why move the battery to other side?

[garyl24]

when you swap out an olds engine for a chevy in a cutlass why do you have to move the battery to the passenger side? is it to shorten the starter wire? would it hurt to leave the battery on the drivers side and use longer starter wire? thanks as i was just curious.

[turbo78]

absolutely nothing wrong with that. i have a sbc in my 78 malibu and i put the battery on the drivers side.

[dan2286]

It is better to have the shortest wire possible. The longer you go, the more resistance there will be. To compensate for the resistance, you will need thicker wire.

Why not just get the parts from a Chevy powered g body and do it right?

[username]

I have a cutlass with the stock 3.8 and the battery is on the passenger side.Was there battery locations on either side? I quess someone could easily do a dual battery setup then if they wanted.

[joe_padavano]

I have a cutlass with the stock 3.8 and the battery is on the passenger side.Was there battery locations on either side? I quess someone could easily do a dual battery setup then if they wanted.

As noted, the battery was located on the same side as the starter to minimize the length of the battery cable and thus the voltage drop. Yes, you can simply run a longer cable, but you need to use a larger gauge wire. The factory wanted to minimize cost and thus use the smallest wire possible.

The diesel cars used dual batteries. Why you'd want to put all that extra weight way forward of the front wheels if you didn't need it is a mystery to me, however.

[Phoenyx]

Why you'd want to put all that extra weight way forward of the front wheels if you didn't need it is a mystery to me, however.

Me too.