[body9599]

G1: Engine Grounding Wires Install

Hey guys,

Decided to make my own ground wires as everywhere I looked they wanted 50 bucks or more for some cable and ring terminals. I made my own out of 6 gauge black welding cable. It's a 5 cable set, but I can add more later if I find it necessary. My grounding path was from negative terminal > distributor > front head cylinder cover > rear fuel rail > rear head cylinder cover > firewall. Cost was as follows:

10' 6 awg cable - 8$
10 6 awg ring terminals - 3$
pack of shrink tube - 1$

Cable lengths in order of installation were 26" > 23" > 25.5" > 14" > 8"
The cable from the distributor to front cover was a little too long.

I actually haven't driven since I installed it last night, but I will post once I have it tested out. I really don't expect much from this because it seems like anywhere you look there are conflicting reports of performance and stability gains. I figured if I could do it myself it would at least be worth the 12 bucks and experience gained.

Here are 4 of the 5 cables

Overview of battery to distributor to head cover (its the black cable coming out past the sparkplug wires)

This is the distributor connection

Front head cylinder cover connection w/ stock ground wire shown

Trip from front head cover to rear fuel rail

Fuel rail connection

Rear engine connection to firewall

As always…let me know what you guys think and feel free to point out anything that will blow up my car. Later

 

[acc-unit]

looks like a clean install , and a damn clean engine, im very jealous .

 

[MrSmith]

I like it, looks very well done. Dealer installed even.

But call me stupid if you will for the question. What are they for? Is it for you radio of something??

 

[z00m]

I like it, looks very well done. Dealer installed even.

But call me stupid if you will for the question. What are they for? Is it for you radio of something??

it makes for a better ground.. i plan on doing what you did too.. grounding kits on ebay are rediculous

better grounds are supposed to mean better responsiveness (from electrical components in the engine), and supposedly a tad bit more power (and gas mileage), etc.

run a search, there is a lotta info on the benefits (it wont do wonders though of course)

 

[body9599]

Thanks for the comments guys. For those wondering about grounding wires...I found this site using them on a Volvo.Click Here One thing I didn't do that they did was ground the tranny. Mine is a manual so I can't imagine what sort of gains I would get from that...maybe I'll add one later for kicks.

After driving to and from work a few times I can say the car feels smoother, especially in the upper RPMs. It also pulls a little harder on the freeway, but this could be one of those great placebo effects. Either way it was worth the effort. I'm going to change my distributor cap and rotor soon so I'm sure that will help out too. If you try this and have any questions...feel free.

 

[body9599]

Just an update...after changing out wires, cap, rotor, plugs and adding this grounding system...The car feels great. It responds better than ever and with recent brake rotor/pad, P/S, coolant and tranny fluid changes I am very happy with how things have turned out with this car. There are still some minor details to fix, but...it's a keeper .

Later,

body

 

[GREYLEGEND]

I'd be more inclined to get some emery paper and something called contact enhancer from an electronics store. ( Contact enhancer seals the contact between conducting metals and prevents corrosion). Undo the connection points. Clean up the contact points with the emery, apply the contact enhancer and reattach. Nice work though especially for $12.

 

[rychas1]

thats weird. i can only find 2 ground s in my bay. thats is the neg battery gorund and the engine- front frame ground. thats it, although i believe the tranny ground is there. whats with this? should my car even run? i guess i need this project too, eh?

 

[aminus21]

I stumbled up on this thread, and Id like to say NICE WORK!!
Where can I get the supplies for this? And is this the same stuff that the stock grounding wires are made of?

 

[Ken]

i really want to do this now, please make a DIY, please, thenx!

 

[jessie64]

You've got to have the CLEANEST engine I've ever seen. It looks great! Great job on the install and thanks for the pics. I have a feeling, it may prove to be quite helpful.

 

[body9599]

Thanks for the comments!

I stumbled up on this thread, and Id like to say NICE WORK!!
Where can I get the supplies for this? And is this the same stuff that the stock grounding wires are made of?

You can get the supplies for this at an electrical parts store or possibly a hardware store. For the most part it is the same material as the stock grounds in that I used copper wire. You can use colored wire if you want to dress up the engine bay.

i really want to do this now, please make a DIY, please, thenx!

Most of the pics above should explain the procedure...the only thing not explained was how to strip the wires, crimp the ring terminals on, and solder/shrink tube the ends (optional). If you need help with this let me know and I'll see what I can do.

1)Get your materials (~10 feet 4-8 Ga wire, ring terminals of matching gauge, shrink tube and solder - if desired)
2)cut your wires to lengths shown above (note that the distributor to front head wire was a little too long for me (probably 2-3inches slack)
3)strip the wire ends
4)put your shrink tube on before crimping the terminals
5)crimp the terminals and solder for better connection
6)heat up the shrink tubing
7)route and attach the wires to the various points shown above

Make sure that your cables produce a grounding "path"...a high efficiency route directly to the battery negative terminal. You can also add other wires here and there for kicks to see if you get any more stability gains. There could be a far better route than what I have described here so feel free to experiment. If you are unsure of a cable length...measure it.

