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Old May 20, 2007 | 03:09 PM
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Default DIY Grounding Kit

I've always wanted an engine grounding kit for my car, but didn’t want to pay $120+ for a couple of pre-fabbed cables/ connectors. After looking around, I thought maybe I could make one just as good as the name brands for less coinage.

So I went to HomeDepot and purchased some grounding connectors for less than $10 bucks.
Attached Thumbnails DIY Grounding Kit-dsc01917.jpg   DIY Grounding Kit-dsc01939.jpg  

Last edited by gothchick; May 21, 2007 at 08:38 AM.
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Old May 20, 2007 | 03:10 PM
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I then went to BestBuy and purchased 10 feet (2 x 5 foot packs) of high quality 4 Gauge copper wire for $38 bucks.
Attached Thumbnails DIY Grounding Kit-dsc01937.jpg  

Last edited by gothchick; May 20, 2007 at 03:33 PM.
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Old May 20, 2007 | 03:12 PM
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I was able to fabricate a high quality 6 point grounding kit for $48 total... :-)
Attached Thumbnails DIY Grounding Kit-dsc01948.jpg   DIY Grounding Kit-dsc01941.jpg   DIY Grounding Kit-dsc01947.jpg  

Last edited by gothchick; May 20, 2007 at 07:00 PM.
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Old May 20, 2007 | 07:20 PM
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Hey, pretty sweet. Im sure a few people may give that a try. Looks pretty clean. Good job!
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Old May 20, 2007 | 07:28 PM
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For $10 more and a lot less pain in the butt, you can order 1 from Intense. Good job though!
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Old May 20, 2007 | 08:56 PM
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+1 on doing it DIY...do you like to...do it yourself?

LOL - jk, I noticed you have a JWT sticker on your strut bar, did you put the Popcharger into the stock box? If so, teach me how!
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Old May 20, 2007 | 11:21 PM
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are grounding kits actually worth it?
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Old May 20, 2007 | 11:33 PM
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Originally Posted by gothchick
I then went to BestBuy and purchased 10 feet (2 x 5 foot packs) of high quality 4 Gauge copper wire for $38 bucks.
3.80 a foot for 4 ga...you got ripped the eff off. If you bought online you'd have gotten just as good a quality for <$1.50/ft shipped. Looks good though and still cheaper than a grounding kit
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Old May 21, 2007 | 03:43 PM
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I thought I'd make another improvement to this DIY mod... A battery ground... HomeDepot sells heavy duty (it literally is heavy and quite hard to bend) 4 Gauge copper wire and connectors for about $7 bucks.
Attached Thumbnails DIY Grounding Kit-dsc01950.jpg   DIY Grounding Kit-dsc01956.jpg   DIY Grounding Kit-dsc01953.jpg  

Last edited by gothchick; May 21, 2007 at 04:19 PM.
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Old May 21, 2007 | 04:37 PM
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nice job
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Old May 21, 2007 | 07:16 PM
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Hey gotchick, that looks pretty cool. Nice idea. I live very much!
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Old May 22, 2007 | 08:10 PM
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Originally Posted by drift_projekt_Z
are grounding kits actually worth it?
Any differences are from disconnecting the battery imo. I did it to find out. Not really any difference.
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Old May 24, 2007 | 10:25 PM
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I have this planned for the Z. I did it on my mazdaspeed protege and noticed that it stabilazed the idle and there was less draw when turning on lights or using windows, etc. Honestly most of the factory grounding and power wire is junk, and not up to par in most cases. Especially considering the amount of electronic gadgetry we throw into them.
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Old May 25, 2007 | 01:45 PM
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what is the effect of this grounding kit ? More hp ?
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Old May 25, 2007 | 02:55 PM
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only difference i've ever felt before were in my audio system. night and day difference in sound quality and even radio reception.

i also did a wire from the battery positive post to the positive on the alternator. my subs kicked a lot harder after that. on the Z, i haven't noticed any real gains cept a lighter wallet.
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Old Jun 20, 2007 | 05:46 PM
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Originally Posted by gothchick
I thought I'd make another improvement to this DIY mod... A battery ground... HomeDepot sells heavy duty (it literally is heavy and quite hard to bend) 4 Gauge copper wire and connectors for about $7 bucks.

The only problem I see here is what's called dissimilar metal corrosion. You get it from using steel or aluminum connectors with copper cables.
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Old Jun 20, 2007 | 05:52 PM
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here is the one i did myself...

good job by the way, i like your connectors more...

https://my350z.com/forum/engine-and-drivetrain/242367-my-own-engine-grounding-kit.html

-j
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Old Jun 20, 2007 | 05:53 PM
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Do you think since this is in the DIY section that you could maybe show pics of the different points you used to connect the kit? I only say his because I'm pretty sure most people know you can do this. Its not too hard to figure out, especially if you know what a grounding kit is and that most descriptions of them use 4 gauge wire. The only difference is that each brand has a set of different wire lengths and a place to route each wire.
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Old Jun 21, 2007 | 11:58 AM
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Originally Posted by jadaniya
Do you think since this is in the DIY section that you could maybe show pics of the different points you used to connect the kit? I only say his because I'm pretty sure most people know you can do this. Its not too hard to figure out, especially if you know what a grounding kit is and that most descriptions of them use 4 gauge wire. The only difference is that each brand has a set of different wire lengths and a place to route each wire.
+1

lengths should be mandatory information for a DIY for grounding kit
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Old Jun 22, 2007 | 08:22 AM
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Does anyone know which points specifically are needed to achieve better lighting? I would like the brighter headlight benefits without wires running everywhere.
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