Battery Buying

[manladypig]

Buying a battery on a budget anyone know of good options? also, minimum CCA, etc.

[DieselSpider]

Depends on the climate where your located. Where I live its Tropical so I need a battery with the largest amount of fluid and a lower plate density so there will be more space filled with electrolyte above and below the plates while in the Frozen North you'd want a battery packed with the most plates possible to better deal with hard to crank engines in freezing temperatures.

Here in the St Pete area the last time I looked it was an Interstate Battery at Costco Wholesale Club that was the most bang for the buck however the CCA I need is for a 2 Kilowatt starter on a Diesel along with the Glow Plugs and not the original Lamperi engine. I tend to stay clear of the Never Start batteries from Walmart as they are a mixed bag especially here in the South.

Standard for a 1976 124 with a gasoline engine would be around 315 CCA while my 1.8L Diesel needs about double that here where I live and potentially triple up in the North.

[samakijoe]

I bought on of these as shown in the URL below. Saved my ass a number of times. I always insist on testing the battery before they put it on the counter. One time the guy, after I showed him that the CCA reading was 20% low, insisted that he would but it on a charger if I would come back later. (I am old retired fart so I had some time to humor him) Upon my return to the store it tested no differently. I explained to him that the open voltage or charge on the battery had nothing to do with the CCA numbers for a battery. It has to do with area (total square ins.) in the battery plate construction. We tested a number of batteries on the shelf with the same P/N, they all tested low. Looked to me like the factory put the wrong labels on the whole run.. (This will improve cash flow)

http://www.midtronics.com/shop/products ... ery-tester

There are a number of tester like this one. Amazon and Ebay have good prices.

You know what they say, "Never leave home without it".