I got this battery for my car. Lost tons of weight, and works great. I've submitted a review and description in the Reviews area, but it has to be approved before you can read all the details. Here are two photo to tease you all!

Matt

 

Just as I envisioned! Nice job, and I'm glad you followed through - saved me a PM .

If the box comes-out, let me know!

 

Where do we get these. I need two.

 

Matt, if you don't mind, I'll share the link:

http://www.kingofimports.com/bestsellers.htm

It's about a pound lighter than these:

http://www.gotbatteries.com/items.as...SL167/37L167S1

http://www.gotbatteries.com/items.as.../odyssey/PC545

 

Thank you very much guys!

 

www.kingofimports.com, if you order there, you get $25 off thier price of $157 if you use order code "March" for march madness. It still worked in April. Don't know if it still does. helix has them for $150. www.brailauto.com has them for $175

For the Oddessys, look around. one of the web sites I found did multi unit discounts. I just don't remember which one.... Sorry.

Matt

 

The lightweight battery sounds like a great idea- any issues on using it on a daily driven MCS? Does the battery come with the styrofoam as seen in your pics or did you make that? What all does the mounting kit include? Thanks in advance for your help...

 

Sorry to hear you bought the Braille.

The same battery (with an Odyssey label) can be bought for around $60 on ebay.

 

The foam packing was done by Matt, and not provided. This is not a MINI-specific battery, or install application. It is up to the purchaser to be somewhat creative to make this work. With mine, I removed the battery box, and riveted some aluminum angles to hold her in place, along with a wide velcro strap. I've had mine for about 2 years, and all is well. I think I paid about 70 bucks to my door...

 

I assume the model number for the Odyssey is PC680? Do I need to buy battery posts or doees it come with them- besides mounting the battery (designing a way to keep it strapped down) it is pretty much plug and play? Thanks guys.

 

Has anybody thought of putting this up front in the engine bay? Seems like it would open a whole new world of exhaust possibilities if you could remove the battery box in the rear.

 

The Braille one that Matt has does come with posts, I believe. The Odyssey, at least mine, did not. I got my posts at a local Kragen Auto store for like 5 bucks. Or, one could order a couple on the website when making the battery purchase. Oh, for most, it is the PC680; a search on Odyssey and Battery, and several threads should be found...

If one keeps the battery box, it's really quite easy to secure it. I used packing foam after I experimented with expanding foam in the battery box. That was a mistake! You can see some of that crap on my battery as it accidentally came in contact with it...

The primary reason I did the battery swap and re-location was for a custom exhaust! I'll include a couple photos here:

 

Tony B- now it makes sense! I was trying to figure out why you put your battery in the storage compartment versus where the old battery went- very nice exhaust by the way and thanks for all the tips.

 

If I understand your question correctly, I put the battery off to the side, as opposed to directly over where it was (middle) for a few reasons:

1. I didn't want it right on top of the heat of the muffler as these batteries don't like heat. Oh, and this one good reason to not to put it in the engine bay area. The other is that our cars are already quite front heavy...

2. I didn't want the battery's weight on top of aluminum plate I used to cover the opening left with the removal of the battery box...

3. Weight-distrubtion wise, it sort made sense to go further to the right, better countering me, the driver diagonally. Plus, the cabling works quite well for this orientation; and I experimented with a few...

Again, if you do a search here, more info can be found, including a couple of links to very detailed threads on MINI2 about this battery project, and exhaust...

It really is not that hard to do!

EDIT/ADD - I just re-read your post, and I now see what you were commenting upon... Oh well, I'll leave the above info anyway...

 

Tony B- great info, thanks for posting it. I'll be ordering the battery later today, thanks again everyone!

 

I've also been using one of these now for a few months. Mine came from Yarrow Sport here on the east coast. I know if you talk with him he most likely will match any price out there.

Mine only went low once as the brass adapters came a bit loose, but that was an easy fix. Saves me about 28lbs!
I like what Tony has done and may do the same, but I gather that an exhaust like this shows little or no improvement over other aftermarket exhaust, so I've been told.

 

Never had a dyno, so I couldn't give any type of answer that most would find acceptable. That said, after it replaced my quite restrictive QuickSilver catback (2.25" single sided), I was immediately pulling faster times on a stretch of canyon road. My boost dropped, as one what might expect, but I'm very certain that it's all good, as I feel confident that I have more power .

