The Camaro Club (UK)

Looking for a battery for the 2nd gen as it's almost fire up time

The Chilton manual doesn't say which spec battery it needs, it has some alternator and starter specs instead. It says that the starter needs 350 cranking amps (the highest rating of all the engines, went with this to be safe, some are as low as 240 ca). The alternator produces 61 amps (goes up to 90 odd for the latter years). My engine is the elusive '74 - '76 cop motor, so going with the higher spec starter requirement to be safe. Not sure about the alternator on there but the most popular amps is 61.

I'm assuming a battery with 350 cca and 61 ah will work? I've seen some with 420 cca so there's some buffer there.

I did some searching on nastyz28 and couldn't get a straight answer. It was a bit Americany "get the highest spec you can mine's 1000 cca" (no exaggeration) and most people seem to be running 770 and 800 cca batteries over there. But why, no explanations :/ Seems like a waste of money? Or am i missing something. In the Chilton manual the table shows the highest amp hours at 90 i think, so that will be for an air con car with power windows, rear defroster etc.

I don't want to underpower but can't seem to justify spending over £100 to "get the highest cca you can" without a rationale behind it.

The car doesn't have AC or electric windows. Does have rear defroster and radio. Most of the lights are LED, all interior ones are. Battery is in stock location.

I've found this battery, it's the first one that came into the 60ah+ rating and is 540 cca: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Type-075-60Ah ... 43c23f38c8

_________________
How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

How to post youtube vids: Click on the 'youtubeHD' button at the top of the message box and in the middle of the ][ brackets that just appeared, copy and paste everything from the youtube web address that appears after the = sign i.e if this is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0 just copy "K2cNqaPSHv0").

I've usually gone for about 650 - 700 cca when I've bought batteries for mine in the past. Just seems a good idea for the extra power, and not huge amount more cost... As on occasion you'll be pleased for the extra few cranks it'll do if there's an issue.

(I know I'm stating the obvious, but assume you've checked for size and terminals orientation. )

_________________
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

Cheers Stu, that is helpful!

I found a 72ah 680cca for £75 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301011160201
So that seems like the spec will work.
The next option up is 74ah and 750cca for an extra £20 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291408656744
Haha you know me too well. I'll be out with a measuring tape shortly! I bought some 2.5" 65mm exhaust clamps and tried fitting them yesterday. They didn't fit. As i had flanged joins on the pipe, turns out i need 67mm clamps. Measure once buy once lol.

_________________
How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

How to post youtube vids: Click on the 'youtubeHD' button at the top of the message box and in the middle of the ][ brackets that just appeared, copy and paste everything from the youtube web address that appears after the = sign i.e if this is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0 just copy "K2cNqaPSHv0").

Just checked the Trans Am, (It's a 305TPI but has more electronics whilst running due to the FI) which has a factory spec replacement battery from AC Delco. It's 650CCA and 90RC.

37.5 ah according to this calculation at: http://www.ehow.com/how_8681870_convert ... hours.html
or this site http://www.sailnet.com/forums/electrica ... acity.html suggests approximately 50% of rc is ah , so it's somewhere between 37.5 and 45. 41 seems to be a common number on batteries, so assuming it's 41).

The Camaro Being a 350 and i believe it has been bored out, would guess that 650cca then would be a minimum, if that's what's needed to crank a 305.

Found a nice site with really good price batteries of all brands: https://www.tayna.co.uk/Car-Batteries-C48.html

Scroll down and select a manufacturer then you can select all of the attributes i.e CCA, ah, dimensions.

Looking at Bosch, Varta and Exide. Any of these top 3 seem to be a good shot:

https://www.tayna.co.uk/Varta-Car-Batte ... -1=260,278

_________________
How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

How to post youtube vids: Click on the 'youtubeHD' button at the top of the message box and in the middle of the ][ brackets that just appeared, copy and paste everything from the youtube web address that appears after the = sign i.e if this is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0 just copy "K2cNqaPSHv0").

Went with this guy in the end: https://www.tayna.co.uk/E44-Varta-Silve ... P7726.html

Our battery trays are 175mm x 260mm and there is a good amount of height so you can get a 190mm height. (175mm height x 260mm length came in at £120+ for a lower spec too). As this battery is 2cm wider than the tray, i will cut the corners at the side that sits closest to the fender, flatten it out, then weld on a lip to stop the battery from sliding sideways. It's clamped down anyway but worth it to be safe.

_________________
How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

How to post youtube vids: Click on the 'youtubeHD' button at the top of the message box and in the middle of the ][ brackets that just appeared, copy and paste everything from the youtube web address that appears after the = sign i.e if this is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0 just copy "K2cNqaPSHv0").