engine grounding - REVISED PRICING ON PAGE 7 (7/5/11)

[Kavik]

Anyone interested in doing some grounding?
I was looking at the kits from Paranoid Fabrications, which I had in my old car and worked well.....but with 3 cars to put them in now I'm thinking it would be a lot cheaper to just buy a big spool of 8ga wire and some 4ga and do it up myself

Just in the feeler stage right now, pricing things out...but it gets a whole lot cheaper per car once you start looking at the bigger spools  




Edit (04/17):
All supplies ordered except solder.  The list below is how it stands for who's in on this.  See Page 5, post #105 for updated pricing estimates  

Final pricing ended up even better than I'd hoped  


Pick your option:
  1) Big 3 ringed (attaches to stock battery terminals):
  2) Big 3 no rings (needs battery terminal upgrade):
  3) Big 3 ringed (attaches to stock battery terminals) plus additional 8ga grounding wires:
  4) Big 3 no rings (needs battery terminal upgrade) plus additional 8ga grounding wires:


Option 1:
-gebby

Option 2:
-

Option 3:
-Trev (confirmed)

Option 4:
-me (x3)  (confirmed  )
-rshaw123 (confirmed)
-spoolordie
-TylerBeau



Ignore this part, info below is just for me to keep track of tallying up supplies
Option 1 (Big 3 - stock battery terminals)
-8ga wire: N/A
-8ga rings: N/A
-4ga wire: 74" ($5.63)
-4ga rings: 6
-inline fuse ($4.60)
-Heat Shrink ($0.90)

Option 2 (Big 3 - upgrade terminals)
-8ga wire: N/A
-8ga rings: N/A
-4ga wire: 74" ($5.63)
-4ga rings: 3
-inline fuse ($4.60)
-Heat Shrink ($0.45)

Option 3 (Full kit - stock terminals)
-8ga wire: 84" ($4.03)
-8ga rings: 8
-4ga wire: 74" ($5.63)
-4ga rings: 6
-inline fuse ($4.60)
-Heat Shrink ($2.10)

Option 4 (Full kit - upgraded terminals)
-8ga wire: 84" ($4.03)
-8ga rings: 7
-4ga wire: 74" ($5.63)
-4ga rings: 3
-inline fuse ($4.60)
-Heat Shrink ($1.50)

[spoolordie]

i might be down im short on cash between the tune and parts for the bugeye and the new bike

[Kavik]

depending on cost of ring terminals, and the bulk bought, I can't see it being more than $20 a pop, rough guess  

The method I'm thinking would be something like this:
4ga:
-battery possitive to alternator positive (100-130? amp inline fuse)
-battery negative to fender by battery
-battery negative to alternator mount
8ga
-throttle body (daisy chained off the 4ga neg at the alternator mount)
-drivers side head to battery negative
-passenger intake manifold (to tie in the other stock ground points there) to passenger side head to battery negative

soldered ring terminals with shrink tubing

So now I'm looking for the right new battery terminals which will drive the price up a fair amount...though others can stick with attaching ring terminals to stock battery terminals if they want to keep it cheaper


with stock battery terminals this would be
-3 lengths of 4ga wire
-4 lengths of 8ga wire
-14 eyelets/ring terminals (6x4ga, 8x8ga)
-solder
-shrink tube

with upgraded battery terminal
-Pos battery terminal with multiple hookups
-Neg battery terminal with multiple hookups
-3 lengths 4ga wire
-4 lengths 8 ga wire
-9 eyelets/ring terminals (3x4ga, 6x8ga)
-solder
-shrink tube

[idipskoalmint]

Do the "Big 3"

[Kavik]

what I mentioned above would cover 2 of the big 3....I'm still looking into what's involved with the third line on the positive side

[sunnyx]

whats the purpose of this? When i was doing subwoofer competitions i did the Big 3 in my blazer so i know why to do it for that reason. But grounding the engine with out running extra current through the car.

[Kavik]

benefits vary by car.....some people have hesitation under certain rpm ranges, not so smooth idle, headlights dimming when you touch anything electrical, constantly getting shocked by the car.  When I had grounding wires on my '02 it helped with all those issues

If your car has none of these funky problems, yeah it won't do anything for you. But poor grounds seems to be a pretty common problem on these cars, more so on the older ones (pre '06-ish) from what I hear anyway

[Photofixer]

I did my own and it cost like 40 bucks..  Definatly the way to go..

[Kavik]

i'm hoping to get the price lower than that by buying more wire 

Notice any improvements worth mentioning on yours Marty?

[Photofixer]

Brighter headlamps.. Smoother idle.... about it... I always thought 2nd felt alittle smoother.. but  must be placebo..

