Upgrading Ground Wires?

[Geo]

I'm wondering if anyone here has done this to their Vibe. In hanging around the forums over at MatrixOwners I have been seeing a lot of people been having modest gains with upgrading their grounds (See this thread: http://www.matrixowners.com/modules.php ... pic&t=5465)It looks interesting, and it's something that I'll be doing in the near future (whenever I can afford it...and after that supercharger gets put in)Throwin' this out in case anyone is interested, I don't have access to a dyno, so when I put mine in (whenever that is...mb late June) I'll let people know how it goes!

[cohocarl]

Not trying to burst your bubble, but I personally believe the stock grounding is more than adequate. The aftermarket grounding straps are pretty though.... And I've seen some that are RED! Ground shouldn't be colored RED!!!!! I do not believe that heavier/more grounding wires will increase performance.

[Geo]

Well, that's what I would think, but others have been doing the dyno tests, and things seem to be improving. Unless the wire diameter is different between the matrix and the vibe. It's hard to doubt it when there is evidence of proof being shown.

[Altus]

There's ample evidence that the stock manufacurer ground wiring is adequate -- but just.Don't forget that the manufacturers have to keep down costs & such, thus upgrading to heavier wire ($$) and adding more of it ($$ & time) is not a big benefit for them, the 'adequate' grounding is sufficient.Besides the fact that most people dont NEED the improved grounding.Now - there's also ample evidence that improved grounding using heavy gauge wire DOES have some direct improvements. - it improves current being delivered to the coils/plugs, giving stronger spark. - it improves the circuit quality for the engine control computer, resulting in more efficient operation - it reduces engine generated interference - and lastly, it provides fault tolerance in case the stock grounding failsThere's lots of other evidence of the effect it has -- simplified, it's a cheap and easy mod, with minor but nice effects.There's several opinions as to how many grounding points to use, ie - Hyperwires uses 5 (frame, tranny, cyl head, intake, frame), others say 3 (frame, tranny, cyl head) is more than you'll ever need.4ga wire seems to be the favorite, as it's a good compromise between heavy gauge, high current capacity, and flexibility.I'll chip in here and say that I also agree that GROUND WIRES SHOULD NEVER BE RED! Sorry - had to shout that one. As a side note, you don't have to use the pre-packaged kits either - if you're ok with some solder and a torch, you can make up the cables yourself for significantly less money. Most good hardware stores can get you 4ga single conductor power wire and connectors cheap. Many times, it even comes in colours!Good luck - whatever you decide...

[Flip-Side]

quote:Ground shouldn't be colored RED!!!!! Right on guys. I've heard of this mod a lot lately, and it seams to have some advantage to it. But not much in my opinion. Like Carl said though, they do look nice under the hood.

[slinkston]

Btw, why should ground wires not be red? I have no clue. Import Tuner are the people that have been running dynos on their hyper ground wires. -Slink

[Altus]

>Btw, why should ground wires not be red?Standard electical wiring colour-coding is why.Really, really don't want to get hot & ground wires confused!For DC wiring:Black = GroundRed = Hot

[slinkston]

Oh yeah, okay. Laf, that is how great my electrical knowledge is... -Slink