Big 3 Upgrade: Planning Stage (Input Encouraged)

[The Architect]

I have big plans in the works for my electrical system and the big 3 is one of them and I want to do it right and well the first time so I'll take any and all worthwhile educated input. If you have your own pictures etc please feel free.

1/0 Gauge will be used.

----Alternator to Battery Positive
----Battery Negative to Chassis
----Battery Negative to Engine

I took a few nice images of the engine bay in multiple spots so you may mark and re-upload them for reference if you have suggestions for mounting locations etc.

And one direct question I have is about the metal tab/group coming off the + terminal of the battery (shown below). I want to have two tri-1/0 gauge battery terminals in the end, one on each post. Is there a way to eliminate that ugly group and incorporate it into the new battery terminal?










Onto the engine bay pictures.....ITS DIRTY...i know

[1NZYaris1]

I did something similar a couple of months back ,
put a Bigger earth too Chassis
and an earth on the Alternator Bracket
results according to the scanguage where an instant inprovement in chargeing from 14.0 to.1 too 14.2 -.3 depending on rev's
and that is with the NST10% under drive pulley

[talnlnky]

so some tips...

1: battery connector pick up something like this... http://stingerelectronics.com/produc...-1&ParentID=-1
if you look around you should be able to find one with the right amount of inputs that you need.

2:get your hands on a multimeter. set it to find resistance (amount of ohms... the horse shoe thing). Put one of the probes on the battery terminal, the other on various chassis points... take a ohm reading at each chassis point, and the point that has the lowest ohm rating is the one you want to go with. I believe you want to put the bat prob on the positive terminal, but I might be wrong.

3: don't replace any of the stock wires... just add the 1/0awg in addition to the stock... its a lot less work that way, and will actually be better, and in the future, if you sell the car it'll be easier to take you spendy 1/0awg out and use in your next car.

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by 1NZYaris1

I did something similar a couple of months back ,
put a Bigger earth too Chassis
and an earth on the Alternator Bracket
results according to the scanguage where an instant inprovement in chargeing from 14.0 to.1 too 14.2 -.3 depending on rev's
and that is with the NST10% under drive pulley

Sqcomp swears he gains 2mpg when he did his upgrade.... i have a hard time believing that, but if the stock ground is completely horrible, its possible.

[The Architect]

the "Earth" concept is one I've heard very little of, When he mentioned it I assumed it merely meant as ground. If I'm wrong feel free to elaborate.

Knu konceptz has some nice triple 1/0 terminals ill be picking up along with a few runs of 1/0

[Tamago]

in non-us countries, EARTH is ground.

[The Architect]

ahhh i see, sorry for my ignorance lol

[sqcomp]

I was at a mid 40's for MPG...after that big three...it went up to upper 42 to mid 43's.

I had NO changes in driving.

I had a post that showed what I did...lemme find the link

[sqcomp]

Okay...after forgetting about this post for a few days...I KNOW I posted my little link somewhere on the big 3. It is GONE...

The big 3 cost me $13 to do. I found some old parts that the shop had "scrapped" and some old Lightning Audio compression fittings that were bought at pennies on the dollar when they bought the shop...

So, thank the Lord for Photobucket:

[sqcomp]

...and yes, I will re-do the engine compartment grounds after I get home from Iraq. I need to make ready for IASCA...

Every little improvement will help. That includes techflexing and putting heat shrink around the terminations of the grounds. They look amateur now. I already purchased a nice little billet aluminum battery clamp thingy from Micro Image. I'm thinking some billet brass connectors for some kinetik batteries soon...

I can do much better than these grounds I have on there now, show-wise at least.

As was mentioned I did NOT remove stock grounds, I only added. Besides, the power flows on the path of least resistance.

[The Architect]

the alt ground and chassis ground were good representations but I couldnt make out where the engine ground was, any chance of better pics or something for clarification?

[sqcomp]

by the battery and on the other side off the alternator bracket. The engine ground was on the underside of the car looking up. I can't get you new pictures just at this moment. I'm sort of stuck in Iraq. :)

[The Architect]

wouldn't it be best to run anything you want to ground back to the - battery post? or would difference be negligible.

[Tamago]

Originally Posted by sqcomp

Besides, the power flows on the path of least resistance.

power flows everywhere. it doesn't simply find the path of least resistance and not flow through higher-resistance conduits.

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by Tamago

power flows everywhere. it doesn't simply find the path of least resistance and not flow through higher-resistance conduits.

that's begging for a highly semantic debate.

[sqcomp]

indeed...

How about this:

MORE current will flow through the path of least resistance. The amount of flow seems to me to be oppositely dependant to said path's resistance.

The amplitude or magnitude of the current flow in a path relies on the path's voltage and impedance. The lower the impedance (resistance) the greater the current...with a constant voltage. On the other hand the higher the impedance (resistance) the lower the current.

Thoughts?

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by sqcomp

indeed...

How about this:

MORE current will flow through the path of least resistance. The amount of flow seems to me to be oppositely dependant to said path's resistance.

The amplitude or magnitude of the current flow in a path relies on the path's voltage and impedance. The lower the impedance (resistance) the greater the current...with a constant voltage. On the other hand the higher the impedance (resistance) the lower the current.

Thoughts?

I think no more needs to be said unless it is said in a different thread...and i'm not even a huge fan of that either since it is so incredibly semantic already.

[The Architect]

I just received my shipment from Knu, this 1/0 cable is insane, it bends all over and has 5145 strands etc etc etc. Im off to home depot for random stuff Ill need to knock out the big 3.

Lastly, anyone know where the post is on the Alternator for the Alt to Batt Positive?