Best grounding locations?

[Matt V]

So my friend gave me this all grounding kit he had laying around, consisting of three 3 foot long 4 gauge cables with terminals on each side. I figure I can use this to upgrade the weak points on the P5. Where do you recommend I put these? If you can show pics as examples also that would be nice.

 

[sethro_GT]

Where ever they look nice. Probably one off the head, one off the block and one off the trans. Make sure you clean to bare metal on the chassis side, or use a star washer. I spray over the mounted terminal with clearcoat when I sand paint off.

 

[Matt V]

Anyone else?

 

[P-Funk!]

Bat to chassis
Bat to engine
Bat to alt (IIRC)

Everything else is kinda' small amperage and not really worth it....

 

[JCell]

valve cover
head

everywhere else just ground to metal

 

[Matt V]

Bat to chassis
Bat to engine
Bat to alt (IIRC)

Everything else is kinda' small amperage and not really worth it....

When you say battery I assume you mean the negative terminal?

 

[sethro_GT]

Thats a lot of wires on the battery terminal. May want to make a grounding block to bolt a large gauge wire from it to the battery then all your new grounds to the block. Make sure your baterry cables/terminals are corrosion free too.

Think of it like those vacuum distribution blocks.

 

[ucMP3]

Thats a lot of wires on the battery terminal. May want to make a grounding block to bolt a large gauge wire from it to the battery then all your new grounds to the block. Make sure your baterry cables/terminals are corrosion free too.

Think of it like those vacuum distribution blocks.

You either need to do this or daisy chain your ground wires. You can find good write ups on the internet about it. Theres a decent one in the how-to's on this forum as well. I have a really good one done on an fc RX-7 bookmarked on my home computer. I'll post it up here if I remember when I get home.

 

[sethro_GT]

Hit me in physics class, you should add the cables to bolts already holding factory grounds (especially the fuel rail harness) so that those grounds have a direct cable link to a good ground rather than going through the bracket > block > some distant cable > chassis > battery cable > battery.

 

[ucMP3]

Hit me in physics class, you should add the cables to bolts already holding factory grounds (especially the fuel rail harness) so that those grounds have a direct cable link to a good ground rather than going through the bracket > block > some distant cable > chassis > battery cable > battery.

You need to take them through your main ground through the battery still tho. Just Daisy chain your ground wires back to the negative terminal. Thats the easiest and most cost effective way.

 

[P-Funk!]

When you say battery I assume you mean the negative terminal?

Yep!

 

[sethro_GT]

Though I'm sure 6gauge can handle it fine, daisy chaining may cause signal confusion. By running them all to a block then a larger gauge from the battery to the block. "Block" is a relative term for a mass connector were a bunch of branches come together into a larger trunk. One of these would work nicely if all the wires fir into the holes.

This would be awsome, only $22, there's a matching one for negative at $12
http://www.wiringproducts.com/contents/en-us/d525.html

Or you could use a 4ga from battery into this with all the 6ga going into the other side.

 

[ucMP3]

Though I'm sure 6gauge can handle it fine, daisy chaining may cause signal confusion. By running them all to a block then a larger gauge from the battery to the block. "Block" is a relative term for a mass connector were a bunch of branches come together into a larger trunk. One of these would work nicely if all the wires fir into the holes.

If you don't daisy chain, you will have 4-6 (depending how many u run) 4-6 ga wires going back to a terminal made to receive 2 or 3 0-4 ga wires.... Unless you get a bigger distribution block and not just a nicer battery terminal, you have to daisy chain. You really don't have a choice, unless you use 10ga wire and/or do a crap job shoving a bunch of smaller wires into a terminal designed for one bigger wire, which sorta defeats the purpose of having a clean grounding location.

I would use 6ga wire for the ground wires and bring those back into 2 main lines which would go into the battery terminal. I would definately buy an upgraded battery terminal that can at least take 2 2 ga. wires.

*Also signal confusion won't be an issue. Its a ground wire. As long as your ground points are clean and your connections are solid, you won't have a problem. Get a good thick ga wire, it'll be fine.

 

[sethro_GT]

3 6ga wires would fit in a 2ga connector like the last picture (educated guess)...

Yeah signal won't get botched with even 10ga wire, unless there is a high resistance connection causing a voltage drop which confuses the computer. Any technique should work so long as the connections are clean and solid.

grounds are just as important as signal wires; a bathtub overflows if the drain is smaller than the faucet.

 

[ucMP3]

3 6ga wires would fit in a 2ga connector like the last picture (educated guess)...

Yeah signal won't get botched with even 10ga wire, unless there is a high resistance connection causing a voltage drop which confuses the computer. Any technique should work so long as the connections are clean and solid.

grounds are just as important as signal wires; a bathtub overflows if the drain is smaller than the faucet.

This seems to reiterate what i said and somehow try to rebuke it simultaneously...

 

[Matt V]

Could somebody just post pics of their setup in the P5? There is a lot of terminology here that I'm not familiar with.

 

[sethro_GT]

Yeah, I'm probably arguing with myself more than anything. Not until I drew this up did I realize the daisy chain method would be the easiest and just as effective. Not sure why it didn't register earlier.

Red is distribution block ground system, yellow is daisy chain (so I think).

 

[ucMP3]

Ya, and you can have 2 chains going into the negative terminal if it has 2 points on it if that would be easier for you & you have a nice terminal.