What Battery did you buy.
 

The last battery I had was a type 24 AC delco. It only had 600 CCA. The 455 in it turned over pretty slow. I have new Factory battery cable and RobbMc starter.

Battery is 7+ years old now and won't hold a charge. As much as I like a stock appear under the hood look, I'm a bit over it. I'm looking for a battery now with a bit more CCA.

What can you recommend to me, or warn me to stay away from?

Used lots of different types of batteries (with high cranking amps) over the years and all generally good, with biggest improvement going to better gauge cables. Some leaked over time, some didn't. As my engine bay is less original than before, a couple years ago I replaced my battery with a Optima Red Top OPR8004-003, 800 cold cranking amps and 1,000 cranking amps. Won't leak in my now clean compartment (although that never was really a concern). Works great, and haven't had a slow starting yet, which happened off and on before.

Die Hard Gold

Group size 34 fits these cars and will typically supply batteries in the 700-800 CCA range. I have a Super Start Extreme which is basically the gold series of (choose your store brand). It's an 800 CCA unit and turns over my 10.25:1 compression 455 hot or cold, with a factory style starter.

For authentic look, I bought (780 CCA gel for my 65 GTO):

https://www.classicindustries.com/pr...s/BY12005.html

There’s some cheap small sealed gel batteries on Amazon you could probably use inside your old batteries case. I switched to one of these small sealed batteries in my airplane for weight savings and it cranks way better than my old one.

I purchased AC delco battery

Just bought a new one for my 05 GTO in August, I bought a NAPA legend because I prefer the East Penn batteries, over Johnson Controls made batteries. The bad thing is batteries are now priced astronomically over what they were just a few years ago.

That being said I wasn't wanting to spend a huge chunk of money for my wife's 08 Vibe so I bought a Walmart Everstart Maxx battery for it and it was over $50 less than the NAPA legend was. Napa was $170 on sale, with 10% off. Everstart Maxx was $120 regular pricing.

None of them are infallible, and the warranties have changed dramatically too. Used to be after 2-3 years they were prorated in the warranty. Now most have a 2 year warranty, and nothing after that time, you're on your own after the warranty expires. Nice business model, raise the price 30-40%, and cut most of the warranty off.

Interstate, white case, w/ a Ames Blue Freedom Topper , (400)

After some digging I see the Group type 34 is 1" taller but some length and width. I will most likely go with that Die Hard Gold series. The Optima and factory looking ones are just too steep in price for me.

I'm still debating on changing out the small factory battery cables with a larger gauge.