Shamu

ah well...I expected this...

like I said, I can only pass on my understanding of what the mod is and what I felt afterwards. I am planning to dyno the car (I have pre-ground figures) so that we can see if this mod shows up at all.

amartin

I'm sorry to say that this is complete snake-oil.

There would be ABSOLUTLY NO HORSEPOWER GAINs from this obtainable. First consider that your car, its engine, etc... ALL connect to a common ground, and adding additional 'grounds' isn't going to do a damn thing.

The only thing thats conceivable is to 'shield' elecrtical emmission from objects rotating around a coil, or fields which contain oscillation/pulsing electrical emissions. The only ones I know is the spark in the spark plugs and coil, and the alternator. Those emmisions will not add a charge to the battery as there isn't a "positive" side to them, but you may better shield them with copper around them (A shield).

Don't believe me? Take that ground wire and a meter, measure the resistance from that point to points on the chasse and the batterys negative side, add your wire... re-measure. Any difference? A few ohms maybe?

....a fool and his money soon part...

-- Aaron

jschmidt

Well, we'll see although I'd have to say I'm firmly in the "not-a-chance" camp. Here's another reason why: Capturing energy/power/chi and returning it to the battery has absolutely nothing to do with how much power the engine produces. The battery's function is merely to provide starting voltage. In the purest sense, that's it.

On top of that, more spark doesn't make more power unless there was a prior problem with incomplete combustion.

Anyway, I think we can all wait for the dyno's.

CoralDoc

I also await the dyno report - and here is a suggestion. When you do the dyno run with your ground wiring installed, please follow it up with a run after having diconnected the new ground from the battery. That way you'll have back-to-back runs with less possibility for variations in conditions.

Pinky

AHHH MEN! For those with larger stereo systems a larger grounding wire and a larger alternator wire to the batt. is always a good thing. More juice is better.

Yes back to back dyno runs would be very nice to have!

Shamu

You guys got it -- back to back dyno's coming up soon!

Like I said, I too was doubtful until I 'felt' the difference. I guess the dyno will prove/disprove the theory of grounding!

Turtle

I'm not claiming that this 'ground wire' idea works. But if there is any electrical energy being made by the engine, that can be diverted into the cars electics wouldn't this reduce the load on the alternator which does take power?

Think about the rise in rpm when you turn your air con on. This is the engine making more power as the electrical drain has gone up. So if the vehicle's electrical systems drained less power from the engine, you've more for driving.

Liek I said, I can't see how this ground wire is doing anything, just posting some 'food for thought'.

-Brian.

jschmidt

I believe you'll find that the alternator uses the same amount of parasitic power whether it is charging the battery (in a completed circuit) or not. Perhaps an EE would like to comment.

Likewise, the rise in rpm under a/c is a setting changed by the computer to make sure the engine doesn't stall under that parasitic drain.

marcucci

OK, I'll comment.

Alternators DO have more parasitic drag as load increases. Tanq's comments come to mind about the EM field- not around the conductor but in the alternator. Think of the alternator as a simple generator (I know, not entirely true): as it spins faster it can produce more current. What happens if the load exceeds the current supply? Not only does the output voltage decrease, the drag now increases on the alternator. This is evidenced by large stereo systems, etc. Ever wonder why your electric power steering actually changes RPMs? Try it.

Do I believe this is the case, or that an S2k without a high-power stereo would benefit from this? Hell no!!! Well, at least, I'm open to any "theories" and scientific data (DYNO PLOTS!), but initially... I must say I don't see a way.

The entire chassis of the car is a "ground." How good of a ground? In most cases, very good. When it comes to sensors, the ECU, and the like, seperate ground wires are run to common grounding points. Even for miscellaney like lights, etc., are typically run to common grounding points. Anything with a critical reference (like the O2) uses a differential signal and dedicated Vcc with a shielded cable... when it comes to noise, I challenge anyone to find noise that will amount to an appreciable power gain.

I'm suspecting the "sell" to be based on EM in different parts of the chassis "interfering" with one-another and affecting electrical current (presumably drawing too much).

If this install involves removal of the battery cables, or interrupting power to the ECU, you must duplicate this on the "control" vehicle for any tests. Resetting the ECU has been dyno proven to provide a noticeable, quantifiable power gain.

Gentlemen, start your engines. As an Engineer, I'm here with Tanq to tell you the likelihood of this being a valid upgrade is next to none. Everyone in Japan might do it, but well, everyone here is putting LED winshield washers on their cars. Does that mean people in Japan thinks it makes power on American cars?

RT

I'm not a proponent of this thing but for all you stereo jockeys out there, I'm sure you've run in to Ground Loop problems causing noise. If adding/changing ground points make a difference with the audio equipment then I don't know why it couldn't apply here. I don