Lots of people in these forums swear that the grounding/earthing mod nets real gains, not only for the EVO, but for many other cars, too. Heck, the mod has been around for years. It is a common mod for the WRX, for instance, which I did when I owned one. Just today I saw an article in SuperStreet showing a modest, but measurable, gain on a dyno for a 350Z. I've also seen dyno graphs floating around showing gains for the EVO.

Like you, I WANT to believe. I really do. But I don't, and here’s why:

The first premise, as I understand it, is that the stock ground from the battery isn’t very good, and that this hurts performance somehow. Although I find it hard to believe that a carmaker would skimp on something so cheap and easy for them to add HP, let's say that this is true. And although I personally don't understand why an imperfect ground would rob horsepower, I'm no electrical engineer, so let's say that's true, too.

But here's where it gets wacky. The typical mod involves not simply replacing the stock ground wire with better connectors and a heavier gauge wire, but with 5 OR 6 OF THEM! I completely understand the logic of “more is better.” I used to have a WRX, for instance, which had 227hp. Now I have an Evo, which has 271hp. It’s better. See, I get it. But can someone really tell me with a straight face that 5 wires snaking through your engine bay provides a better ground than just one? I mean, just how many electrons do you think we’re talking about here? Is there really enough electron traffic to warrant 5 4-gauge or 8-gauge wires?!

I realize that there are dyno plots out there showing gains, but trust me, given measurement error, the small proposed effect, and the small sample size, they can easily be attributed to chance (remember your statistics class in college?). As for butt-dynos, never forget the power of placebos.

There, I said it. I still want to believe, so if someone can convince me, please do. Otherwise, I think those of us (including me) who have done this mod are wasting their time. Not trying to be a curmudgeon, just skeptical. Peace.

 

as for more of them..

yea more is usually better but in this case i believe there should be a limit..BUT more is better anyway because it gives electrons less resistance and more "chance" to travel to other parts of the engine.

but i would like to hear the true thing about grounding and why a bad ground would lessen the performance..

 

I haven't done the mod yet since I haven't been around my car long enough to do much of anything to it. I will, however, try the mod when I get home just to see if it gives any improvement. Here are some of my reasonings, mosty based on stereo grounding principles, that it could work. The quality of the wiring isn't the greatest. You say you can't believe a car company would skimp on something like this. Honestly, do you think they care if they're using the best wire available? No, they're using what they get the best deal on, saving them a few bucks per car. Higher quality/ larger gauge wire means less resistance, thus giving the trons a less restrictive path to flow. This goes for the grounding terminals as well. Also, the shorter the ground the better. When you hook up an amp, do you run a ground all the way back to the battery? No, you find a good grounding spot as close to the amp as possible. Even if it just smooths out the idle and improves throttle response, that's worth it to me. I don't have an EE degreee either, but I do have many years experience working on car audio, cars in general, and $20 million dollar aircraft, which I did receive several months of electronics training for. Hope this helps. Just my $.02

 

but i would like to hear the true thing about grounding and why a bad ground would lessen the performance..


bobaab, to try to answer your question, if it's electronic, then it needs a ground agreed? What parts of the engine are electronic? The ignition/sparking, alternator, ecu, etc... These parts have a little to do with the performance right? I'm not trying to be sarcastic here, so I apologize if it seems I am. Since these parts require a ground doesn't it make sense that an improved ground would enable them to work more efficiently, improving performance at least somewhat? As I said above, liken this to car audio. If you don't have a good ground on your amp, you run the chance of noise being induced into the system, degrading the performance of the system. If you want the best quality sound, you need to use the best quality wiring. This gives a cleaner signal, allowing the amp to amplify the actual signal, not some stray noise. Again, I hope this helps a little.

 

The reason grounding is important for best performance is to get the best possible spark from the spark plugs. As cylinder pressures increase the plugs find it harder to fire a spark - and with a turbo car like an Evo the cylinder pressures are very high. Remember, the engine is producing a lot of horsepower for a 2 litre and when you ram in all that extra air and fuel the pressure is much higher than on a normally aspirated car.

On the Evo heads the aluminium seems not to be of the best quality and many people have problems with porous heads on Evos that have had to be replaced. The head does not transmit electrical current effectively and adding of an earth wire to each of the two coils definitely gives improved results.

By using several wires to specific locations you get a better earth and it avoids voltage drop through metals that do not conduct electricity well. Even factory cars usually come with several grounding wires, but none of these go to the coils.

