Do I really need a HO alternator?

[MikeCole89 10+ year member]

I would gt it done and out of the way now then when you decide you want to upgrade one less thing to do.

 

[ds0110 10+ year member]

.... firewall to engine block? Battery to frame was already mentioned as battery negative to chassis. The only reason you'd need to upgrade your fuse box wiring is if your alt goes through there to get to the battery; which you could just do your own run from alt to battery anyways. And amp underneath vehicle to the frame? Just sounds like another amp ground, which should already be matching your power wire.

None of that is needed, its just going above and beyond. Im using professional crimping tools and silver solder also, which isnt absolutely necessary. Plus I like telling people with the big 3 that i have a big 7. Big 3 is fine though, nothing wrong with that.

Firewall to block is just adding more ground (obviously). Less path of resistance, and it gives the whole ground system a connection. battery => block => firewall => chassis => battery => frame => amp and battery

The batt - to frame is not much of a run...maybe 5". If I were going to chose between that the firewall to block run, id just do the firewall to block, but If you have the extra output from the - battery terminal, why not use it when all it requires is ~6" of wire and 2 terminals?

batt + to fusebox isnt really about helping your audio. It just gives your vehicles electrical more room to flow. i guess in a roundabout way, your vehicle straining less puts less load on the alternator which maybe makes your alt last longer or gives a slight electrical increase? I dunno....The goal of that run is about increasing the stock wiring size since were putting an increased load on the fusebox with a nice HU, radar detector, led lights, etc.

the "super ground" as i like to call it, is connecting the amps (in my case 4ga) ground wire to that 0ga ground system I mentioned earlier. The ground bolt goes through the floor, and I go underneath the vehicle and I add 0ga on the other side of it, running to the frame. In should in theory give the amp less resistance to the batt -, being that the batt - is grounded so well. How much increase this would give over a standard ground, im not sure...probably little, but I know my amp is grounded very well, better than most, so that bottleneck is removed.

 

[Flex68 10+ year member]

in addition to that, if you have the wire, you could also go: 1) firewall to engine block

2) battery - to frame

3) battery + to fuse box

4) (underneath vehicle) amp ground to frame

Just as TheUnderFighter already illustrated in his response, the above is pure redundancy with respect to grounds!

An extra ground wire from the amp to anywhere, or engine block to chassis/frame, is totally unnecessary if a proper job is done with the standard Big Three wiring...

 

[CRSO 10+ year member]

Think of your alt as a water pump. And your batts some buckets. You stock water pump can pump out say 100 gallions per minute (gpm). Your car probably drinks 50gpm's under normal operating conditions. Now add an amp that drinks 50gpm's. All is well.
Now put in an amp that drinks 100gpm's. Where are you going to get that extra water? From the buckets. Buckets too small and the amp runs out of water, overheats and dies. Add larger buckets and you can use the extra water for longer, BUT the pump has to keep those buckets full too. More water for the pump to pump out means extra strain.

Add a 200gpm pump and you may not even get into the buckets.

****, That's a lame analogy. I could have just said alt, batts and amperage. Lol.

Great analogy!