Grounding kits? anyone using one?

[wcpierson]

A lot of tuner shows have been showing and installing these grounding kits in order to have a more balanced electrical current in the car...is anyone here running one on their dsm and do they actually pose any benefit?

 

[alex99gst]

Here is a good writeup on how to make a home-made grounding kit. Unlike many magazines advertise, this will not give you an increase in horsepower.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75889

 

[Rip90laser]

yea i never really looked into it but from they way i think it would work is theres not an actual gain in horsepower but it will let you deliver your power better if it doesnt cut out a lil when u get on it and all that not sure but ive wanted to do this for a while

 

[ChvyKc]

I think that it's a good idea to have, especially on a 1G. Anybody that has any kind of background in electronics will tell you that grounding is the most important part of any electrical system and having a 4 ga grounding system on a car would help out tremendously. I still don't understand how they can say that it actually gives you a gain in horsepower though, that's just common sense that it would work out like that.

 

[alex99gst]

If your stock grounds are corroded/broken/whatever that would cause them to lose their conductivity, then you would have an actual need to replace that ground. A grounding kit would be more of a dress up mod than anything.

 

[wret]

Here is a good writeup on how to make a home-made grounding kit. Unlike many magazines advertise, this will not give you an increase in horsepower.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75889

Although that tech says it was written by "wret-moderator" it was actually written by "wret-newbie" back when I still believed in magic. I did nothing more than emulate what others were doing at the time with ground wires. There were several magazine articles claiming impressive performance gains at the time but there were (and are) far more naysayers claiming the whole idea of performance gains is not scientifically sound.

Meanwhile ground wire kits remain universally available (as do fuel line magnets and intake tornados). I have not been fully convinced that extra ground wires have no value and the article will stay there until I am.

 

[Masochist]

Although that tech says it was written by "wret-moderator" it was actually written by "wret-newbie" back when I still believed in magic. I did nothing more than emulate what others were doing at the time with ground wires. There were several magazine articles claiming impressive performance gains at the time but there were (and are) far more naysayers claiming the whole idea of performance gains is not scientifically sound.

Meanwhile ground wire kits remain universally available (as do fuel line magnets and intake tornados). I have not been fully convinced that extra ground wires have no value and the article a will stay there until I am.

Being HEAVY into vehicle wiring, electrical systems, mobile electronics including mobile data, communications, video systems, video surveillance, GPS, etc.. here is my take.

Can grounding increase horsepower? Lets take a look..
As voltage drops accross the electrical system caused by things such as a faulty ground or a bad battery things can be affected in different ways. Coil packs for instance will have less output if the input voltage is reduced. Could this cause power loss? Sure. Can you feel this loss? In most cases probably not.
Fuel pumps as another example will drop pressure as voltage drops. Can this cause a reduction in power? Sure. Can you feel this reduction? In most cases probably not.

In sound pressure audio competitions, the highest sound pressure is usually recorded within the first couple seconds of starting the bass note used to produce the sound pressure. The reason for this is, even with several batteries the high current draw of amplifiers will cause the system voltage to start dropping almost instantly which in turn results in less output from those amplifiers, similar to how you may see a reduced output from an ignition system with voltage drop due to a poor ground or poor battery.

Noise can also become an issue in a poorly grounded electrical system. Noise could technically cause problems in a computer controlled vehicle, although they normally have sufficient filtering to deal with such interference. Audio, video, and data systems however can be affected by noise and either amplify the noise and rebroadcast it, or in the case of data transfer, can interupt it altogether.

So, is a grounding system important? Absolutely. Is the grounding system in a 15+ year old car as good as it was the day the vehicle was built? The only way to know the condition of a grounding system is to test it at several points throughout the chassis/engine. The best thing to do is inspect the cables. Check the clamps, make sure they are tight. Make sure your battery is in good condition. Make sure that anywhere a factory ground wire makes contact with the chassis that it is a clean, corrosion free contact and is tight. Make sure these connections go from the negative battery post directly to the body and the engine at the least. Add more if you like, or if you read a higher amount of resistance somewhere on the engine or chassis. If you question a connection measure it with a multimeter and verify that there is extremely low resistance accross the wire and connection (less than half an ohm typically). If you see corrosion on a wire or terminal, replace it. Measure supply voltage to critical components such as fuel pump, ECU, etc.

Once you have done these things you will know if you need to address your electrical system or not. If you want to run out and pay for a grounding kit and slap it on....go for it. It wont hurt anything but dont do it expecting to feel some big increase in power. If your grounding system was that bad off you probably would have been able to fix the problem with less extreme measures in the first place.

Can a ground kit increase power? Technically in certain circumstances it could although you probably wouldnt feel it much if at all. If you do feel a big increase you had some SERIOUS electrical system issues that are probably blantanly obvious.

Do you need to go out and buy an expensive ground kit? No.
The how-to Wret put together should be more than enough to address your grounding issues. Grounding is VERY important to your electrical system and the how-to system he shows should eliminate any possible grounding problems you may have.

P.S. Sorry for the long post.

 

[95blackGsTurbo]

It won't technically add horsepower to your vehicle I think but if the ground is bad and you fix it...it will restore the power to the car that it had from the facotry when the ground was good. Key word is restore it, not just get power outta nowhere.

 

[Masochist]

It won't technically add horsepower to your vehicle I think but if the ground is bad and you fix it...it will restore the power to the car that it had from the facotry when the ground was good. Key word is restore it, not just get power outta nowhere.

Correct