It's too late now, I already sprung for a new Motorcraft Titanium battery in the stock size, but wondered if anyone had luck with a larger battery. Did you have any clearance issues with the hood? Anyone ever try an Optima? Do they last any longer? My previous battery was a NAPA Legend 75 and it died in 3 years, 3 months. I'm hoping my new Motorcraft battery with a manufacturer date of September
07 lasts a while.Patrick '93 Cobra
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote in news:1192499409.199723.234690 @k35g2000prh.googlegroups.com:
Every battery I've ever bought for all our vehicles has never lasted more than half its rated life down here due to the heat. YMMV.
I get whatever the best one is my local Sears has in stock. I average 6-7 years out of batteries in my '86 5.0 Currently on my 4th battery.
Larger doesn't always translate into better or even more powerful. Last time I went shopping and started looking for "larger" and compared the ratings I was surprised that some of the larger ones were no more powerful. I wonder if in some cases the insides are pretty much the same and they just make the case a bit bigger to keep us consumers fat, dumb, and HAPPY. None of my "larger" batteries has lasted any longer then the smaller ones either, whether it was larger physical size or larger in the sense of electrical ratings.
Motorcraft is not a bad battery.
My '89 LX 5.0 calls for a group 58. Because I had some "special service" electrical demands (VHF and UHF transceivers) I thought the replacement battery appeared to be small, smaller than the space available. I asked Sears to install the biggest battery that would fit. I got the group 65 DieHard Gold North.
I understand you are in Australia. This information may not apply to your situation, but in the US, there are 2 distinct climate regions with the north being more demanding on cold-start performance. This usually means a physically larger battery with a higher cold cranking amp rating. So there may be a different group 58 battery for a car in the north that's physically larger than the same car would get if it were in the south.
The various versions of the group 58 and 65 batteries share the same width at the base and can interchange easily in the Mustang's battery tray even if it's taller/longer, etc.
The larger group 65 battery fit nicely under the hood.
What kills a battery the quickest is leaving it in a state of discharge. Beyond that, region plays a large role with winter abuse in the north taking it's toll.
rd
That's why I mentioned that my AGM battery is probably 2/3 the size of the stock battery but 925 amps.
Thread about Optima in Fox:
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