MX-3.com

I wasn't attacking you, man. I ddn't think you wre saying it wasn't worth doing; but I would say for most purposes "feeing up" hp and "adding" hp is the same thing

Now I don't really know what im talking about here, but it seems that if you have more energy running through your ignition system it will take less time for a charge to build and a spark to occur. This way every spark is more perfectly timed and more efficient, creating (or.. technically freeing up) power. I donno tho. I just like the way it sounds :p

Didn't mean to sound hostile, wasn't going on the defense, just trying to clarify what I said (I get pretty confusing at times, my own track of thought).

Anyway the reason I was saying that they free up power and not give power is so when someone see this in an ground wires advertisment.

INCREASE HP 10+

and see another that says

INCREASES HP 5+

they would know they are they same thing in the package, and that a custom one is just as helpful (if the guage is small enough)...

http://www.magnecor.com/magnecor1/overview.htm

<small>[ October 23, 2004, 08:38 PM: Message edited by: Zetgohan ]</small>

I installed a ground system in my car too and I could notice the results. The car felt a bit stronger with a cleaner idle. Also, the stereo was a lot clearer sounding (no whine).
I built the system myself using some 4 guage amp wire and gold connectors. I also got a platinum negative terminal clamp while I was at it. I used some instructions that I found a link to on this board. I don't remember who exactly had posted them but I believe they were actually for a protege. All in all it took less than 1 hour to install.
Steve

I saw a Mazda speed one on ebay it had blue wires with the central hub. I think I'm gonna pick it up. I think I heard somewhere fuel efficiency goes up; is that true?

Nothing goes up unless it's down because of a fault with a ground - all you achieve is rectifying a defect. Nothing wrong with that, just don't expect more.

And if there's no defect, you can't expect any improvement.

<small>[ October 27, 2004, 05:32 AM: Message edited by: IanL ]</small>

Best point yet Ian. I installed some - nothing, ziltch, nada, sfa.

Not suprised because the cars in good nick. But I don't regret installing them (I made my own 4 gauge set that worked out to too many $$$, about $AU100 with cable, lugs and heatshrink).

But it looks good under the bonnet (got red cable to match the car) and its been commented on. If theres a chance it will help, I say do it!

It does help. If you don't notice an improvement in the headlight output, stereo consistency and improved smoothness in idle or revving you aren't noticing enough. Every car I've ever seen anyone install this crap on has seen an improvement, some more dramatic than others, but on a 10+ year old car with 100k+ miles, I don't see the harm.

Besdies....have you seen the stock ground wires? There are TWO 18 gauge peices of crap that ground the engine/tranny. One connects to the tranny, the other connects to the engine near the timing belt covers. Pretty sad to think those peices of crap are what are grounding our entire distributor, and all of the sensors within our vehicle.

Hey, could someone post that link to the Protege DIY job? I'll prob add that to my ZE swap list. Thanks!

projectmazda.com

Thanks, Barry. Here's the actual address for the ground wires, guys:
http://projectmazda.com/howto/groundwire/

Lots of good stuff on there.

Originally posted by Grants:
(I made my own 4 gauge set that worked out to too many $$$, about $AU100 with cable, lugs and heatshrink).

I am in the middle of makeing my own set of ground wires and went to two auto parts stores and neither of them had any 4 gauge underhood wire crimps with the circle end. So i had to go to the local car audio shop and ask if they had them and they ran me a dollar something a piece. I cant believe those things are that dang much. But anyways i will be installing them this weekend and will see if there is any improvement in the way my car performs.

I couldn't get 4 gauge lugs anywhere, not even where I bought the cable - they had only screw type connections. 8 gauge seems to be the biggest available over here. I used high voltage lugs from an electrical wholesaler which are much more rigid than LV lugs and ran to about $3 each. 35mm lugs are exactly the right size but most of you guys probably use imperial cable sizes so I don't know what size that would be.

Ian I'm going to have to agree with Gro. The MX-3 electrical system is badly under-engineered and a ground wire kit is an awesome addition regardless of price.

Besdies....have you seen the stock ground wires? There are TWO 18 gauge peices of crap that ground the engine/tranny. One connects to the tranny, the other connects to the engine near the timing belt covers.

Perhaps this is why installing ground wires didn't improve things on mine? The original grounding on my car (Eunos 30X) has considerably bigger and better wires than that.

But as I said previously, Im not complaining and reckon that installing a ground wire kit makes perfectly good sense.

I agree. Groundwire kit is needed in our cars. When I swapped to my KL-DE, the ground was the cause that I couldn't get it started.