I wouldnt call this a ricer mod, i would call it a n00b mod. Think about it this way. It is easy to tell who has a fast car by the way they play off their car.

If you talk to an F-Body guy and ask him what he has done to his car and he starts mentioning spark plugs, plug wires, Air Filters, TB bypass, descreening MAF...... you get the point. They are all little things that gain you little to no HP, but any beefy F-Body out there with some hardcore power is just gonna say "Stock" (my favorite) or "meh... its got a 396 w/ worked heads and a FAT cam" and you get the picture. You also assume that he has already done all the other free/cheap mods.

It is all about how you play it off. If it is just one of many things you do to a car, then it will pay off as preventive maintenence. Otherwise you sound like a fool when you think that your ignition wires, homeported TB, $400 mass air flow sensor, platinum plugs, synthetic oil... is going to turn your car from a family 4 door into a road course ready ferrari.

Just my $.02
-Stu

 

All cars have voltage issues. Certain areas more so than some.
It is quite easy to see which components are suffering from voltage loss by placing a DVM across the power source wires in order to measure the voltage drop across them. Fuel pumps, ignition boxes & coils and fuel injectors all benefit from having more voltage. F-body cars are not immune to voltage drop problems. GM's grounding and power source wires are minimal in some areas. As these cars age the grounding points suffer from corrosion etc.

Anybody who doubts this should stop arguing about this and instead take the time to make some measurements and perhaps learn something

 

Racetronix while your here is there going to be a fuel pump kit GP anytime soon?

 

We don't sell the FLT1 kits direct. A GP would have to be arranged by a Racetronix dealer.

 

First of all, thank you very much. Finally an intelligent response to my question. I was just kicking around the idea because searching the forum didn't bring up and information or discussion about this topic. Upgrading your grounds is so cheap that even if there was a extremely minimal gain in any aspect of the car's overall performance (no I'm not talking about just HP here) then I think it would be worth it. This modfication would take practially no time at all and the cost is so little that it would be dumb not to do it even if the smallest gain was realized. At least you will have peace of mind that your block/components are properly grounded.

Thanks for stepping in and giving some serious insight instead of "ricer" insults and mindless drivel that seem to be taking over this serious post.

 

"searching the forum didn't bring up and information or discussion about this topic."


Hmmmm I wonder why..... .....

 

Search the Turbo Buick forums or D-I-Y EFI pages and you will find information on this topic. Buick owners tend to be more technically savvy when it comes to the electrical end of things.

Just because a topic has not been covered on a forum does not mean that it does not have technical merit. Forums are a great source of information but mostly disinformation. What is the point of sitting here and debating something for which people have little or no knowledge about? To be able to discuss something rationally requires background knowledge. Might I suggest people get off their keyboards, break out their multimeters and run some simple tests. People might actually learn something!

 

I think God almighty himself could drop down out of the clouds and says it true...

some one would still want to fight about it...

 

Yup as the song goes...

"There are some men you just can't reach... that's why we get what we have here today...."

Cool Hand Luke

 

Not really this was talked about in a post a couple months back... of course No one then thought Some thick wires would add HP ...and still don't see how some thick wires will add HP to your car unless you have bad wires to begin with.

I want to see Dyno results... Show me the tables and I'll believe anything you say after that.

But hey there's people that think the landing on the moon was filmed right here on earth... so why not think Grounding wire will give you an extra 90hp?

Hey I'll sell you a bottle of blinker fluid for $24.99 wadda ya say? Guaranteed to add 19hp


Look you guys win... I'm going to do the Grounding mod as soon as Radioshack opens up again... what gauge of wire should I use? You guys have any printouts of the LT-1 wiring diagram...? I'm going to upgrade all the wires in the harness.. wanna make sure I get circuit and light bulb... YES!!! Now my cigarette lighter will heat up 3 times as fast...

But I wonder if by increasing the current signal to your electrical components will you loose horsepower.... you know the more voltage you use the more HP your possibly being robbed of... ah o-well...

