ground kit

February 13, 2004

anyone on here install a ground kit in their car? I know a few people with J-bodies that have done it and say it makes a difference. Just wondering the thoughts and such here.

February 13, 2004

i used to have one on mine, but i took it off.

by making a difference what do you mean? if your talking about making a difference in speed/acceleration, im pretty sure it wont make much difference. but it will, however, make a big difference in appearance if you get a kit that matches the lines and styling of your car and have a good install. ground affects kits are not considered a performance item, more of an appearance item.

February 13, 2004

sorry... should have been more specific... I didn't mean a ground effects kit... i ment a wire ground kit... basically a wire that goes from the negative ground point to like 4 other points on the engine chasis to better the ground. http://www.tunerrevolution.com/howto/groundwire.html

February 13, 2004

:oops: :bash: sorry

2 Vehicles · February 13, 2004

I may be wrong, but I think its :bs: . Plus, coming from a ricer looking site, I would take that mod with a grain of salt.. a LARGE grain of salt.

February 13, 2004

it can only help. it may help you get rid of any electrical problems you may have.

joshua

February 13, 2004

haha! What next, performance wipers that wipe every beed of water off your windshield that allow you to see better in the rain and..oh shit, wait they make those already :lol:

February 13, 2004

haha! What next, performance wipers that wipe every beed of water off your windshield that allow you to see better in the rain and..oh shit, wait they make those already

nice, very nice. its not a performance "mod" but it is very worthwhile. bad grounds are the cause for alot of electrical problems.

stupid idea 1: - GM puts the large battery ground to the engine block and a tiny ground wire to the body. problem here is the engine is isolated from the body via the rubber mounts so the majority of the car's system grounds complete their circuit thru that small wire and the 4 ECM ground wires complete theirs thru your huge negative battery cable

what i ground kit(ie - make your own) does is connect the engine from the battery cable terminal to a couple points on the body with ground straps or larger wires. better grounds = better electrical system. the more paths a ground has to follow, the more reliable your car will be and the less chance you have of burning up wiring because of corroded grounds. if your small body ground wire was to get corroded(on the core support), your electrical system would find any way possible to ground itself to your engine block - in the form of whatever is available including but not limited to accelerator cables, shifter cables, etc... believe me - my dad's car had a bad ground and it burned right through the accelerator cable to make ground with the engine.

so for all the retards out there(nobody in particualr, just seen way too much negativity here lately), before you be an ass make sure you know what the hell you're talking about

February 13, 2004

I've heard of these. Actually, its not a bad idea, but from what I hear, you can save money by going to a stereo shop and buying all the wire yourself.

February 13, 2004

I've heard of these. Actually, its not a bad idea, but from what I hear, you can save money by going to a stereo shop and buying all the wire yourself.

yea, you can just go to a audio shop or go to napa and get some.

I plan on rewiring my grounds to see if that would help stop my lights flashing because my amps are taking too much power.

February 14, 2004

goph you need a capacitor.............. or another capacitor if you already have one. the genereal rule of thimb its for every 500 watts 1 farad.

February 14, 2004

goph you need a capacitor.............. or another capacitor if you already have one. the genereal rule of thimb its for every 500 watts 1 farad.

screw that i need a 250amp alternator.

February 14, 2004

lol, hmm... i wont say anything

February 15, 2004

i have heard of civic's/integras dynoing a consistant 2hp more with a ground kit. now worth while if you ask me.

RedZ

February 15, 2004

The ground kit, or home made ground kit can give you guys something to do till spring comes.

February 15, 2004

gotta say this first.

