Odyssey battery for a v8

[martyn123]

Hi,


Just been sold a odyssey extreme racing 22 battery for my Marcos and just looking for a little reassurance that it will do the job, the physical size and weight seems so small, tech info from the battery is,

Phca 623 (5 secs)
Cca 265
Nominal capacity 20hr 18 ah
Torque lbs40
NM max 4.5
Short curcuit current 1800 amps,


The above means nothing to me, just need to know if its okay for my Rover 5.0V8 (carbs with megajolt system)

There are no fancy electronics on the car, no heater/radio or air con,


Regards,


Martyn.

[DaveEFI]

It's somewhat less than a 1/3rd of the capacity of what you'd fit to a road going car, so isn't going to crank the engine for long on a cold day. However, if it starts promptly, should be ok. Most modern alternators provide all the power needed for any load when the engine is running, so the battery is really just for starting. And of course keeping anything that needs it alive when parked up. Like immobilisers, alarms, radios, remote locking etc etc.

[martyn123]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, which of the above tech info numbers should i be comparing with others re power of the battery,


Regards,


Martyn

[DaveEFI]

The two I recognise are capacity and short circuit current.
Capacity is normally measured at the 20 hour rate - you measure how much current a battery can deliver for 20 hours, and convert that into amp.hours (ah). So at least that one is the industry norm.

Short circuit current is what it says - but not terribly relevant.

Quoting a torque figure seems strange - since this depends on the starter motor to some extend. Most quote cold cranking amps (CCA)

Have a look at this for more info:-

http://www.topbuzz.co.uk/info/car_batte ... attery.htm

[kiwicar]

"Short circuit current is what it says - but not terribly relevant."
It can be usefull to know. . .

It gives you an indication of the internal resistance of the battery, handy for matching to the starter motor, that is if you have a choice of starter motors. But you probably just want to check it is within about 10% -15% of the short CCT current of the standard battery.
Best regards
Mike

[mk1storm]

Got an Odyssey PC625 for my 3.9 and it turns it over pretty well and will crank it for a fair amount of time (certainly much longer than the engine would ever need to start) before it shows any signs of struggling.

Not sure how my PC625 compares to the one you're considering though...

Haven't had to do a cold start (ie outside, sub zero temps) but have from the garage and must have had to do a start in near 0deg at some point last winter...

[dnb]

Odyssey batteries are good in my experience. You should be OK as long as you are careful of parasitic losses when the key is turned off. Mine (spec sounds similar to yours) can crank my 5 litre HC engine with no issues.

[Bryan]

I can't give any guarantee regarding this as a long term solution, but it should certainly start your engine - I have started a Landrover 101 (3.5 V8.) using a 16Ah Genesis (very similar to the odyssey) before now, and this required about 15s cranking. Only thing I would say is run the vehicle long enough to fully recharge each time and don't let the vehicle stand for long periods without use unless you charge the battery. If you do recharge the battery between uses, these batteries respond well to using a charger designed specifically for SLAs rather than a normal car battery charger.

The important figures are CCA (cranking current), Nominal Capacity (Ah value) and short circuit current. Cranking Current indicates the current that can be drawn without compromising the battery life. Nominal capacity gives you an idea of the cranking time (in hours - approx half nominal capacity divided by actual cranking current - note that this is the vehicle value, not the rated value) Short Circuit current gives you an idea of when you may have a fire!