Engine ground and battery ground neccessary?

[jdawg90 10+ year member]

If i do a 1/0 ground run from the amp to the battery, is there any point in upgrading the battery to chassis and engine to chassis to 1/0?

Click to read more...

 

[Saint211 10+ year member]

Yes. Everything still in the car is still grounded to the frame, at the very least.

 

[jdawg90 10+ year member]

Yes. Everything still in the car is still grounded to the frame, at the very least.

yea, but the car's electrical system is not drawing much current... so shouldnt the factory grounds be sufficient?

 

[Saint211 10+ year member]

Youd be surprised how much current cars draw, especially newer ones with all the bells and whistles.

I dont think anyone here a right or wrong answer on this one, but its only as strong as the weakest link,

I have the equipment in my sig, 3 fused power runs front to back, 2 ground runs, I had alt pos. to batt pos. I asked myself the same question as you asked. I came up with the same answer I gave you. Then I did the two ground upgrades and saw slight gains in my voltage at idle and driving. Maybe it was something else but I kinda convinces myself I was right on that question. I cant say for sure either but I think I get less voltage drop with accessories on.

 

[jdawg90 10+ year member]

Alright, thanks. I'll probably go ahead and do it

 

[atlninja82 10+ year member]

yes it does make quite the difference. atleast it did in my application. i just did neg to chasis and then neg to engine block and i was going to do the alt but i wanted to see if just adding those two would make a difference and it did. i dont know if its because the place i had it grounded to had paint on the chasis and dirt around it and i cleaned it up or if the difference in cable size made the difference but im convinced that it was both. so yes i think it does make a difference.

 

[jdawg 5,000+ posts]

do it

 

[Lil Poot 5,000+ posts]

do it

don't let him punk you for your name like that brah.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

The gain would be important insomuch as the alt needs a good connection to the battery to charge it. The importance of the frame connection is marginalized by grounding the amps back to the battery so you could actually skip that and just do a block to battery connection and call it good.