CAPS ARE A WASTE OF $$$$$

ok back to subject at hand

much more cost effective to make the ground kit yourself.

as was said hit up a car audio shop for the wires and ring terminals OR a welding supply shop to save some cash.

as many know i am into car audio. last spring i gutted my cutlass to sound deaden and run new power wire into trunk. i used 2/0 welders cable for power and ground wires. cost was significantly less than 1/0 car audio wire.

from batt to d-block in trunk was 2/0

ground in trunk to ground d-block was 2/0

batt to frame was 2/0

block to frame is 1/0 did not have a 2/0 length long enough.

have not done alt to battery yet. that is what the last piece of 2/0 is for.

it is simple to do this upgrade.

for those in car audio this is a must upgrade. it is reffered to as the BIG 3 upgrade.

batt to frame

frame to block

alt to batt

they all need to be replaced with larger than stock wire. not only is stock insufficient but if your car is older then there is a good chance it is corroded and is poor shape. i have pics somewhere of the block to frame from my cutlass. suprised it did any good at all. it was in that bad of shape.

this could be one of the reasons i do not have any dimming with a 1500 watt daily system. stock alt and acdelco platinum battery along with proper wire and upgraded grounds.

mayb just mayb

Monty

February 15, 2004

Hey monty,

You think you could snape a few pics of the "Big 3" ugraded wires? Where the grounds are on the cutty's?? Thanks.

February 16, 2004

sure can. i may even have them already online. if not mayb on my computer. if not them i guess i pop the hood on Sapphire

tomorrow.

i will try to describe then for the moment.

be sure to remove battery negative terminal to avoid the risk of sparking.

Batt to frame

this is the easiest to see when you first raise the hood. typically it runs from the negative terminal on the battery to the

radiator support. on my cutlass this wire is about 8" long or so. the wire is pretty small. like 10 gauge wire or so. the

frame end has a ring terminal with a star washer attached to it to help bite into the metal. from the factory they simply

bolt this wire in place after it has been painted. not the best connection. on the Battery end it is included in the cable

end. i believe it is molded in.

i used the same size of wire here that i used on the power wire to the trunk. which is 2/0 welders cable. that power wire

goes to a distro block in trunk. the ground wire in the trunk is also this size and goes to a distro block. then from distro

block to each amp for ease of installation. this ground in trunk is done the same way as stated here in the front for batt to

frame ground. use a bolt and nut with washers and be sure to clean it, get it tight and on a flat surface and protect it

afterwords.

To upgrade this properly you need to ADD another wire from the negative battery terminal to where the factory one is bolted

in place. remove the bolt and factory wire. clean the surface around the hole down to bare metal. I have always used a wire

wheel on my cordless drill. a wire brush or sandpaper will work as well. Be sure to keep in control of the wire wheel or it

may get away from you and cause damage to other things. then take the new wire with a ring terminal on the frame end and

place it next to the frame then place the factory wire on top of that then bolt it in place.

now remember you just exposed bare metal in this process. what i did to protect the bare metal was to get some silicone spray

and spray the surface. not to the run off point but enough to give it an adequate coat. be sure to watch for overspray as it

migh cause discoloration of surrounding items.

Alt to Battery

for this one you will need to remove the Alt enough to get to the post on it. again you will need a ring terminal on the wire

end attaching to the alt. if needed you might need to trim the ring terminal to get it to fit without risk of touching any

other metal. as this is a positive and well all metal surrounding it is negative. which could lead to sparks. so be careful

here. the post on the alt should be large enough to easily add a 4 gauge ring terminal to the existing wires. might even be

able to do 1/0. i have looked at this but it has been a few months. when you go to tighten the nut on the stud watch the wire

position so you aim the wire towards the firewall. as the wire will run along the firewall to the battery positive terminal.

for safety and looks you might want to cover this wire in wire loom and secure it with zip ties if possible.

i have not done this yet but i have just enough 2/0 welders cable that i am going to try to use for this.

