Wires! WIRES! WIRRREES!!

CiviKid

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Do bigger and better ground wires really help the performance of the car? or are they a waste of cash? annnd the same goes for sparkk plug wires, what kinda performance can you get out of thoes??
 

BioHazard the Reaper

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ok well here is some facts, you take as you want....in the latest issue of Import Tuner they put hyper ground wires on a 1997 prelude(in the power pages for those of you who have this issue) and before tehy put them on the car had peak hp of 178.2 and peak tq of 150.5, after the wire installation the car was peak hp 179.1 and peak tq was 150.3, so it did help....
 


O.Z Chi

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I don't call stories from magazines "facts" ... they're more like subliminal advertising.

I have yet to see any automotive engineering journals come out with a proof that grounding cables free up power. In "fact," in a study of piston engines, the purpose of grounding cables is to provide a current return path from the ignition system to the battery negative terminal. I guess if you think about it, the lower the resistance of these conductors, the better the current return path. However, aluminum doesn't conduct as well as copper. And if these new aftermarket cables are not made of pure copper (and they aren't, that's a "fact"), they will not conduct as well as the highest point of resistance, which is the aluminum of the engine and the steel of the body.

Spark plug wires are made to specs from OEM. There is no reason to upgrade to better ones except for getting shielded ones which provide electromagnetic shielding for radio interference. Unless you upgrade the entire igntion system to a higher powered one (and I can't see why you would unless you're running forced induction), upgrading the wires is a waste of money.

But of course, if you spend like $80 for a set of MSD wires, they MUST make SOME power ...
 

civic hatch

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i heard of people getting more HP from grounding wires but i dont see how, and if you do then i dont think it will be noticeable. what i do know is that with grounding wires you can make your car idle a little better and if you have a big stereo system it might help with problems associated with that like dimming headlights, stuff like that. also you dont have to spend a big chunk of money on grounding kits just get some 4 guage wire (kind you use for amp grounding) and make your own. the only one that is hard is the one that connects the battery to the postive terinal on the altianator. if you need some making them let me know..

here is some pics of mine this is on a 96 hatch
this is the engine ground


this one is under the AEM intake and is the tranny ground


the last one is the battery negative terminal to the body.
 


BioHazard the Reaper

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ok well in the magazine they are not trying to sell you anything, what they do is they put around 3 different parts on 3 different cars, so that, you, the reader, can help make better decisions on your next purchase, there not tryinng to sel you anything, they are simply helping, so i think youre wrong there, and the issue said, that the wires were worthless becuase the car had good grounding already, so hmm thats sound likes a sale boost huh? great advertising, put down the producs your using(well thats what 0z99 thinks) but yeah i dont thin kthey are worth the ~100 dollars
 

O.Z Chi

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The whole point of subliminal advertising is just that ... what you said. Now, there's gonna be at least 1 out of 3 people that are going to try and buy one of the three grounding kits, just coz they think it might work for them.

Got it? :wink:

Anyway, civic hatch yo nice red scheme! Post a whole pic of your engine bay!
 

BioHazard the Reaper

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well hten you misunderstood me then, they dont test three different ground wires, on that particualr car they did ground wires(1), they did a header(2), and they did a CAI(3), so they didnt test three different brands of wires.....Got it? ;)
 

Handlebars

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why do you think there are ads in magazines? that magazine exists only because those companies pony'd up money to advertise in them. if they talked bad about a product, that company wouldnt spend money advertising it in the magazine. same thing with commercials on tv, they are whats paying for that show to be on. trust me, everyone is always trying to sell you something, whethere you realize it or not.
 

BioHazard the Reaper

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so let me get this strait, when you say a brands product is no good then you are really selling there product?? hmmm there marketing director should be fired lol....and also there is not a "ad" for those wires in the magazine, i dont know why some people cant see that sometimes they are helping people out and not trying screw them...and especially when they say dont buy this item it didnt work, yeah that made me want to go spend 100 bucks on something that didnt work lol, great work Import tuner =)
 

O.Z Chi

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Magazine advertising doesn't always have to be positive ... it just has to be THERE. That's all. Not everyone's as reasonable as you are, BioHarzard. Many people, including myself I must admit, are susceptible to this kind of advertising. Just coz a product is there, regardless of the review, they will go out and buy it just to try it and maybe, JUST MAYBE, it'll work for them coz they think that every car is different (and they are).
 

Linguistics

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yep, and since import tuner tests products from only a couple of companies, that also gets us thinking that we should try it to since they are. im a marketing major, and theres so much crap to advertising, whether subliminal or obvious. dont ask me questions about it though, im done with school for the semester, and dont feel like thinking about business classes for 3 months.

now there was this one magazine, i dont know the name of it, but ive only seen 1 issue. its full color, has 3 featured cars, then the rest is just tech and comparisons of companies, it was great. way better than import tuner, i admit, the only reason i buy it is for the girls. but anyways...weve gone off topic, anyone else have some advice for this guy? because i was wondering about the ground wire kits too
 

CiviKid

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im gonna go buy three feet of 2 guage wire soon to try this out i think...i dont see how it could hurt not to, it just seems if your gonna have better grounds you should have better power wires as well....
 


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