[Kavik]

either one of those is good enough for me for the cost 

[Kavik]

updated the 'shopping list' in post 3. 
Adding the fused line from battery pos to alternator is going to add another $5-10 to the overall cost
And adding upgraded battery terminals for these multiple wires could easily jack it up another $30, but is completely optional

I'm looking at this for the wire: Cadence Oxygen Free Copper Wire
8ga - 49ft = $21.95
4ga - 35ft = $31.95

I'll do some preliminary measurements, but eyeballing with my hands spread while sitting on my couch, I think that could cover about 5 cars 
So, a little less than $11 per car for wire if I'm right about that, plus fuse & holder plus ring terminals....probably around $25-30 using stock battery terminals and more like $60 with upgraded battery terminals


for reference, the 'big 3 kit' from the best place I know of to get it from is $45 dollars
the rest of the engine grounding kit, with soldered terminals, is another $55 on top of that

decent savings I think, if people don't mind doing a little work to save money 

[gebby1029]

I'd be game.  I know for sure my headlamps dim if I hit the door locks and it wouldn't be a bad idea to try to smooth the engine out.

[Kavik]

Yeah, mine do when rolling up my windows too lol

Gonna give it a week or so for anyone to chime in before deciding how much to buy.  I'll post links when I find  battery terminals I want for myself

If you're really interested I need to know if you want just the "big 3" (only the 4ga wiring) or if you want the additional grounds.  Also if you want new battery terminals or not so I know how many eyelets and terminals to buy

[rshaw123]

If I get a car this weekend, I'm game.

[darroj]

What are you looking to upgrade the stock battery terminals with? Just curious as I have probably more stuff crammed on to mine than I should.

[Kavik]

i haven't picked one out yet, need to figure out what all is going to be coming off each one

but do a search on eBay for "battery terminal" and set the minimum price to $20 and just scroll through and you'll see the types I'm looking at.  Stinger, xScorpion, Kicker, Tsunami....a ton of different brands to pick through, with all sorts of wire combinations, some with built in voltmeters even

[darroj]

oh sweet, I like this one since I have all ring style connectors! You've inspired me to make my own big 3 kit (I'd have gotten on as part of this thread, but I live in PA...)

http://cgi.ebay.com/XScorpion-Platinum-Ring-Type-Battery-Terminal-BTRP-/310279532789?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item483e19f0f5

edit: better price and 8% off using code HOLIDAY8 - http://www.vminnovations.com/product_8303/Xscorpion-Platinum-3-Ring-Battery-Terminals-Pair-.html

[Kavik]

I had that terminal on a previous car.  Wasn't thrilled with the design of it, but if you've already got rings on everything it might work for you


And, don't worry, you're not going to hurt my feelings by putting it together yourself    I'm not looking to get anything out of this other than lower price per unit by buying more


that said....I can get that 8ga wire for less than 31 cents a foot 
But I'd have to buy 246 feet of it 

[rshaw123]

bought the car so when ever you do this let me know, I'm interested

[Kavik]

okay, added a reminder to the first post, I'm going to need to know if people are interested in just the 'big 3', or the 'big 3' plus the rest of the grounding points

I'll try to nail down a couple battery terminal options today or tomorrow if I have time to search some more

[Kavik]

bought the car so when ever you do this let me know, I'm interested

You're going to need to do a little searching around....find out if there's any particular grounding points that work better for your car.  I've only got plans for back to an '02 wrx.  I'm sure it's pretty much going to be the same, but this is kinda going to be up to everyone to have the final say in how yours is done.  I can supply the stuff, but I'm not putting together 'kits' since every one will fit a little differently

[gebby1029]

I'm in for just the main 3.

[Kavik]

okay.  


and before we go any further, is everyone satisfied with 4ga? or should we bump it up to 2 or 0?
It gets a lot more expensive, and I'm not having much luck finding out if it's actually needed, or if it's just 'possibly' better, leaning towards overkill lol
edit: nevermind.  the 0ga is about 163% more expensive for the wire, twice as expensive for the terminals, and that would throw everything of for the battery terminal and fuse choices I had in mind so far.  Not to mention, I don't think I'd run the 0ga to the power alternator, so that would turn into a 3 different wire setup, 8ga and 0ga for ground, 4ga for power.  I don't feel like the added headaches, or expense   

[rshaw123]

You're going to need to do a little searching around....find out if there's any particular grounding points that work better for your car.  I've only got plans for back to an '02 wrx.  I'm sure it's pretty much going to be the same, but this is kinda going to be up to everyone to have the final say in how yours is done.  I can supply the stuff, but I'm not putting together 'kits' since every one will fit a little differently

Where should I look? I don't really have time to spend a lot of time researching in-between work and school. I am still very interested because my headlights dim when the directionals and brake lights are on.