Big three Question please.

[miker 5,000+ posts]

I know there is a thread for it... But it's 19 pages long, and stickied so I'm thinking it doesn't get to much attention...

So heres my question

Does it help to only do parts of the whole thing? B/c I don't really want to spend all the money it would take to run a wire from the trunk to the alt. Right now the pos. and neg. battery wires are very big, I'm not sure the gauge but they are quite large...

So basically I'm asking, would it do anything to just do the last step? And would you want to be using 1/0g for this? or would 4g work? And why do you need to go from engine to "non-essential" and engine to chassis?

Click to read more...

 

[damonhargroves 10+ year member]

run 4 awg from alt to chassis (ground), run 4 awg from battery to chassis(ground), run 4 awg from battery (positive) to alternator (positive) you can also re-ground your engine with 4 awg

 

[miker 5,000+ posts]

Ok thanks for not reading my question, and quickly summarizing what I already read, but changing 1/0 to 4....

 

[2002XLT 5,000+ posts]

how many watts are you running? Will you be upgrading in the future?

 

[miker 5,000+ posts]

how many watts are you running? Will you be upgrading in the future?

I will be running ~2000w

 

[2002XLT 5,000+ posts]

Then i would go ahead and do 1/0, and yes, i would do all parts of the big 3.

 

[miker 5,000+ posts]

hmm.. The only problem is that my alt is way the hell down there... hardly visible...

Would it do me any good if I skipped the step of running battery pos. to alt.?

 

[2002XLT 5,000+ posts]

Thats the most important part. lol

 

[miker 5,000+ posts]

Thats the most important part. lol

Yeah... Thats what I thought.. I'll look into it more when I get it in the garage.. Maybe I'll take a few pics.

 

[2002XLT 5,000+ posts]

whats the car? Maybe someone that has one can chime in and help.

 

[mile098 10+ year member]

i didnt do the whole big 3, altho it would be advisable...just grounded the bat to the chasis, the power wire from the alt----> battery is already calculated to the power running thru it...what id suggest is making sure that the contacts are good and clean...

 

[miker 5,000+ posts]

It's an 89' BMW 325ix.

 

[bopo668 10+ year member]

dont mean to steal the thread but is it really that important to ground the Chassis to Engine Block. isn't the engine block all ready isolated

 

[miker 5,000+ posts]

Heres a couple of pics... not sure what they will do for me, but ehh.. Why not. The wire next to the main power wire is 4g, so it is deffinitley bigger than 4g...

The alternator is pretty deep inside...

 

[plushDJ 10+ year member]

well, I did the alt to batt (pos) and the batt to ground and I left the engine to chassis for a couple days before I did it. That last step alone boosted my voltage about .4 volts so I'd have to say every step counts