[nolanspawn]

Here are the meterials I started out with

20 feet of both 4 gauge and 8 gauge high strand copper cable.

Since I was going to be adding extra grounds, PurpleMetal1 and I came up with the idea of making a custom copper grounding bracket. It has many extra spots to mount extra cables.

Grounding bracket w/ stock mounting points.

More to come.....

 

[nolanspawn]

Intake Manifold grounded!!

Altenator Grounded!!

Stock Ground At Passenger Side Motormount Upgraded To 4Gauge!!

Throttle Body and Head Grounded!!

Starter grounded!!

Windshiel Wipper Motor Grounded!!

Distributor Grounded

and more to come....

 

[nolanspawn]

And finally the finished look:

My car seems to run a ton better now. No more throwing an air bag code is definately a plus. It seems to pull a hell of alot harder than before. right at first it was ok, but once the computer adjusted it was great.

Josh

 

[mx6GT91]

Did you notice brighter lights too

Looks very nice!!!

 

[-=DeAd iNsIdE=-]

So you want to do that to my car now? :E

 

[nolanspawn]

So you want to do that to my car now? :E

You talking about your Mx6 or your GST?

Josh

 

[Mazda_MX6_Turbo]

so did u see any power difference??

 

[Larry]

Where did you get your 4 gauge and 8 gauge wires? I can't find them, unless you got them at some speaker place. :shrug:

 

[nolanspawn]

Yes I saw a good bit of power difference. All the electrical stuff seemed to run better...headlights are much brighter. The throttle response is intensly better. I got the cables yes from an audio place...they are high stand wire. I got the copper terminals from Napa. The copper bracket I made myself...i have some copper left over also for more brackets.

Josh

 

[Larry]

Do we need 4 and 8 gauge wires? Can we just use the 4 gauges cuz they're thicker?

 

[1blkmx6]

Approximately how long did this take you?

 

[bluemotyl]

I assure you that all that extra ground work did nothing, but maybe fix an pre-existing electrical problem.

Mazda was well within their limits of electrical grounding. all those extra grounds from the motor mounts to chasis, arent needed at all. Unless there is something that I dont know from your setup (did you upgrade to a 36Volt system?) cause if you are still running a 12V system the all that was not needed.

Also grounds should be as short as possible, so running everything to that one distro-point is hindering.

lastly, I didnt notice in the pictures, but it doesnt appear that you sanded any of the paint off, Paint isnt mettalic conductive material but instead in insulator.

 

[Malicious]

Yeah I really don't get the point of grounding absolutely every electrical accessory in the car.

I'm sure there's some benefits to be gained from UPGRADING existing ground wires to heavier gauges, but running 10 new wires to a central location doesn't seem to effective to me as bluemotyl noted. Also, you're just asking for an electrical nightmare if something shorts out.

 

[Guest]

lots of assorted wires running in various dircetions dangling in high temp areas= fire hazord.

I agree, running shorter wires to the block and chasis its self would of been smarter.

 

[nolanspawn]

lots of assorted wires running in various dircetions dangling in high temp areas= fire hazord.

I agree, running shorter wires to the block and chasis its self would of been smarter.

For your information nothing is "dangling". And as for a fire hazard...yah thats why I bought wires that can weather the elements as well as high temperatures.

Josh

 

[Metallargy]

It's not the cleanest install, but it's certainly not a fire hazard.

Cars are massed produced ... making grounds shorter & less plentiful saves a ****load of money in the end. Grounding kits have been dynoed to improve horsepower on new cars ('02 & '03 models). IIRC, it was primarily in the high ends of the powerband.

There's plenty of room for improvement from the get go on these cars ... that includes the stock grounds.

 

[SilverLS]

is there any reason to have all the grounds routed to one location, or would it be just as good to ground at many different points??

 

[scubasteve]

It's not the cleanest install, but it's certainly not a fire hazard.

Cars are massed produced ... making grounds shorter & less plentiful saves a ****load of money in the end. Grounding kits have been dynoed to improve horsepower on new cars ('02 & '03 models). IIRC, it was primarily in the high ends of the powerband.

There's plenty of room for improvement from the get go on these cars ... that includes the stock grounds.

Yes there is improvement for THE STOCK grounds, upgrading to a thicker, higher quality wire ... is a gain

But running grounds long distance hinder you. Everyone things of electricity flow as conventional current, convential current states that electrons flow from POSITVE to NEGATIVE.

In reality, electrons actually flow From NEGATIVE to POSITIVE,I can get down into the science of it, of how the valence electrons of an atom go from the outer ring of one atom to the next, but that hopefully is not needed.

Making longer grounds are doing nothing, and adding grounds definatly are not doing nothing. Electricity flows the path of LEAST resistance. A shorter peice of wire has less resistance, so most of the current in the entire vehicle is all within the shortest ground from the battery. all those long cables from the distro point to the distributer ect. prolly have little to no current flowing in them.

The manufacturer of the vehicle will have a satisfactory ground system for electrical demands of the car. Adding more horsepower is not an increase in demand to the electrical system. Adding stereos, hydraulics and other big electrical demands would benifit from this upgrade, had it been done properly. Im not bashing on the fellow that did this, he obviously put alot of time and heart into it. Here are my recomendations:

• Sand all paint at ground connections, like Bluemotyl said
• Do NOT run those long cables to one point. instead ground the motor to the chasis of the vehicle with the shortest possible wire, where you make connections at the chassis be sure to sand all Paint off
• 4-guage wire can be tricky to crimp properly, and under vibrations, and improper crimp can and will come lose. Make sure you use a 4-gauge crimping tool, (most audio shops will have these)

I managed a car Stereo shop for a couple of years, and have done plenty of satisfactory work, im also in the middle of Electrical Engineering school, Take my advice, I have personal experience with this

 

[Marcus]

well being that I have designed an ECU for a car, I will also say that all those wires have no effect on the grounding of your vehicle.

Like Scuba said, wires have an assoicaited resistance to them, and is measured in units/length. This means the longer the wire, the more resistance is associated with them.

No as for the multiple grounding points, every point on the car is at a different potential from every other point of the car in terms of voltage. You shouldn't give the car multiple points to reference ground from, especially the way you are doing it. All those points you grounded out were already referenced to ground in the system. By adding what is essentially a long transmission line across a high output EM device (aka your motor) you have induced noise onto your ground plane... this is BAD!!!

Take ground from one point on the chassis and leave it there. No need for all the wires.


Your ground plane has noise on it now which I gaurentee would be seen on a digital o-scope.

 

[KING6]

for people thinking of doing this mod..heres a tip, less is more, ground your engine to the bat, the trani to the bat, and a solid peice of chasis to the bat. thats about all you need to ground. if the grounding everything is the "big picture" with some people, go through all your wireing and find bad grounds and fix them, not add. Your grounding mod is a rat nest. Sorry. And if you knew anything about mechanics..you would realized more then half the stuff you grounded, was already properly grounded by a previous wire you added... for instance..a ground to the disty...well theres allready a ground on the block..and isnt the disty bolted to the block

This is what you call..some one that THINKs they know what there doing..yet had no education of the subject there working with..and then spent alot a time doing nothing but making a mess that hell be sorting out later when he needs to make a repair. Id like to see the mechanics face when he/she popped the hood on that rat nest.