 

I have been weary of this MOD for the reason that TonyB stated: weight

The rear end already gets light (I know this for a fact ) in the MINI on downhil, off-camber curves on the track (ie. VIR at the roller coater, into the Hogpen)

 

Red, indeed, weight distribution is an issue of concern, but I say that not from experiences in my canyon drives, but just because I know that the vast majority of the 160 pounds shed is from the rear. The plan is to remedy that more going forward. Since 40 lbs of this was with each wheel/tire combo (10 pounds a corner), that portion was spread evenly. So, 120 pounds is really the focus...

From my notes, and I keep detailed ones, some of this 120 was strictly up front, but not much. The WW BBK saved me 11 pounds, any my current coilovers (Ledas) saved me 6 pounds in the front, as the backs are virtually identical in weight. So, about 17 of those 120 pounds was not in the rear...

While I don't think I can reasonably make-up all of this 103 pound delta, I will be trying with a crank pulley (about 6 pounds lost), flywheel (about 15 pounds less), and front seats (15 pounds lighter, each). That is just over 50 pounds there. Going with tubular delrin front control arms (8 lbs shaved), and a tubular front sway (about 3 pounds less). That puts the front and -62. I figure that I can account for a couple more pounds here and there as the AGS should save a little, plus I ditched the horns already, etc...

I feel that I can get the front weight loss to within 30+ pounds of what I did in the back. Also, I will be adding alcohol injection at one point, and the plan is to put a 4-5 liter container, with pump, in rear of my MCS. This is to keep it away from the engine bay to stay cooler, and for weight distribution reasons. This should be right around 10 pounds, making the front/rear delta about 20+ pounds from stock. I suppose I could splurge on a cf hood, but I don't think so, at least at this point...

When it's all said and done, I'll have shed well over 200 pounds, and the distribution will be only minimally impacted, and ideally not at all. I have a rather detailed Mission that I spelled-out that calls for a 10:1 weight to bhp ratio, and one of the stipulations is to keep-in-mind the weight distribution of the finished project.

I figure that I need about 6 more months to 1 year...

EDIT/ADD - Also of note is that I have my driving weight down to 140 pounds

 

"140 lbs"


Damn, I'd have to be sick, starved or imprisoned to get anywhere near that

 

Actually, I'm up to 140 from my running/marathoning weight of 125 to 130, and down from my huskier mtn climbing weight of about 150 . It's always been a challenge for me to gain weight actually... Oh well, we are OT...

Oh, for those who want to learn more about SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) batteries, I just found this link that I bookmarked eons ago:

http://www.stealth316.com/2-dynabatt.htm

I feel better now that we are back on topic

 

Looking at the capacities etc, to get to the 11.5 lbs of the braille with an Odessy, you have to go with a pretty small battery,one smaller than TonyB is running. The Odessy is rebadged in many forms that I've seen, but I haven't seen the same stats as the Braille.

This is from Helix's webpage.

Matt

 

Some specs on the braille battery-

Voltage: 12
AH: 15
PCA: 700 Pulse Cranking Amps
Length: 5.8”
Width: 3.3”
Height: 5.9
Weight: 11.5 lb or 5.2kg

Helix13.com is also working on a mounting bracket for about $50 that should work well but it's to be finished very soon.

Even though the MCS would have the weight loss in the rear, these lighter batteries do help reduce valuable weight in general. The MC has a much better loss up front. But if you'd installed the AGS system then there is room in the stock intake area for a small battery- how viable is that? Need to shield the battery from heat if possible.

 

This is what wings are for ...

 

I wasn't aware of the Braille battery a couple of years ago when I did my battery box removal, center exhaust project. If so, I would have gone that route instead. The price delta is quite a bit though...

I also think the rear end gets light at high speeds due to pressure build-up under the back. Logic seems to tell me that by un-plugging the rear grills, or replacing them with open ones, like M7's, should help in this regard. I'm also contemplating the fabrication of some aluminum plates that would ramp upward to those open grilles. This would create more down force at speed, and since I have no muffler in the way (only in the middle), this would be easy to do...