Hope it helps.

Later

 

[Mennouth]

OK OK, its got to be on every ones mind, but how did you get your engin so clean. i mean i have a clean engin but it palse in comparison to yours, what did you use? and i will get pice of my car posted somwere, no mods yet- but they are on there way, trying to think up a Cold air system that wont suck water.

 

[body9599]

OK OK, its got to be on every ones mind, but how did you get your engin so clean. i mean i have a clean engin but it palse in comparison to yours, what did you use? and i will get pice of my car posted somwere, no mods yet- but they are on there way, trying to think up a Cold air system that wont suck water.

Well...I wish i could take a lot of credit for keeping it clean, but that was probably the previous owners doing. I bought it almost 1 year ago and have just tried to keep it as clean as it was. Usually every other wash I'll take a rag and clean the engine bay as best I can...there are a lot of places where my hands won't fit though. I think sleeperlegend was going to steam clean his bay...I want to see what that does for him. Thanks for the comment.

 

[Mennouth]

I usualy Power wash my Bay about 1 a mounth " about every other wash, or every time i have to work on it and after every time lol i use super clean, and it is nice nad clean but not as nice as yours, unfortunatly mine spent some of its life in NY and has rust on the under-carage, i am going to get after that this weekend, navel jelly and new under coating.

 

[sciachir]

I know this post is old, but in looking on Ebay, I found this grounding kit. Price seemed extremely reasonable:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7984065352&category=33692

 

[KAHruzer]

You all may be interested in my finding last evening as I worked on my car.

I decided to replace the negative ground cable on the battery. I've been having some weird electrical and charging system problems of late. Subtle issues for the most part, but lately the battery has been going dead far too often (I don't drive much and it does tend to run down if left for many days at a time between drives).

I bought one of those little $6 testers at O'Reilly's which plugs into the cigarette lighter plug. It works great, as far as I can tell. But, it was showing me that when I have both the headlights and the A/C running, the alternator isn't carrying the load, so it drains the battery.

IAC, the alternator and battery are both relatively new. So, I wondered about my cables. I did notice the battery ground cable was developing corrosion at an extreme rate. I'd clean it up and a couple of weeks later it was all corroded again. That turned out to be a loose connection. The nut there was stripped and wasn't getting tight enough. Anyway, decdied to replace the entire cable.

That's when I discovered a couple of things of interest.
First, there's two points of attachment for the far end of the battery negative cable. The first is about midway down the cable with a copper plate with a bolt hole through which bolts to the frame right below the battery. The second is at the end of the cable where it attaches to an engine block bracket just above the starter.

In my case, both connections were corroded, the middle one was far worse than the end one. Bad enough that I suspect a circuit would have a hard time.

Once replaced, the car performed way much better than it had in awhile. And, the charging system now was acting more normal. I may still have a weak alternator since it's been working so hard trying to charge.

Guess it's a little too much to expect a nearly 20 year old car to not require this kind of maintenance. I'm going to have to check the positive cable now, too.

I also spotted another ground cable which runs from the frame around the front of the engine compartment, just behind the passenger side hood latch mechanism which runs about 12" to a bolt on the top left of the side engine cover, just below the valve cover. I'll be checking and cleaning those contact points as well.

Anyway, thought some might find this of value. It does take a good ground to complete any/all circuits in the car. A sluggish main ground like that would definitely have an impact on the overall system.

 

[pnoye2]

KAHruzer, you mentioned cleaning the negative terminal post then had corroded in 2weeks time... could be a sign of leakage from the bottom of your terminal post!

Also, fast way of cleaning corroded battery cables; hot water and baking soda...

 

[KAHruzer]

Sure. But, I was viewing it as excessive charging due to poor connection. The system overworking itself. Coca-Cola works for cleaning, too.

The middle connection is one which cannot be accessed without removal of the battery tray, however.

I'll have to continue to watch it for awhile. It could be the system has so overworked itself that it has prematurely aged itself to death.

 

[sleeprlegendcp]

clean the connections and apply Lithium greas all around any exposed metal and between the contacts. I even do the bolt! I have used this stuff in everything from flickering tail lights to outdoor electrical sockets. It is a special grease that prevents corosion because it blocks out air and water, but it does not hinder the electrical currnet at all. I have never had a corosion issue on my G1 and I have not even done this yet. I am still steam cleaning the engine, underside, and 3 wheels and wheel wells. I would be looking for something causing the corosion.
Later!
Lee

Added: Advance Auto, and I believe Autozone, will test your battery and alternator for free. I recomend going some time when they are not too busy.