Grounding kit: what's the best circuit?
 

A group of us is getting together this weekend to build and install grounding kits. We're planning on using the information provided by VQRacer & InsaneAmine (thanks guys!) to create our own kits, so I started digesting and summarizing the two systems they posted. After a while, I realized that, not only are their wire lengths different, but they specify a different circuit!

VQRacer:

32" - Top right intake manifold - front of engine
29" - Top left intake manifold - left side intake manifold
29.5" - left chassis ground - front engine
40" - left side intake manifold - battery ground
14.5" left side intake manifold - front engine

InsaneAmine:

32" - Top right intake manifold - front of engine
29" - Top left intake manifold - front of engine
21" - left chassis ground - left side intake manifold
30" - left side intake manifold - battery ground
16" - left side intake manifold - front engine

I was looking over the grounding layouts, reading posts, trying to figure out what to do, and one weird little post that nobody even replied to caught my attention:

And I started thinking about electricity and circuits and grounds. I drew out the two alternate grounding paths layed out by VQRacer & InsaneAmine and it looks to my totally amateur eye like VQRacer has a more effective circuit!

Draw it out yourself. IA's circuit has the chassis ground & the battery ground both going to the left side intake manifold (LSIM). The rest of the circuit branches from there, with all of the current going through the 16" wire from LSIM to the engine front (EF) and out from there. VQ's circuit connects the battery ground to LSIM and the chassis ground to the EF, seemingly distributing the circuit better.

Am I totally over-thinking this? It has been known to happen before, ;) and I am NOT an electrical engineer. Is this totally irrelevant, considering the application, or have I stumbled across a "tweak" in the grounding kit?

Opinions? A$$holes? Demagoguery?

BTW: I just saw this thread: https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....threadid=14832

He has a good point too!

well I cant comment on whose is the better circuit, I used vqracers length and circuit I believe, but ive seen a different circuit all together. I believe it was alphaZ that has it where it goes from the ground, to the front, then to the right rear, to left rear, back around to the left front side, and then to the battery, a total loop. this was a purchased kit that had this design.

anyway, some observations after installing, assuming i did it right, the 40" wire was WAAAYYYY too long. 30" would be much more appropriate but I urge you to measure it before cutting for yourself. remember shorter the wire the less the resistance. also this wire is thick, less is lighter. some other wires were a tad long by a few inches, but none as bad as the 40" wire.

also, be sure you have a 10mm RATCHET. this is invaluable to the installation. you could hypoteticly do it all using the wrench nissan gave you in your spare tire area. but I wouldnt, its not worth it. home depot sells a kit of 4 for around 20-30$.

hope this helps... oh and a few other observations, the screws, where vqracer says to use 10mm screws for the rear intake area, Id suggest more along the lines of 15mm. 20 was a tad to long, and I partially stripped with a 10 due to it being soft aluminum and not much grabbing. stick with the 20 for the other size.

Thanks for the tips! That's the kind of real experience info that can turn a ***** of a job into a breeze.

Given the fact that we're using such good wire and connections for simply a ground, the circuit is probably irrelevant.

Did anyone who ordered the grounding kit from Japanparts get instructions on how to install the grounding kit?

Yeah, they Nissan set does come with instructions. Of course, they're in Japanese and the pics aren't all that good. I would have had a very hard time installing the kit except for Takao's pics of his install. Those were invaluable.

Has anybody compared the Nissan circuit to the other 2 mentioned?

Damn! I did not get any instructions with my kit? Must have been left out by accident. I ordered the sports horn and grounding kit at the same time, and I only got instructions on how to install the Sports Horn. I guess that I will follow the pictures posted on this website.

Re: Grounding kit: what's the best circuit?
 

The grounding kit circuit already has redundancy, so slight variations in the circuit will not make a significant difference.