Block to Frame

this one involves removal of the air box to get to the factory wire. the frame end it attached almost directly under the air

box and the block end is on the side of the block just above the crossover pipe. This wire is also about a 10 or mayb an 8

gauge wire. you will need a wire brush to clean both surfaces as best as possible to bare metal. there could possibly be oil

and grease on the block side of things and thick paint on the frame side of it.

this wire is about 15" long or so. i put a ring terminal on the frame end and then snugged it in place. then routed the wire

out of the way then took a photo in my head of how the other ring terminal needed to be positioned. i did this so the wire

was not twisted. the lest twist and turn of the wire the less chance it will pop out and rub on things it should not be

rubbing on. noting that the block end ring terminal is bent at a 90 degree angle. which makes it trickier to remove and

install.

i used 1/0 welders cable here as i did not have enough 2/0 to do this.

again you may want to cover this in wire loom for protection. your call though as it is not seen. also remember from above

that you just exposed bare metal.

i ordered my 2/0 welders cable from http://www.weldingsupply.com . they had several colors available and the price was a little over

a buck a foot. for colored wire you had to buy in 25' increments. black you could order specific lengths. they also sold ring

terminals but i had a hard time making out the description. soooo the ring terminals for 1/0 and 2/0 i have bought locally

from a welding supply shop. i would have bought the wire locally but they did not have anything bigger than #4 on hand. as

they only order large rols in bulk for customers. and i did not need 200 ft of it.

the car audio shops wanted an arm and a leg for 1/0 power wire. cheapest i found was $5 a ft. most common was $8-10 a ft.

even online the cheapest i found 1/0 was $2.25 a ft. http://www.knukonceptz.com

with ring terminals that large i used a bench vice to secure the ends on the wire, hammer and pin punch. used the bench vice

as a backing surface and hammer it down. then used the pin punch to make indentations to hopefully keep in secure. i was told

that it might be a good idea to pull out the solder and solder it but i never did. weldingsupply.com makes a specific tool

for this but i forget the price on it. phoenix gold also makes a tool to attach ring terminals but they want 40 bux for it.

i do have some wire stuff online, but not everything.

http://www.dbfanatics.com/forum/photo_album_view.asp?cname=wires&mid=16&cid=150

hope this helps some.

this sounds like a good candidate for the page i am working on for my car and audio addictions.

Monty

February 16, 2004

shit for what they're charging for wire you may as well grab the $40 summit battery relocate kit, it comes with about 30' of 1ga cable and some ends.

February 16, 2004

When I installed my system I had to install a ground from the battery to the frame cause the car would stall and generally run like shit when I was pounding the subs. I actually talked to an installer with a Z34 and he told me it's cause of the crappy grounds on our cars. He sold me 2 new battery cable ends that allow me to hook up extra cables with a bolt that threads in the end. Worked great and I totally recommend it for anyone with a system in their car.

Cost like $15 cdn for ends and ground cable.

February 16, 2004

goph you need a capacitor.............. or another capacitor if you already have one. the genereal rule of thimb its for every 500 watts 1 farad.

screw that i need a 250amp alternator.

lol... :lol:

capacitors help but the only way to completely cure the problem is a bigger alternator

so i'm with him

February 16, 2004

i snapped some pics today in the HOT weather we had today. temp was almost to 30 and saw some snow melting.

good sign good sign.

in my description above i believe i left off some things.

namely how did i connect the wires to the battery.

when i went shopping for a new battery i knew it had to have dual terminals. the wonderfull GM side posts so i could just bolt in and and go. and then top terminals for the audio side of things. i got a deal at a competition for some lightning audio battery terminals. i wish i had went with a different style but they work.

they have 2 or 3 holes in the end and set screws for 4 and 8 gauge wires and then a screw on top for ring terminals for larger wire.

hope to get the pics up at least here shortly.

Monty

February 16, 2004

shit for what they're charging for wire you may as well grab the $40 summit battery relocate kit, it comes with about 30' of 1ga cable and some ends.

this is why i went with welders cable. as they rape you for car audio wire.

and if you think about it what does welders cable do? transfer a buttload of power. and what does car audio wire do? transfer a buttload of power.

money saved. cha-ching

now for speaker wires i usually go with the almost cheap stuff. but that i tend to have for along time. the last speaker wire was in various cars. so it was used for about 4 years. mayb a little more.

still have it just not in use right now

Monty