I had an all motor car come in for tuning last month with one of these, and was pretty impressed with the thing.. Was considering getting one with the charger for my race car, since I can get a decent discount on them.. Granted, I bet all motor cars would benefit more, but I made a ton of dyno pulls, started the car a bunch of times, and never once did the voltage drop below 13.5v.. No alternator, so a total loss setup, no parasitic drag as well.. I weighed a stock alternator, 12 lbs including brackets, a stock group 51 battery, 28 lbs, and came up with a savings of almost 34 lbs. They seem to retail for around $1400 ish for the battery and charger, but who pays retail anyway? lol. I was looking at other 16v battery setups, but most are the AGM style which are heavier at around 35+ lbs..

Specs from the manufacturers website:

Weight: 6.12 lbs
Length: 6.54 in
Height: 4.92 in
Width: 6.97 in
MAX Amps: 880
RC: 23min.
Amp-Hours: 11

I'm sure this topic has been brought up before, but obviously ignition system output and fuel pump output would be higher as well, so if the only downside is price, and that I would have to charge it before each event with the special provided charger, so be it..

 

We used a good amount of them on v8 cars (with EFI, pumps etc) and they worked great. I was thinking about running it on a true street car, but still up in the air.

 

i saw 1 in titans car but they were sponsored by them i believe!

 

a few local import and domestic guys have been testing them for a local manufacturer. they are working great so far.

they dont cost 1400 though lol. i was quoted 500. for one i spec'd out w/ a constant 13.8 volts over a 20min. runtime

they build them to your specs and are available in any voltage w/ increments of .2 volts.

the 13/14 volt batteries are very small and weigh under 5lbs.

they can sit all winter after the last event in the fall and you can pull your car out of the trailer in the spring and it will start right up after sitting w/o charging all winter.

lithium definately seems like where the car battery market should be heading for the future

you gotta watch who you purchase from. most manufacturers will have you believe you need a special high priced charger for them but this is not the case. our local manufacturer is up front and will tell you they recomend a $25. charger which can be found at wallmart, etc. the market is wide open right now so some people will try to make a killing while they can lol

 

^ what kind of charger and how much is charger?

Marc P

 

ive looked at these batteries before and XS is extremely overpriced. i use lithium-ion and lithium-polymer in my radio controlled airplanes and the packs i build myself. the chargers arent that expensive either for lithium-ion cells but they start getting pricey for the lithium polymer cells since lipo cells can explode if not discharged and charged properly.

you can build packs yourself
http://www.tekbattery.com/Batteries/003.jpg buy the cells with tabs and solder them together in series then stack them in parralel to get the amperage you need

or you can buy these
http://www.batterystuff.com/batterie...14L2-BS12.html this is a 14amp hour lithium battery for $148 shipped compared to the XS which is only 11amp hour and much more expensive
The Shorai Lithium batteries besides being 14amp hour which is 3amp hour more then the XS also only weigh 1.61lbs....you could stack 3 of these for 42amp hour and still weigh less then the xs battery.
The other plus side to the Shorai Lithium batteries....they dont use a special charger.

 

trust me guys this geek knows what he's talking about! lol

 

c'mon Marc take the shades off so you can read haha

walmart 25 bucks

 

BINGO!

 

Those Shorai batteries look awesome!

 

there is other companies out there that make bigger versions of these and they dont cost a small fortune to buy or charge. Shorai also makes a 18amp hour version thats $181 shipped and has an additional 60amps of cranking juice over the 14amp hour.

 

=P thanks chad

 

So who else makes a 16v version that I can order and put in my car? Preferrably LiFePO4 design..

 

You got me, reading owns me. lol

Great info in here!

Marc P

 

hmm very interesting
saving a few more lbs would be nice

 

you dont need a 16v battery to run a car for a couple minutes. most decent 12 volt batteries can put out enough current to run everything just fine.

 

Ha yeah sure

 

I'm interested

 

i was looking for a battery... the shorai looks like a good investment

 

I want to have a minimum of 13.5v at all times, not 12. Hence the desire for a 16v battery. I'll pass on the 12 volters..

 

1.5 volts wont make any difference... v=r/i if you can supply the amperage required your fine. its not like your running the car for more then a few minutes at a time if that.

 

since this a battery topic
wat is the smallest battery height wise availabe out there and thats reliable? im using the altenator btw
i wanna put my battery behind the STOCK front bumper on the passenger side
but also wanna run my charge pipe in between of the headlight and battery

 

if your experiencing voltage issues with a 12 volt battery then you have done something wrong.
voltage = resistance/current (v=r/i)

either your battery cant supply enough current and the voltage will drop.....or if the battery can supply enough current then you have to much resistance....to much resistance can be caused by wire gauge being to small or poor connections.


http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_2/1.html

 

I can tell you that fuel pump output drops with 12v vs 16v, and the starter spins a hell of a lot faster with a 16v battery as well. Look at most every Pro Mod or Pro Stock car, there is a good reason they are running them, and its not because a 12v battery would have worked the same.

 

to clarify, I could run the Shorai battery with my stock charging system? Would I be ok if it's a daily driven car? maybe a small sound system later?