Ground Wire Install and Questions

[1Canuck2]

Hi,

After much trolling and research on all the various ground wire posts, I finally bit the bullet and made my own set. Today was installation day, here are some pics of the results. I have some questions too, so I'll post them as the next post.

Overview of wires:

Right Side of Engine:

Battery Close-up:

Comments and criticisms are welcome

 

[1Canuck2]

So here are my questions...

I have no ground to the transmission, would there be an advantage to this? I was thinking of running one more wire from the bottom right ground under the coolant can over to the tranny at the location just hidden by my air filter (there is a wire harness going there already). It seems to be the only engine location I have missed. I've got the wire, so what's to lose?

Has anyone with an automatic done ground wires? What did you find the results to be? Here are my comments on the change it made...

The idle seems smoother, it was always a little incistent before, now it is smooth and flat and you can't feel vibration at all.

The engine idle has gone down from 1,000 rpms to roughly 5-600 rpms. Is this normal?

The shifts on my sportmatic seem smoother. I know some of this may be psychological, but I swear it is a less jerky shift. In particular, the downshift is smoother. I generally downshift (engine brake) when at 2000 - 2500 rpm, this results in the lower gear kicking in at 3000 - 3500 rpm (i.e 4th at 2000rpm is 3rd at 3000rpm).

After the ground wires, I took it for a spin and I swear that these downshifts are smoother, does this make any sense?

With respect to the wires, I used red 4-guage Pro-Link Pro-Series Power Cable. I got it for CAN$1.50/foot (US$1.10). It was supposed ot be $3, but the guy mis-quoted me, plus I paid for 16ft and he gave me 20!

The gold plated 4-guage ring terminals are nice and heavy - they were a b**** to crimp! They cost CAN$3.49 a pair (~US$2.25/pr) (and were also mis-quoted and should have been $4/pair. They came with the little red sleeves, so no heat shrink needed.

All I need to do is find red zip ties that don't cost $10 a pack!

Oh, and the battery terminal is a gold-plated Stinger terminal from Future Shop for CAN$20 (~US$13).

I have the positive terminal as well, but haven't done that yet as replacing these wires seems like lots more work. Anyone have any tips on doing this, I checked the other ground wire thread and theere is talk of cutting the fuse box cover, etc.

 

[scott42]

I just recently installed my ground kit that 1st made for a buch of people, and I noticed the same quality changes re: smoothness of shifts and idle, very nice surprise.


Good stuff on the deal you finagled (thumb)

 

[1Canuck2]

I was going to go for the 1st gw kit, but shipping to Canada and the ubiquitous duties charge would have killed me. All told, this kit cost me ~CAN$60 to do, with high quality pieces, so I am happy.

I know the 1st kit comes with 8 wires. If it's not inappropriate to ask, where do the other two wires go? Is one of them to the transmission point I mentioned?

Perhpas 1st MP3 will see this and answer...

 

[twilightprotege]

my comments on the install, and comments in general.

- you might as well had a ground to the transmission. there is one there stock, so you might as well replace it
- i have done the +ve terminal as well. looks good, dont know if it does anything different, but must work. the wires from it go to the starter motor and the fuse box. if you're going to replace the one going to the fuse box, you might as well replace the wire coming from the alternator to the fuse box as well (i did this)
- an area i think a lot of people miss is the two head cover bolts on top of the head cover. they are the closes bolts to the spark plug
- you've pretty much done very similar to what everyone is doing. i beleive you can go overboard, but what you've done looks good.

hope this helps,

later

 

[1Canuck2]

Thanks for the reply twilight, couple more que.s...

Do you have any photos of your ground wire install?

Where on the transmission is the stock ground? There is one plastic wire clip that plugs into a point on the transmission, but its wires seem to go to multiple places. Is this it? If you have no idea what I am talking about, I'll try to take a picture.

The two bolts you are talking about near the spark plugs, Are they necessary considering I have one ground wire going to the bolt on the drivers side of the head cover (it looks like its under the oil cap in my picture).

Did you have to cut the fuse box to replace that wire?

Thanks

 

[twilightprotege]

hey

i dont have any piccies of my install because i've tried to hide the wires at much as possible and also i have the plastic engine cover (standard on australian p5's)

the place where the transmission is grounded directly to the battery is approximately directly under where you have the oil breather tube going into your intake. that's the closest place i can explain it

the bolts on top of the head cover at not necessary, but then again i guess most places arent necessary, i just thought they would be a fantastic place to have wires because they are the closest places we can mount grounding wires to the spark plugs...and we know how much electricity goes through the spark plugs...just my thought anyway.

with the fuse box. yes i did have to cut holes. i can take a few pictures of that for you....i'll just go and take the few pics now....brb

 

[twilightprotege]

fuse box

 

[twilightprotege]

fuse box again

 

[twilightprotege]

top of intake manifold just to show what i've done there

 

[twilightprotege]

what i did with the fuse box is use a trust set of circle hole wood drill bits (not sure of their real name) and slowly drilled the hole in the side of the plastic (after lining everything up ofcourse), then put the rubber grommet around it just to make it sit nice and snug and there you have it! you can see the marks i made on the fuse box to line things up...just havent gotten around to clean them off yet...

hope this helps

 

[1Canuck2]

Hey Twilight, that helps a bunch and looks great too! Thanks for the photos. You went all out on your groundwire install!

