Expert: Brad Sears - 10/30/2010

Question
Hi Brad,

I have a 1966 AMC Rambler Classic Station Wagon, fitted wit a 327 cid V8 Engine. I need to replace the battery, and was wondering if you could give me a rough idea of the minimum cold cranking power output (we call in Cold Cranking Amps (CCA) here in the UK) I would need. Apart from havig an electric fuel pump fitted within the last 18 months, it has only the OE fitted, i.e radio, cigarette lighter, dome light and tailgate window motor. The only other thing that may be relevant is that it has also been fitted with an alternator from a V12 Jaguar (at some time prior to it coing into my ownership) instead of the dynamo i believe was originally fitted.
Hope you can help,
Kind Regards
Ric

Answer
I have always been a fan of the more CCA that I have in the battery box the better. Your car takes a group 24 battery and they have those available with all the way up to 800 or so CCA. The reason is that the bigger battery will deliver more cranking power without see a larger drop in the voltage. This means less wear and tear on the starter, cooler cables and connections during cranking and quicker starts due to less voltage drop meaning more voltage for the ignition system. That said the minimum that I would put in that car would be 400 CCA.