Ground wires

[CzEcHy]

I'd found a thread a couple of months ago about changing all the ground wires in the engine bay to help improve performance (slightly), and make the car run smoother, but I'm unable to locate it..

I was just wondering a couple of things..

-How many ground wires are in the engine bay and where do they come from/go to (valve cover to radiator support, etc)
-When upgrading (replacing), what type/size wire should the new wires be?


Just need to know those basically, I'd like to try this especially since some of my grounds are rusty and breaking..


Oh ya I have an 88' LX Automatic, carburated

[Vanilla Sky]

There's 2 engine grounds, one at the valve cover and one at the transmission. There's a ground from the battery that connects to the chassis. This same wire is the one that connects to the transmission for ground.

Personally, I don't see a need for adding grounds if you're mostly stock. If you're running a lot of electronics onboard, I'd have an additional ground by the alternator to the strut tower. I do think that grounds bigger than 8 gauge should be used, though. I'd go 2 gauge for a basic replacement, 0 gauge if I were running a sound system. Wire is cheap, it's the terminals that get expensive.

[nswst8]

You can add grounds to whatever you want. but as above the engine should be upgraded to at least 2-4 gauge. and make sure you have metal to metal contact. Strut tower bolt is a great chassis ground. Upgrade your battery/Alt wires.

Goto Youtube and type in "the big three" should come up with some how to's.

[CzEcHy]

Replaced engine-front radiator frame ground..


Better acceleration and better car starts..

[Sh4d0w]

Replaced engine-front radiator frame ground..


Better acceleration and better car starts..

really? car starts I fully understand, but acceleration?

[Vanilla Sky]

If he had hesitation before, grounds can help. That's the primary engine ground, and if I remember correctly, the only path to ground from the alternator as well, barring the transmission ground. Cleaning and replacing the grounds will do that if you have sketchy ones to begin with.

[Sh4d0w]

awesome, I'll have to give that a try. Noone has been able to pinpoint what is causing my intermittent hesitation, so I'll try that out. Thanks!

[Tdurr]

hmm.. ill check my ground tomorrow too haha..

[CzEcHy]

My old ground was the original it looked like, so it was pretty mangled <.<

[Dirt Nasty]

From the batt. to valve cover, batt. to frame to trans., batt. to fire wall to strut tower, batt. to distributr.. Ur tunes will sound better, lights are brighter, easier starts, and the motor seems to like it... oh yeah, motor doesnt really bog down when I roll up the windows.

[Nio]

Mine goes to the trans, but I'll be changing that since that ground I think is whats killing my batteries.

[Vanilla Sky]

The ground that attaches to the transmission is for the starter. Don't get rid of it.

[Nio]

The ground that attaches to the transmission is for the starter. Don't get rid of it.

The ground I'm talking about goes straight from my battery to the trans case, and its a very bad connection, the cables old and I don't think I should keep that connection if I'm moving my battery to the trunk.