Had some leftover KoolMat, so I added a little bling to the engine bay today. The rest of my leftover insulation will probably find its way to the bottom of the air box.

 

aluminum facing is great when it's on the cooler side with a good amount of airflow where it can dissipate heat, unfortunately in many of the places you're using it the opposite is occurring ...

 

So you turned your battery box into an oven?

 

No... There is a duct which blows cold air into the battery box when the car is moving. This product will work well in this application.

I believe Team's concern is regarding the use the aluminum facing on the MAF sensor housing and the bottom of the air box. These two areas are saturated with hot engine-bay air, and therefore the aluminum will quickly heat up to the same temperature as the rest of the engine bay. It's a valid point. I may have to reconsider its application in those two spots.

 

Quick update:
I had the car corner-balanced yesterday, and the weight came in at 2779 lbs with just a hair over 1/4 tank of gas. That's with stock seats, stock header, and stock mid-pipe. Not bad IMHO.

 

Quick update and a few words of caution:
When I removed the battery in November I discovered that it was slightly swollen on one side. Not a lot, but enough that I was concerned about the health of the battery.

I contacted Tony over at VoltPhreaks, and he asked me to send it in for inspection. They inspected and tested all of the internal components and it turns out the battery cells were not damaged. It appears that only the case was deformed. Of course, VoltPhreaks rebuilt the battery for me with a new case and new hardware and shipped it back at no charge.

Now, I can't say for sure why this happened, but I can think of a couple of contributing factors:
1.) I used a poorly-conceived, home-built bracket and probably tightened it down too much. This could have put a lot of pressure on the case.
2.) Despite a thin layer of insulation, the inside of that battery box got hot. Hot enough that the aluminum facing was uncomfortably warm to the touch. If only someone had warned me...

My best guess is that the heat softened the case, and the pressure of the battery bracket caused the battery enclosure to deform. The added forces of autocrossing may have exacerbated this.

Takeaways:
1.) The Voltphreaks battery actually performed flawlessly. It never let me down, and the heat of the engine bay did not ultimately destroy the LiFePO4 battery cells. I drove the car to work, to autocross events, on long trips to visit the in-laws, in hot summer weather, in cool spring and fall weather, in traffic, and at autocross events, and it was rock solid. I treated it no differently than any other battery, and only used a trickle charger if it was sitting for more than a couple weeks between use.
2.) Don't follow this DIY. I considered deleting it, but maybe someone else can learn from my mistakes
3.) If you buy a very expensive battery, spend a few dollars on an appropriate hold-down bracket for it
4.) Or better yet, do what I'm doing and put the battery in the trunk.

 

like you would have listened

my VPR-S40 sat on and undisturbed for the last 2 months, cranked up no problem the other day

just have your fabricator brake something up in aluminum for you


.

 

Thanks for the project follow thru and feedback. Always appreciated

 

That was always the plan, but once it was in the car and and fairly secure, it dropped down the priority list. I'll do it right this time.

 

BTW... It looks like VoltPhreaks' prices have come down quite a bit since last year.

 

Just to close the loop on this, I finally relocated the Voltphreaks battery to the trunk. I used 6 AWG to save weight, and that turned out to be a bad idea, so I'd suggest 4 AWG minimum for anyone considering a similar project.

 

absolutely love mine, most awesome battery for the weight I have ever owned or seen