The stock battery location is the LF. Yeah, the worst place for weight. I got an Odyssey 15lb dry cell battery, and mounted it in the spot previously occupied by the jack and tools. There is a nice cubby hole the battery sits it, and the door seals the battery from the rear of the passenger compartment. I made a hold down out of aluminum. For the positive battery cable, I connected it to the stock battery cable, ran it thru a grommet previously occupied by the cruise control vacuum line, and back to the battery. The negative cable was connected to a nice ground on the interior. The interior is about half and half metal and plastic/fiberglass. I had some doubts as to whether the ground would work without being directly connected to the frame, but the car starts fine. The original negative battery cable is bolted directly to the frame.
Plans include: oil cooler, new shocks (on order!), C5 front brakes (Christmas!), wheels, tires, bushings, rear geometry corrections, heim joints for rear suspension, a/c delete, and more. Also, the car needs to lose several hundred more pounds: AIR, EGR, Cats, dash pad, etc. The ignition system also needs to be checked (god damn Opti-shit!) as it feels like there is a very slight miss at times.
A/C removal:
This car is heavy. Specifically front heavy. So, the A/C came off. A/C is for pussies anyway. I had my system evacuated (wink wink) and removed
the compressor, accumulator, and condsenser. The compressor alone weighed 15 lbs. The belt on LTx Vettes is pretty short. With a gear driven water pump and
no belt driven smog pump, the belt only runs the A/C, alternator, and power steering pump. After studying the belt layout, there is no way to route the belt
without some sort of pulley to replace the A/C compressor. Every LTx Corvette had A/C, so there is no factory delete pulley. LT1 f-bodies have a completely
different belt setup, with the alternator on the passenger side. Some research and all I can find is a member of Corvetteforum selling a pulley that will
work, with minor mods. The price is stupid, but left with little choice, I buy one.
I install the pulley, and notice it's position is slighty different than the A/C compressor was. This doesn't seem to be a problem, however. Looking at the belt some more, I notice the idler pulley doesn't do hardly anything at all, so I took it off. Thus far, no problems. Removing the A/C frees up lots of space, espically on the driver's side and directly behind the radiator. Removing the evaporator should also free up a lot more space.
