HyperGround Wires

[SubaLegacy]

Has anyone tried these at all? I read "Import Tuner" magazine obsessively along with good 'ol "Sport Compact Car" and 2nR seems to be putting the HyperGround wires on all of the cars that they feature. It seems to be a universal way of freeing up lost horsepower tied up in electrical resistance, or something. I want to get some but it seems like it would be difficult to find grounding spots without use of a dyno to see if it's actually making any difference. Does anybody have any experience with this stuff? It sure would be cool if they worked, 5 more Hp is pretty nice for around $100, that's like $20 bucks a horse, cool, if I spent $2000, then.... nevermind.

[mile hi]

5 hp sounds like a lot but some people say they think they got something out of these grounding setups. I would like to see it on a dyno and if it is true I think I would take some heavy stereo power wire, solder on some terminals and build my own. It shouldn't be very hard to come up with a diagram and I have all the manuals and access to all the cars. Where abouts are you in MN ? I was looking through some stuff the other night and came across the magazine they gave out at the opening day at DonnyBrook (now Brainard) and a picture of me driving a Porsche RS 550 spyder down the straightaway after that screwy last turn.
AL(CO)
al@iwtu.net

[IggDawg]

I've been through this whole grounding deal quite a bit back on NASIOC.com . it does help, generally. reason being it helps the sensors to "see" better if there's a clear ground voltage to reference against. otherwise there are several transitions the charge has to see thorugh, meaning the charge has to travel thorugh a few high resistance connections to reach the sensors.

best way to DIY this one is to get some heavy gauge braided wires (don't get solid wire), and run a straight ground from the terminal to the following points:

1) #2 intake runner.
2) #1 intake runner
3) one of the bolts on the pitch stop bracket on the firewall. be sure to sand off the paint
4) left strut tower mount. be sure to sand off the paint
5) right strut tower mount. be sure to sand off the paint
6) run a second line to the main chassis ground point.

those should do it. make sure your ring terminals are directly touching the chassis or engine or whatever. don't sit them on top of wahsers. the point of all this is to make sure there are as few contact connections as possible. at absolute best you might see a horsie or 2. not 5. at the very least you might kill some hesitation and improve response slightly. in any case it's probably free since you've no doubt got gobs of wire hanging around in your house. so go at it.

[ciper]

I bought a couple cables from the parts store that are supposed to be used for starter cable I guess. Very thick and terminated on both ends with a very heavy duty loop. I also had some flat braided ground straps left over from computer equipment.

I made sure the engine was grounded to the four sides of the engine bay. Left and Right frame, Firewall and Near the radiator.

I then also grounded the coil pack to the negative battery lead.

The cost of the "Starter" cables I got are less than any special ground wires marketed yet they are also double the size of most.

[mile hi]

There is another thing to take into consideration with grounds and that is ground loops and they can cause real problems. When all else has been checked and the problem is weird check the grounds. As an example we had two cars one a '02 WRX the other a '00 Impreza, on both the fuel warning light would come on all by itself whatever the fuel level was, this only happened about once a week. A few strange CEL's would show up occaasionaly and the speedometer would quiver a little. Cause was that both cars had had engine work and someone had neglected to reinstall the little ground wire from the transmission to the body.
ALCO
al@iwtu.net

[vrg3]

Yeah, ground loops'll show up as alternator noise in stereo installs, too. We set up a nice system in my friend's 2002 Legacy, with an amp under the passenger seat, fired it up, and were dismayed to hear the alternator really loud. We had grounded the amp to the seat belt bracket. I ran a grounding strap from the seat belt to the head unit body and it went away.

By the way, don't do a "circle ground" style of grounding improvement. It may help, but in general it's not a good way to do things because it still allows for small potential differences to build up. Do a "star" arrangement: one central ground point (alternator body, negative terminal of battery, or a good spot on the engine block), with a single wire going out to each other ground point.

[mile hi]

Also there is only one wire at a time to disconnect if you should hit on a ground that doesn't quite work. On the sensor grounds it is usually best to bring them all back to a point near the ECU and then ground them all in one point.
AL(CO)
al@iwtu.net

[SubaLegacy]

Mile Hi,
I live about two hours from Brainerd, in a town called Bemidji. I don't go to Brainerd much because there isn't much there, except for the raceway which I would like to check out sometime this summer hopefully. I know a lady that was drag racing her Mustang there last year. That's cool though that you've been there, you should post the pic.

As far as the Hypergrounds go I suppose it would only be for aesthetics to pay the hundred bucks, and I don't think my Suby is going to be a show car anytime soon So I'll probably try getting some larger gauged wire of some sort and giving it a try. Hey Igg, thanx for the ground points, that will be my map on this adventure, for sure, but when you said,

best way to DIY this one is to get some heavy gauge braided wires (don't get solid wire), and run a straight ground from the terminal to the following points:

Do you mean from the negative terminal on the battery itself?