 

The point is, if your current grounds have no voltage drop across them, you don't have a problem. It's easy to take a measurement.

This is simple electric theory here guys. Your wires have a certain amount of resistance. Apply a voltage across it and you'll get a certain amount of power loss. The thicker the wire (to a point), the less loss you have.

If you're having to add grounding straps all over the place, all you're doing is applying a band-aid to the issue, you're not solving the root of the problem.

Not only that, the more grounding points you have, the greater the likelyhood of having ground loop problems. Try troubleshooting those sometime.

Take a volt meter and measure across the grounding point. If you see a voltage, clean the connection.

This is not voodoo....

 

This is where your line of though hits a dead end and you try to change the subject from "I don't believe there are voltage issues' to 'I don't believe it would impact performance'. More voltage does not necessarily equal more HP but not enough voltage will cause major problems and will prevent you from achieving maximum performance.

When vehicle voltage is inadequate the injectors will open more slowly which means their DC will have to be higher to achieve the same flow. Lower ignition voltage means a weaker spark which does not promote combustion as well and can cause the motor to break down under higher RPM, cylinder pressure / HP levels. Lower vehicle voltage impacts fuel pump volume as well.

When Racetronix was into dyno tuning many problems that cropped up were directly related to voltage and wiring issues.

Enough stable voltage is imperative on any HP vehicle to maintain proper systems operation and consistency in tune.

To make matters worse the F-LT1 alternators always run hot and are undersized for their application.

Ground loop noise will not impact most vehicle engine management systems unless there are some seriously bad connections.
Ground loop noise mostly impacts HP sound systems but this is mostly due to the design of the power supply circuits in the decks and amps.
A couple millivolts of noise will not effect an ECM or an ignition system as they have internal noise filtering which is both component and software based.
A couple millivolts of noise on the line input to a power amp is another story and is not related to this discussion.

 

youve made a comprehension error right from the beginning.

upgrading grounds is not about creating horespower.....that is NOT what we were trying to say.........its about fixing weak links in your electrical system that can cause lost horsepower.

if your setup is not grounding properly, you can have ignition issues (and therefore lose power)...........upgrading your wiring can cure this issues and restore lost power.

 

Let me step in here, more voltage does = more HP for most people, this is because most people don't realize that they have a voltage problem when they do.

To give an example, about 2 weeks ago I wanted to swap out my fuel pump because my fuel pressure would drop off as soon as my RPMs got to 5400rpm & up, it would drop like a rock, so I went ahead & ordered the racetronix unit when I noticed they sell a wiring harness with it that takes the voltage straight off the alternator to feed the pump.

Guess what, I figure I try just the harness & try leaving the stock fuel pump alone for now. The results were my fuel pressure is higher the ever staying at 43PSI all the way to 7kRPM without a slight drop in pressure all because I upgraded the wiring to the pump, not to mention my voltage in the car now readings as high as 14.7 volts at the alternator & over 14 in the system (datamaster), everything improved with their fuel pump harness because now the fuel pump doesn't feed off the main wiring harness where there was a voltage drop that wasn't really being sensed at the alternator so it didn't compensate, as soon as the fuel pump started feeding off the alternator the current demand was sensed instantly at the alternator & now I have more voltage everywhere, everything runs better & here is the list of what just the racetronix wiring harness did:

1. Bring the stock fuel pump back to life (the one that came with the kit is now sleeping until the stock acctually dies instead of suffer from voltage drop problems)

2. Power windows roll up faster

3. stereo is louder & all the interior lighting is nice & bright like the car is new.

Not to mention imagine how much better the spark is & how much faster the fuel injectors can pulse.

This is an example what voltage can do for you, I wasn't aware of t his because my voltage would read 12.8-13.2 before which I thought is normal since to my knowledge all way fine, car even started no problems but I was wrong.

BTW they include a new ground wire & new bettery terminal made of brass which look killer

Matt.

 

Most of this was due to the battery - to body ground upgrade that comes with the kit.