CarbonZ

OK so im looking at these grounding kits. I used to have one on my IS300 and it made a huge difference because it had this major lag between gas pedal and acceleration, plus the IS had terrible lag with the autos and i heard that a grounding kit is typically not needed for manual cars. So you guys out there with the 6spd Zs that have a grounding kit, is there a huge difference becuase grounding kits seem like a hit or miss thing to me, and if it actually works well, i might get one. Thanx in advance,

Your friend,

Bryan-

ares

iTrader: (2)

no. but its fun to install and looks cool. cheap too(on the grand scale of things)

luke350z

Would it stop the car from shocking me everytime I exit and close the door????

MarkY

What exactly is the "purpose" of these kits? They do look cool but I'd like to know what they are "supposed" to accomplish.
Thx

CarbonZ

there supposed to limit the time between acceleration (by pushing the pedal) and the car actually accelerating by increasing the amount of grounding points the engine hits, i think thats right.

Sharif@Forged

iTrader: (92)

Thats not really correct. The purpose of the grounding kit is the increase the level of factory grounding. The electrical system is already grounded, but the grounded kit essentially provides a better grounding. That is my laymen's explanation of it.

Performance gains from the grounding kits are debatable, but they have been proven to smooth out the Z's notoriously rough idle. Most people that install them say the idle is much smoother than stock, and they feel a slightly better throttle response. There have been some before and after dynos that have showed 2-4hp gains, but I would chalk that up as sampling error, since usually dyno runs are only accurate to maybe 5 hp between runs. So I feel any gains from the grounding kits are too close to call. So people also claim it removes noise from their audio systems.

They do look cool in the engine bay, and if it provides even a small degree of safety, in terms in strengthening the electrical current and removing any leftover interference, then they are probably worth the $50 you can buy these for. That is my $.02

350zluvr

No. besides, that's just the Z's way of showing its love to her owner .

Anyway, I installed a 6-wire grounding kit and it did absolutely nothing for me. I'm still having difficulty believing that all the people that did sense a change with the grounding kit are not experiencing a placebo effect. But like said above, they do look cool and I don't regret the time spent with my Z installing my kit.

sparky3Z

It occurs to me that some Zs may be a little better grounded than others in stock form and those, like you, may experience no change, but those with, say, a not-quite-tight connection somewhere would feel a diffference. Just a theory.

I'm going to put one on mine. Idle hands...

uklooney

The Z uses CAN (a multidrop serial communications system) for all wiring throughout the car, from the O2 sensors and light switches, to the gas pedal.
Cars engines produce a lot of noise on electrical systems, this includes the CAN system (cheap wiring). The CAN system has inbuilt error checking which allows components to ignore errors on the bus created by this noise. These errors cause a psudo lag on the bus.

An example below....

O2 sensors say, 'running lean', need more gas.
ECU says, 'Pardon?, I didn't hear that right'
O2 sensors say, 'running lean', need more gas.
ECU says, 'OK?, Throttle, Give me some more gas'
Throttle says, 'Sorry, I couldn't make that out'
ECU says, 'Throttle, Give me some more gas'
Throttle says, 'OK, here you go'

Grounding system = less noise = less errors

less errors = better economy = better performance

and it looks nice

Dershum

I don't know about the rest of you, but it improved my gas mileage by an average of 1-1.2 MPG. That alone will pay for the kit over it's lifetime...especially considering where gas prices are going now.

sparky3Z

This is OT, but I had to say your Z photo is one of my favorites. Very nice.

Enron Exec

All things electronical/electrical need to be grounded. Circuit boards in your PC and the motor in your waching machine all need to be grounded some way or another.

For the most part, electrical signals are either digital or anolog in cars. Digital signals are discrete so theres not much to worry there. Anolog signals are not as discrete. For example a 0.6 volt signal sent as 0.54 volts could be missread as a 0.5 volt signal if there is too much resistance. Better grounding will reduce these errors dramaticlly. The stock ground is a single 12 guage wire on our Z. It does its job, but we can do better. Anything over 4 guage is probably overkill.

I think uklooney put it best. Less static/noise results in better/quicker performance. Thats all we need to know. Plus chicks dig it.

Melissa

yea it does something...makes your wallet a little lighter and looks really pretty.......LOL

ares

iTrader: (2)

when did you install it, as was noted its a bit of placebo effect I think as well. because its cheap and easy, its common to do it very early in the cars life, meaning normal breakin will yeild better mileage and HP while some might contribute it to the grounding kit.

the engine is grounded by a small gauge wire. not sure where exactly but its there.

the thought that any sort of grounding issues would require 4 or even 8gauge wire is a bit questionable. wires that are meant to handle massive current put in to take care of minute charges.

maybe Ill run another test when I get the PC software from chazz, let it log RPM at idle for 10min and put it into a graph, then disconnect the grounding kit and do it again. its been done before and it did note improvements, but itll give me something to play with.

but as I noted, its pretty.

Dissolved

It did help my friends idle. I can verify that. He has an '04 enth.

JasZ

I am making my own gounding kit. I got 4 guage wire at an autoparts store that has very thin copper wire strands in it VERY thin. Is this the correct type of wire to use, or is a thicker stranding better to use?

z327

Grounding kits have been dyno tested in numerous magazines as well as by individuals like myself.

They have been shown to make as little as 2Hp to as much as 10 on some cars. On the 350z you should expect 2 to 4 horses depending on mod level.

Some will argue that the 2 to 4 horses is within the margin of error for a given dyno. Since I did my test the same day as 8 other 350Z's I believe the modest increase is real after reviewing all the dyno run data.

Think of a grounding kit as one more piece of the HP puzzle. Unless you are ready to plunk down the thousands required for forced induction and all that comes with it you can have fun making minor improvements and modifications.

I enjoy the journey as much as the results. The grounding kit, CAI and custom dual exhaust were fun to install, make the car run a little better, make it sound better, look better and did not break the bank.

350zluvr

Thanks for the compliment . What does "OT" mean?

sparky3Z

"Off Topic." And you're welcome.

insaneamine

iTrader: (1)

Tell you what - for any skeptics out there - since I had changed my grounding kit to another color, I still have my old red set. It is a little dingy but it still works, I think I even redid the heat shrink on the end. All hardware included.

First EMAIL to me gets it free of charge.