Drag only car with an mopar factory alt. Have electric fuel pump, 1 16" electric fan and electric water pump (The belt drive kind). My 8 year old Mopar battery took a dump. Would you guys use a Red or Yellow top Optima battery?

Northstar.
I havent had much luck with newer optimas.

Red top with alt, yellow top with out.

Neither one. I'd go lithium. Way lighter.

Interstate

Yellow top, the red is designed as a cranking battery only, it doesn't have the deep cycle capability like the yellow does. My last yellow top was 10 years old when I changed it, it still worked just fine but it had started to gas around the negative post.

I sell 1000-2000 optimas a year at work and warranty rate is very very low. The amount of people that don't maintain them or drive their cars enough is higher, they usually claim they charged them blah blah blah, but a overnight charge on a AGM charger is all they need and they are good to go. I highly recommend the optima brand of battery charger, they work very well.

I have been running the red tops since they came out. 31lbs and its fairly small and starts the 605 Hemi, no problem all day......The big trick with these is a good charging system I run a CVF 140 amp GM alternator on both my cars. Best alternator for the weight and the money. I run dual high out put fans, high output electric water pump, big fuel pump, 7AL2, Holley Sniper 4500, Holley Pro Dash, 2-head lights and 2 fog lamps. And I still have 13volts at idle.

Lithium scare me...I know a bunch about lithium, and without the right charger, they balloon and then go up in flames.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61DcZpBhoqo

https://www.cvfracing.com/accessori...rnators&search_return=all&page=2

Agreed on the good alternator I run a GM CS130 that I believe is 105 amps. I run EFI, two electric fuel pumps, two fans, electric water pump, and all the street car stuff like wipers etc. On Drag Week 2018 100% of that was in use for several hours and it kept up just fine.

I have made as many as 12 passes in a day with full cool downs between each run and never had an issue. I do usually put a battery charger on it when I get home I only live about 12 miles from the track so the battery may not get back to 100% after all that work.

The red and yellow top AGM batteries are designed in such a way as to use a smaller amount of AGM for a given battery size. It makes little sense to me. In other words, they look like a six pack of cans with lots of unused space between the 6 round canisters.

A solid rectangular shaped case contains a much larger concentration of AGM plates for the same overall dimensions. Optima and several others make high quality virgin lead AGM batteries with a much higher energy concentration for a given overall battery size. They are not cheap and they require an AGM rated battery charger to keep them properly charged, but they are great batteries.

The charging system should be the main supply of voltage and amperage to your car when running. Make sure your system is putting out enough amperage to supply your car's current draw with a significant amount of reserve capacity. Electric fans draw the most amperage on start up and sometimes require to relays to comfortably handle that large initial current draw.

They used to be really good - at best they are below average today - I bought a yellow top two years ago - even had the it on a smart charger when not in use - started giving me problems last summer

I switched to a Duracell AGM - much better so far

I have had a lot of problems with smart / trickle chargers on the AGM's....I only use them to get the battery up to full charge, and if its going to be in storage or not used for long periods, I put a solar charger on it. I have not killed a battery yet with one of those.

Duracell AGM in my pickup went 2 years.... went back to sams and they didn’t have any and gave me my money back. Went back to Red Tops. I tried the Duracell due to the cost of the Optimas. Test failed in my case.

1 2010 blue top that’s in the boat during the summer and runs 12v in the race trailer in the winter.
1 2013 red top in my daily driver jeep XJ
1 2018 red top pickup
1 2019 red top pickup

The 18 was from my daughters car we traded in
The 19 was from the race car and also used for a backup to the blue top due to its age. No fun to get to the lake and your boat won’t start.

Fwiw I live in the desert and extreme heat kicks the snot out of batteries. I prefer the AGM as I’ve made quite a bit of money cleaning up the mess from vented “wet” cell batteries in the past 24 years. Battery cables on my 01 pickup look brand new.