I like the way you did the wires on the intake manifold. So do you go from the left side to the negative, to this intake manifold location, then take everything from there? It looks like a good spot, sort of like the circle earth concept.

I had a picky hard time getting the three ring terminals on the post of my negative battery temrinla, just enough room to fit them all, one more and it would not have fit.

I am a little scared of doing the fuse box thing, especially if I want to remove the wires when I sell the car, then there's nasty holes in my fuse box.

I do want to do the tranny ground though, I'll see if I can find the location you are talking about. Is that the "other" wire that was on the stock negative terminal. I should just be able to trace it and replace it.

Thanks

 

[niv]

Congrats on the install! looks good

 

[twilightprotege]

i cant really say i went all out on the install....i just thought that was the best way to go...esp the big terminal crimp thingies that i have going to the fuse box. i used them on the alternator and the starter motor as well because i thought they were quite important parts in the engine bay electrical system and i wanted as many electrons going to them as possible.

my wires run like this :

replaced passenger side ground wire that goes to the no 3 engine mount. from there to the intake manifold.
then i have 3 wires from the head to the intake manifold (two middle of the head bolts and the one just off the head close to the cai where there are like 7 or 8 grounding wires
then from the intake manifold to the battery.
replace the stock gearbox to the batter and the driver side chassis to the battery (this was 2 8 guage wires because of the type of battery terminal i had (2 x 4ga + 2 x 8ga))
replace the +ve battery terminal to the fuse box and starter motor
and replaced the alternator to the fuse box.

does that make sense???

yeah looks like the terminal is a little crouded that's why i went for the block as explained above - thought it would just be easier

with the holes in the fuse box, you could always just fill the holes with a solid grommet - i'm sure the buyer would never know the difference

and yep the gear box is the other -ve terminal wire. that's exactly how i found all the wires i replaced - tracing them....then when i was sure it's the right wire, but the crimp off and pull like hell at the other end and it eventually came out hehehe very professional that way

hope this helps

 

[Pure Insanity]

OK Ive been reading about this listed in peoples sigs, but what the hell is it? I get that your improving the ground but why? (and why so many different points?) Ive read smoother shifting better performance idle ETC.

The block is bolted to the tranny, the cam cover is bolted to the block as is the intake and other related parts that have wires going to them. I can see even 1 off the block and 1 off the trans at opposite ends but why ground ALL those points? Theyre all bolted together anyhow.

And yes I have done some searches, I just cant seem to come up w/ any real description of the "problems" and why the fix is needed.

 

[1Canuck2]

Basically, it smooths out the idle a little and looks cool. Not much more than that. Its a fun project if you want to pamper your engine a little, but its far from "required".

 

[twilightprotege]

the problem? aluminimum is a crappy electrical conductor....as are most parts in the engine.

it's just an easy way to get power to and from the battery as quickly as possible with the least resistance. less resistance = more energy = more power...well sorta. i cant notice any improvement in power, but idle is smoother (well was before i got custom cams)

 

[solid_snake2x]

This is another way of getting more power out of your engine.
check the link at the bottom of the page



Hyper Voltage System

TYPE MR increase Multi-range rev power and torque
TYPE LR increase Low and mid range rev power and torque
TYPE HR increase Sport driving and high rev power and torque

Hyper Voltage System will increase of both horsepower and torque

The Hyper Voltage System is to stabilize the flow of the voltage from the battery. By stabilizing the voltage from the battery, the load on the battery is reduced, resulting in increasing engine performance and electrical equipment.

Hyper Voltage System Effectiveness and Feature:
- Increase Torque
- Increase Horsepower
- Better Throttle Response
- Better Fuel Mileage
- Increase efficiency of electrical equipment
- Simple, easy installation
- Can be install in any cars, trucks, and SUVs

http://www.eautoworks.com/html/ast-Auto~styling-Hyper~Voltage~System.htm

 

[1Canuck2]

Sorry, that's too much marketing bulls***. There is no way to get the gains this thing claims by simply messing with the voltage on your car. And to have three different optimized versions is just laughable.

And it looks like all it does is go between the pos and neg terminals on the battery. What BS

The fine print probably says: brought to you by the makers of the Tornado Air Intake mod...

Anyway, a groundwire kit will smooth out your idle for the reasons twilight says. It might take slightly better advantage of other mods you do, but if you expect anything more don't spend your money.

 

[twilightprotege]

yeah it does sound a little....well :bs:

i'm happy with my ground wire mod...but if you're thinking of doing it, dont expect power gains above 2hp (ie not noticable)