Easy electrical question about grounding

I have become so obsessed with electric flow lately on my civic for some reason. I've become obsessed with grounding ever since I ran a regular wire (yes...thin) from my starter to the battery's negative terminal just for some extra grounding for the hell of it (something I had read online). The starter starts alot faster/stronger from just that tiny piece of crap wire. It sounds much higher pitched, like it was brand new. I figure that if I used 4 guage wire this time, it could be better. This is why I ordered a grounding kit plus electrical stabalizer. The kit arrives next week. Would there be any benefit for me to replace the red positive cable that leads to the starter since it looks really old and rusted-looking? The kit I ordered is this. I DONT expect Hp gains from this but I really hope it can some how help with gas milage

http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/500/62025gre.JPG

Thanks

If the red wire leading to the starter is old and rusty it might help a bit if you replace it. Depending on the condition of the old wire it would probably let a little more power through with a fresh wire.

Also let us know how it goes after you install the grounding kit and stabilizer kit. I was thinking about getting one for my car too so I'll see how yours works out first.

I'll make sure to add this one to my Electrical Basics thread. Flow of electrons can be limited by how much room there is for travel. By expanding the path of travel you decrease the resistance of the flow. Electrons flow from negative to positive. (There is another theory about electrical flow called the Holes Theory. Check my thread for more on the subject.) Electricity is the movement of electons from an atom whose outer shell is less than half full to an atom that has an outer shell that is over half full. Anyone who has some general science relating to the structure of atoms should understand what these shells are. Electrons have a negative charge thus the reason for a negative terminal on the battery. By attaching the negative terminal of the battery to the chassis you do two things, you eliminate the need to run wires for the negative portion of the circuit to every application by providing electrons to the metal of the chassis which can be accessed anywhere in the car.

Resistance in an electrical circuit decreases voltage (resistance of wires is usually not a measurable amount or an amount of any real concequence but a noticable amount if the requirement for voltage is great enough.) Voltage in an electrical motor is the equivilant to torque on your engine. The more torque you have the faster you reach your top speed (also works inconjunction with hp to allow for a higher top speed). When you use the starter on the vehicle you are using every available electron and want as much 'torque' as possible to get the engine cranked faster. This is why all your accesories turn off. It keeps the maximum amount of electrons available to be used by the starter.

This is the same reason there is a rating for watts on amp kits. If the main power wire isn't thick enough to carry all the electrons nescesary back to the battery then it could damage your amplifire by casuing it to run at less than optimal performance. By adding a grounding kit you essentially increase the amount of paths available for the electrons to travel allowing for better spark in the engine.

If I didn't explain something well enough, post in my electrical thread an I'll asnwer the question.

wow dude thats crazy. kinda sounds like science class but relating it to cars. it thats what my science class was like, i would have not fell asleep so much
lol

Where are you getting this kit from?

that kit? most likely, EBAAAAYYYYY.... i've seen them on there like that before

I would really like to know more on the specifics about what it contains not to mention that the grammer in the picture looks like it was put there by a horrible translator.

Kit will get here wed. Untill then I decided to buy some cable from advance auto parts. I went in to buy some 4 guage wire from a spool they have but they only had 2 guage. I said "crap..oh well.. I'll get it" So I bought 5 feet of 2 guage wire for the hell of it. It was $1 per foot. I bought heat shrink and gold connectors. I was really debating on changing that positive wire but I finally said "ok" to myself.I replaced the starter to battery wire and also replaced the wire terminal to a 24K gold plated one. Looks nice. I replaced the wire, and also decided to make a negative wire the same size as the positive. For now, I just hooked that wire up to the starter as well. I start the car and HOLY MOLY that starter started damn fast. I let the car warm up then I shut it off again (gave it time to charge the batt some more) I started the car up and even faster and higher pitched the starter was. Wow I had no idea that grounding made THAT much of a difference. Now I REALLY cant wait untill the kit gets here. I will take pics tomorow. Yes the kits is an ebay kit but ohh well... wires are wires... I'll update more later. I also am going to record sounds from the starter. Before and after. I already have the before sounds.

sounds cool.

