Earthing the components in engine

[Nilkz]

Hi,

 

Read from the Toyota forum that by improving the earthing/grounding of various components in the engine compartment (by linking them using audio DC cables to the -ve pole of the car battery), gives various improvements to the performance of the car, like improved torque from idling up or mid range (cant recall), better idling, cleaner exhaust emission, etc, I wonder if this has been proven and if there are any short/long term negative effects,

 

apparently, one of the forum-ers has done it, posted some pics too, he got the idea & instructions from some jap sites,

 

thanks for replying

Edited January 31, 2002 by Admin

[Roadblock]

Very interesting. I wonder what is the science & logic behind such an attempt.

[Turbobrick]

Extra earthing will work if extra electrical load has been placed on the car. E.g extra ICE, gauges, TV monitor, etc.

 

One of my kakis once fitted an oil temp gauge and it was not working.....strange.....but went tested on my brick it was working! So we pondered and decided to check the car's grounding resistance and found it very high!

 

So added thicker ground wires and viola! The gauge works!

[Roadblock]

Guys, pardon my ignorance, but why and how is extra earthing going to help if the car is laden with electrical components? Does grounding them help reduce the stress on the alternator? ....?

[Turbobrick]

Sorta like a "in and out" situtation. With high loads and current draw, the grounding must also be beefed up to balance the load. Else electrical dependent components may not have enough current to work 100%.

Edited January 31, 2002 by Turbobrick

[Roadblock]

Tks TB, so when our friend here said that it helps performance, it actually is no BS and that the extra earthing is useful to reduce electrical load.

 

Again, pardon my sotong-ness.. but why is reduced load on electricals on the car better performing to the car? Better and bigger sparks for the plugs?

 

Tks for your enlightenment.

[Turbobrick]

Better spark.....well a little

 

Also to reduce alternator load too

[Vr_geek]

was trying to dyno my car last week, and as they are trying to earth it, the power did not increase, but actually decrease.. It must be due to the set up of the car taken into consideration too.....

[User12343]

juz came back from my MSCP measuring the electrical resistance, voltage drop and current between the engine block and -ve terminal of the batt. here's the procedure i took:

selected the resistance measurement. shorted my fluke DMM. display stabilized at 0.3 ohms. normalising 0.3 ohms as a perfect short circuit.

 

off engine. open bonnet. wrt the -ve terminal, measured the resistance from the alternator sliding screw, chassis and other metallic parts. 0.3 ohms. voltage across was 30 millivolts. battery terminal voltage was 12.41 V

 

on engine. resistance maintains at 0.3 ohms. voltage between engine block and -ve remains at 30mV. terminal voltage is abt 14 V.

 

in both cases, if applying the famous formula yields abt 100 milliamps. but i am a bit skeptical about the values as the sensitivity and accuracy of the DMM may not be there. the delta change in resistance measurements is zero, hence the ohmic measurements is extremely close to a zero ohms

 

in any case the -ve cable looks quite decent, the copper conductors about 4-5 mm in diameter.

 

hence, the idea of additional grounding may not yield additional benefits discussed in the postings. (could the perceived improvements be psychological?)

[Roadblock]

Wah User12343, Tks for that "field report"... interesting that for once we have someone who tried to use objective tools in determining the usefulness of a mod-job.

 

Too many pdts are in the market claiming this and that and sadly, most do not come with any independent and credible reports to support the claims... and most of the time, its the blind leading the blind when it comes to referrals of mod stuffs.