[onewinner]

battery relocation to trunk- how do i run the ground - directly to the body or what ? [img] [/img]

[usmcsawgunner]

yea find a good chassis bolt or something and clean it up real good and that should do the trick i believe.....

[neverfastenough1]

It is recommended to run a cable to the engine block for the best ground. Second best would be to run a ground strap from the bock to the chassis and a ground cable from the battery to the chassis.

[onewinner]

my mustang was running 10.40's consistantly without the bottle. the track made me do all this stuff to my car. atleast thats what i told my girl . so now i welded a ten point cage and did numerous chassis upgrades. i stripped my car down to nothing and am in the process of puttin it back together. thanks folks for the help. this car is bad ass- as soon as i learn how i'll post a pic

[fogged306]

Not trying to downplay what you said, neverfastenough, but you don't want to run a ground all the way up to the motor. If you ground the battery through the block you are grounding the whole car though the engine. You want to ground the battery to either a frame rail or a spot on the sheetmetal that is at least 2 layers thick (preferrably a framerail). make sure you free the area of any rust and paint before you do this. You can also upgrade the engine ground too. I would do no less than a 4ga ground for the battery and I usually do the same from block to frame, thats a little overkill, but it never hurts to have the best grounds possible on a vehicle.

[usmcsawgunner]

20/20 foresight is better than 20/20 hindsight for sure...

[Mr_Evil]

My battery is grounded to both the body and motor. You ground the motor for better spark mainly. You ground the chassi so all your electronics work properly.

[neverfastenough1]

Originally Posted by fogged306 Not trying to downplay what you said, neverfastenough, but you don't want to run a ground all the way up to the motor. If you ground the battery through the block you are grounding the whole car though the engine. You want to ground the battery to either a frame rail or a spot on the sheetmetal that is at least 2 layers thick (preferrably a framerail). make sure you free the area of any rust and paint before you do this. You can also upgrade the engine ground too. I would do no less than a 4ga ground for the battery and I usually do the same from block to frame, thats a little overkill, but it never hurts to have the best grounds possible on a vehicle.

Not trying to down play you either, but if I remember right, all forward batteries are grounded to the block. The reason for this is for spark. The block is grounded so the plugs have a good ground. The block is then grounded to the firewall for ground to all the lights and horn. The reason it is recommended by everyone to run a cable to the block is because a cable has better conductivity that the frame, and you never, and I will repeat that, never should connect your ground to the body. The body is too massive and thin. You need as strong a ground as you can get to the block.

[neverfastenough1]

One more thing, and I am not saying people don't ground them to the body because they are too lazy or cheap to do it right, or possibly they just think the ground conductivity doesn't matter, but where is your starter grounded? To the body, or the block? The block.

[fogged306]

Your starter is grounder through the block because it is grounded through its casing.

Whoever told you that the body of a car is too massive to be a good conductor and that the frame rails are not as good of a conductor as copper wire, has no idea what they are talking about. First, the body of a vehicles size has nothing to do with its conductivity, electricity always takes the shortest path. Thats why lightning strikes tall buildings. So to say that the electricity will travel through the entire body and go through all of that resistance is false. Yes, the entire body will be electrified, but the current will take the shorter path. Second, If you mean to say that the 4ga wire that usually comes in the battery relocate kits will hold more current than the frame or body of a car, that is wrong also. Even 0ga wire will hold less current the the body. I have personally done a competition stereo that drew in excess of 3500amps at 15v for a short burst of time. I actually melted 7 sections 12" of 0ga wire that was only feeding about 500amps each and had to weld in steel beams to handle the current.

Take for example welding, just for shits an giggles, we once took an arc welder and saw if 0ga could conduct the wattage of the arc. The wire practically disintegrated. Now I don't know about you but I have never welded the frame of a car and had it disintegrate.

And just for the record, I know that copper conducts better than steel but when drawing large amounts of current, more is better, and the current carrying capabilities of the steel in the vehicle are far better than the copper wire that you could run in it.

[fogged306]

Please dont take this as a direct attack on you personally, neverfastenough1, im not trying to talk shit, I just am trying to relay the facts. Im not saying that you don't know what you are talking about, you seem pretty knowledgable, but this has been my life for the past 12 yrs and I have learned from experience that what looks good on paper, sometimes is the exact opposite in a real world situation.

I am also writing this because I completely respect what you are doing for this country and oherwise, had you been someone else, would have never written this "disclaimer".

[neverfastenough1]

Originally Posted by fogged306 Please dont take this as a direct attack on you personally, neverfastenough1, im not trying to talk shit, I just am trying to relay the facts. Im not saying that you don't know what you are talking about, you seem pretty knowledgable, but this has been my life for the past 12 yrs and I have learned from experience that what looks good on paper, sometimes is the exact opposite in a real world situation. I am also writing this because I completely respect what you are doing for this country and oherwise, had you been someone else, would have never written this "disclaimer".

Didn't take it personally. It usually sounds like that cuz I am a little high strung these days. I know everybody has their own personal opinions.

[bgddy50]

For consideration I grounded it the bolt hole for the quad shock and found that this was not enough so I ran an additonal cable from that point to the drivers side quad shock bolt hole and this worked fine.

[onewinner]

just for the books---i ran it to my rear seat belt bolt hole behind where the back of the seat would be. everything works good no problems with spark starting or charging.