mgianzero

Mike,

Wow, both a fascinating and yet, gruesome story. I loved it! What we do for our Porsches.

If your finger gets too swollen or ring is just inherently too tight on your finger and you need to get it off, another trick is using dental floss. You wrap many times around your finger ABOVE the ring and then pull the end thru the ring and then unwind. It slowly pulls the ring off while compressing down the part of your finger it need to get over. I'm an engineer too (mechanical) but then became a doc. It's an old trick to save your finger and ring.

Marc G.

Mike J

Cool trick Marc! Hopefully I will never have to use it under dire circumstance, and since I have not had a ring on any fingers since the "incident", hopefully never - but then again, the wife likes rings, the daughters like rings...

Cheers,

Mike

SeattleE30///M3

Reviving an old thread. It's time to get new batteries.

Any new bolt-in batteries to consider outside Interstate and the East Penn? Has anyone tried the AGM batteries?

vincer77

I have a Yellow Optima and has been great. Battery is about 6 years old and still strong. I do use a CTEK charger when the car isn't driven.

IXLR8

Many have. If you are not one to maintain a battery by topping up the cells, then it doesn't matter which one you have; FLA or VRLA type battery.

If your charging system is anything like mine, then you'll undercharge that battery.

The charge voltage at my battery terminals is usually 14.1 to 14.2V if I remember.

mgianzero

Batteries Plus sells a Duracell branded battery that's an exact fit for our Porsches. Has the same handles and placement for the air-vent tubing. They make the classic lead-acid or the AGM versions as well as others. I have no affilation. https://www.batteriesplus.com/batter...h6-3.6l-650cca

IXLR8

It appears to be identical to the East Penn battery that I now have which is identical to the Moll Kamina Porsche battery that it replaced.

I'd bet these are all made by the same manufacturer or under licence by another.

mgianzero

Yes they are Alex. That's how I discovered them ... by searching under the East Penn manufacturer.

Within they last 5 years is my guess that they put the Duracell name on the battery. I bought the same battery from Batteries Plus a few years back without the Duracell name on it.

JPS

Optima. If you auto X or track its a must have.

Standard battery sprayed acid all down the side of my car.

JDB1

Recently replaced expired battery with an Autozone maintenance free gel battery, a perfect fit. Take a look, I think its worth your time.

pp000830

The best battery to me is a battery with the longest service life. It is any battery, regular or labled maintenance free where you can pry open the cell cover(s) and top off the electrolyte with distilled water from time to time. My opinion is that unattended evaporation its why most batteries can exhibit an untimely death.

Mike J

I actually think, on most of our 993's, that the reason batteries die is deep discharges. The car is always consuming power even parked, and for most people these cars are not daily drivers - so the batteries often get deeper discharge cycles than a typical daily use vehicle. Conventional lead-acid batteries do not tolerate deep discharge cycles very well, especially if drained flat. Those types of cycles really shorten their operating lifetimes, so for example using a battery maintainer judiciously really seems to improve the working life and capacity of the battery.

Cheers,

Mike

IXLR8

Bingo!

Exactly why the last two batteries in this family lasted 16+2 and 15 years respectively.

IXLR8

Mike, it is always owner neglect or the charging system, either vehicle or bench top.

Owners usually tout the ultra low self discharge of an AGM. Like who cares. That only applies when it is sitting on a dealer shelf because the electrical drain of most vehicles is 1000 times greater that the self discharge rate of an AGM.

Mike J

I have had many local owners here who regularly drive their cars once a month or even less - and find their batteries either weak or flat enough so they cannot turn the engine over. A few years of those sort of discharges and the battery starts to have less capacity and eventually becomes toast. I will check the levels on many of them, they are usually either at the top or very close.

It's good that you have gotten very long life out of your batteries, but how often and how they are used, storage temperatures, charge levels and are trickle chargers also used are also important parameter in that statement.

Cheers,

Mike
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