LINKY LINKY (http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=4032881#post4032881)
Here's my electrical thread. Gives some basic knowledge on EP for cars.

Ok... so I received the grounding kit today.. Looked nice when I opened up the box. Came with the round plate, plate cover, bolts, cables, etc. On the other half of the box there is the power stabalizer which looks like a power inverter that I have under my seat. Looks pretty neat. One small problem I am having is where to hook up 2 of the wires (7 total). One says to mount one wire to the cylinder block but I can't find a good place where an existing bolt is to mount it. Another wire says to hook it up to a headlight (or both? I have an extra wire leading to nothing so im guessing 1 for each headlight?) Where exactly on the headlight do I mount it to? Isn't the headlight housing made of half plastic and half glass? For now, those extra wires I decided to mount on to the frame and intake manifold untill I find good places to mount them (so now the frame and intake manifold have 2 grounds each).Then I hook up the stabalizer. Upon hooking it up, I realize that its really almost nothing more than just a capacitor/lil battery but maybe I am wrong. It just seems like a lil device that holds an extra charge. The lil stabalizer attempted to power the car's alarm before I even hooked the positive terminal to the battery. Ok.. everything hooked up. I'm done... Or so I thought...

Another problem I ran into is, when I was finished, I went to close the hood gently and noticed it wouldn't shut, since the plate was too high up. Ok so I had to remove one of the spacers which wasn't a problem. I close the hood, I start the car, and powers up nicely (starter sounds nice but not any better since I already had a 2 guage wire running to the starter since last week and is STILL on there) Lights appeared a little dim or the same. When ever I would slightly rev the engine, the lights would get reallllly bright (brighter than ever), but when I let go of gas, the lights would dim a lil again as they always were. I start to drive the car in my neighborhood and notice that power is a lil sluggish, but after driving for 4 min, everything started to operate very very nicely. When I finally pulled back in to my driveway (after like 5 min of driving) the lights no longer dimmed at all... I'm wondering if that lil stabalizer was sucking so much juice to charge itself up at first? Also, I had the battery disconnected over an hour. I had a feeling that the sluggishness was due to the ECU being reset? I could be wrong, but after 4 min of driving the car had a nice lil extra kick of torque when I'd gun it. I'll update more as this is getting too long

Some questions though.

1. Where can I hook the cable up to the headlight(s)?
2. Where is a good place to hook the cable up to the block?
3. When having the car without a battery for over an hour, does the ECU reset itself and have to learn my driving again and eventually adjust?

Thank you all! I will take pics soon but not just yet. My engine is VERY dirty and if I take one now, it will look very crappy... ehh fine what the hell.. I'll take a quick pic but PLEASE dont judge yet! Engine compartment VERYYY dirty!! brb for pics.

I need to know more about the little box to help you out. If you are right it was a cap. You simply need to run the cables for the head lights to the ground wires on the lamp connections. There should be several places to hook up to the block but if you don't see any wires that are connected to frame from the block then ground out one of the bolts that are connected to the heat shield for the exaust.

Yes, you can reset your ecu by leaving the battery unhooked long periods of time.

I also bought a kit like that but nothing happened like your did...i had it on my civic hatch 94 DX and it pulled alot save my battery life and my subs are knocking clean bass.But be carefull about changing bigger wire...sometimes honda factory dont want to over load something so they use skimpy wire for less electricity current .

changing the wire won't cause an over load. They use skimpy wire cause copper is expensive and they want it to be an economy car.

Just causes the power to get there faster. Won't overload it. Whether you get 12v there in 1 second or 3... it gets there. Plus if they had 2 gauge wire running everywhere a) you'd have a tough time finding a wire and b) there wouldn't be a lot of space left in the car under the dash (and the plugs would have to be huge).