Here is a blow-by blow account of how it went.
Bought the yellowtop at Costco. It's a D34/78, 750CCA, 55Ah. Cost me $189 CAD, which is more than you'd pay in the states, but less than any other stores in Canada.
Took it home, let it trickle-charge overnight with a shop charger (didnt know they came charged)
Test-fitted the factory rings with the OEM battery still in the car. This is where I made my first mistake. I assumed both terminals were the same size, so I test-fitted the negative ring on the postive terminal, and of course it didnt fit. So the battery remained in the garage until I got home from school today, after stopping at my favourite car audio place to pick up the battery terminal equivalent of a distribution block.
Took out the OEM battery, carved up the OEM cables to fit them into the distro block, and realized the starter cable was about 2 inches too short, I was expecting this, because of Lauren's thread, but unlike her, I couldnt stretch it. The stereo and main power line fit fine, and the block fit great on the terminal. So, stuck 15 miles out in the wilderness with no other car, I improvised. Unplugged the stereo line from the 50 amp inline fuse, and plugged in the hacked up starter cable. Car starts fine. Drive 15 miles to Canadian Tire, pick up a 55" 2ga copper starter cable, and come back.
I had to remove the intercooler to get to the starter, so if you havent installed a TMIC yet and you're planning on putting in an optima, I suggest you change to a longer starter cable now. Starter cable goes on, thread it through the misc other piles of crap, and plug it into the distro block. Everything runs great. I havent really messed with the stereo yet, but the car feels noticeably smoother. Dont expect similar results though, my battery was in extremely poor condition, so the difference is very relative.
Pics:
dont mean to shit on you but I can get into why gold terminals are not the way to go if anyones interested.
