery tray has a bottom clamping arrangement that might fit most batteries nicely. Gary, I will give you an interesting battery story. We had a 1971 Mercury Colony Park. It had front and rear domelights, and each door had a light on the bottom of the armrest. Open a door and you had 6 pretty bright lights. I needed a battery, parts store told me they didn't have and couldn't get a group 27F battery "they are discontinued" so he sold me the biggest group 24F they had. About a week later I was loading the car for a trip, one or more doors and the tailgate open. Went to start it, battery was too low to crank the 429 with 11:1 compression. These cars had a Delco starter as the Ford rat trap couldn't crank them reliably when hot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted August 10 Share Posted August 10 Gary, I will give you an interesting battery story. We had a 1971 Mercury Colony Park. It had front and rear domelights, and each door had a light on the bottom of the armrest. Open a door and you had 6 pretty bright lights. I needed a battery, parts store told me they didn't have and couldn't get a group 27F battery "they are discontinued" so he sold me the biggest group 24F they had. About a week later I was loading the car for a trip, one or more doors and the tailgate open. Went to start it, battery was too low to crank the 429 with 11:1 compression. These cars had a Delco starter as the Ford rat trap couldn't crank them reliably when hot. A 429 with 11:1 would take a lot of cranking. And that was the days before the PMGR & LEDs, so you needed a lot of battery. I'm happy with my huge starting battery. As said, I don't know that I'd buy the same one again, although because I already have the fitted hold-downs for the Odyssey batteries I might. But after the fiasco of the Horrid Freight battery charger failing and draining the battery I keep an ancient trickle charger on it when the truck sits in the shop for weeks on end. This charger has just enough to keep the Cole Hersee battery isolator pulled in and both batteries at 12.7V. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted August 10 Share Posted August 10 A 429 with 11:1 would take a lot of cranking. And that was the days before the PMGR & LEDs, so you needed a lot of battery. I'm happy with my huge starting battery. As said, I don't know that I'd buy the same one again, although because I already have the fitted hold-downs for the Odyssey batteries I might. But after the fiasco of the Horrid Freight battery charger failing and draining the battery I keep an ancient trickle charger on it when the truck sits in the shop for weeks on end. This charger has just enough to keep the Cole Hersee battery isolator pulled in and both batteries at 12.7V. This is the difference between a charger and a maintainer. 12.7 is JUST above the resting voltage for a 6 cell lead acid battery But you'll see up to 15V when charging. You don't want to keep that up because you'll create a lot of hydrogen gas, boil it dry and warp the plates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted August 10 Share Posted August 10 This is the difference between a charger and a maintainer. 12.7 is JUST above the resting voltage for a 6 cell lead acid battery But you'll see up to 15V when charging. You don't want to keep that up because you'll create a lot of hydrogen gas, boil it dry and warp the plates. It actually varies a bit. The battery isolator drops out right at 12.70v according to my DVM. Yesterday the voltage was 12.67 and sagging just a bit, so I'd bet the isolator dropped out over night and the voltage on the starting battery went up enough to bring the isolator back in. The battery charger puts out around 600 ma and the isolator's coil takes up about 1/2 of that. The various devices in the truck, like the dash cam which is always monitoring, are pulling most of the rest of that, so there's not much going into the two batteries. However, I've not really measured it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viven44 Posted August 10 Share Posted August 10 It actually varies a bit. The battery isolator drops out right at 12.70v according to my DVM. Yesterday the voltage was 12.67 and sagging just a bit, so I'd bet the isolator dropped out over night and the voltage on the starting battery went up enough to bring the isolator back in. The battery charger puts out around 600 ma and the isolator's coil takes up about 1/2 of that. The various devices in the truck, like the dash cam which is always monitoring, are pulling most of the rest of that, so there's not much going into the two batteries. However, I've not really measured it. That’s my “Battery Miser” on all my carbureted trucks with the same short term memory loss problem as me http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/uploads/6/5/8/7/65879365/head-rotfl-57x22_orig.gif Can sit for months disconnected, just like on the shelf at Costco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted August 10 Share Posted August 10 That’s my “Battery Miser” on all my carbureted trucks with the same short term memory loss problem as me Can sit for months disconnected, just like on the shelf at Costco Don't want to do that on Big Blue 'cause we'd be back in the Learn mode on the EFI each time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogger2662 Posted August 10 Author Share Posted August 10 Don't want to do that on Big Blue 'cause we'd be back in the Learn mode on the EFI each time. Gary, Which efi are yor running? I am thinkinf of installing sniper 2 later on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted August 10 Share Posted August 10 Gary, Which efi are yor running? I am thinkinf of installing sniper 2 later on. I'm running Ford's EEC-V system from a '96 California 460. Those trucks got EEC-V with MAF & SEFI while the rest of the world got EEC-IV with speed density and bank fire. But the biggest draw for me was the OBD-II port on EEC-V. That will let my offspring maintain the truck 'cause anyone can plug in a scanner and find out what the problem is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viven44 Posted August 10 Share Posted August 10 Don't want to do that on Big Blue 'cause we'd be back in the Learn mode on the EFI each time. Yep that’s why my trucks can live with short term memory loss. I’m about to most likely acquire a 93 F250 with the 460 EFI very soon from El Reno, OK. Next week. I can’t do that battery disconnect any more, I guess ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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