 

More HP or not, my car runs much better after installing a ground kit. It is undeniable that it made the car run better. Most noticeable was the smoother idle. It also pulls a bit more on the top end. I did NOT believe it would help as much as it seems to have. I am installing these kits in my two other cars...

 

PLACEBO??

 

I don't think so. I also don't think it added 10HP like Mitsu says their kit does........

 

How is it that I can't tell any HP increase thru a turbo-back exhaust yet you can tell the difference with a ground kit? BTW, I'm getting a grounding kit soon regardless

 

It's simple really.
Electricity actually flows from negative to positive, because they are electrons. So to start it is an improvement in the ability to flow electrons. You can't really aruge that point.
Next, all electricity in a DC circuit is based on ohms law. There are three parts to electricity. Volts (the push, like pressure in a pipe)
Ohms (The resistance, size of the pipe restricting flow) and Amps (the actual power, the water in the pipe).
E=I*R
E=volts I=amps and R=resistance
There are essentially 2 type of circuits in DC electricity.
serial circuits and parallel circuits
For our concern, any serial circuit; the sum of all the resistance adds up to the total resistance and the voltage drops based on that resistance. So on one end of the circuit you start with 12 and at the other end you have less, always.
Parallel circuits have multiple branches and the total resistance is always less than the least resistance.
Electricity always takes the path of least resistance. REason why a car will arc the spark outside the cylinder instead of in because the path of resistance is less.


That said, the grounding kit reduces the resistance in all the circuits that use a common ground on the vehicle, which is pretty much everything. Say you throttle position sensor reads .49volts under normal conditions. It is entirely possible that improving the ground would actually change that reading to .51volts. Seems silly that that makes a difference but add up all the sensors and the ECU itself and there are a lot of reading going on all at once. Most of them flow through some of the same ground paths. Imporving those paths can improve the accuracy of the readings.

As someone already stated, it definitely has an impact on spark path, enven more on waste spark or direct ignition systems. A good ground path is crucial because the spark is traveling double the distance (figuratively) than most single spark type systems.
Remeber the spark travels from ground to the center electrode.
Easy to figure why a good ground is better.

Next there is the normal corrosion of the factory grounds over time, increasing resistance. It is generally exposed copper terminals because of cost and given the conditions the car will see in it's life the terminals and wire (if not sealed) will corrode.

Heat increases resistance through a piece of wire. Use an ohm meter on a light bulb and you see it. Having additional grounding paths help provide a better path as need to ground. Remember electricity always takes the path of least resistance.

Is that enough information? My electronics is a little rusty since I actually learned it all about 13 years ago, but I think I have it all right.

 

It really does because sorry, I tried, anyway I have had cars were improving/adding one or two ground wires helped with HP and drivability, but these were cars with a few years and miles on them so the ground contacts were dirty and oxidized. In these situations you can get back some HP and drivability, people have expanded on this older car fix, and all of a sudden adding ground wires is a must have performance upgrade for every car .
If you have poor grounding it will adversely affect ignition, injectors, and sensor feedback, so adding a better/additional grounding is not a bad idea, it certainly won't hurt.
Do you need 5-6 points grounding points from the engine to the chassis? Hell no! come on now, we have got steel plates welded together for the chassis and an engine with iron, steel, and aluminum with several large bolts clamping them together. Do you honestly think a piece of 4-6 gauge wire with a crimp is going to flow more current?
All you really need is one good ground connection between the engine and the chassis, (ya know just like every manufacturer does). Why are they selling thes multi-connection ground wire systems? Who is going to pay $200-$300 for a single piece of wire with a crimp on each end? So they use pretty colored wires with shiny crimps (looks complicated ) and fancy star connectors (more bling bling for the engine compartment), this helps for people to justify the ridiculus prices for these kits.

When I saw Mitsu/Ralliart selling this kit I started to wonder if there was some how something more to these grounding kits, so I made my own with some #4 welding cable. It did absolutly squat for HP and drivability. We just had an EVO dyno day here in TX this weekend, out of all the stock EVO's (there were several) the one with the Mitsubishi grounding kit ended up with the lowest HP and Torque. This just showed me that even Raliart will sell useless modification upgrades if they think some one will buy them imagine that.

Hope that answer's your query

Eric

 

that's pretty good memory there..i learned all that last year and well i remember it but im just surprised YOU remembered it lol.

so grounding comes to play when power is needed, or whenever the sparks are and it'll let more electricity flow easier without resistance..k..is grounding only for spark plugs though?

 

Ultimately it is probably the most helpful, but it can benefit any circuit to have a good ground. If the car is new then it probably doesn't make a huge impact, but when it get's old the addtional grounds will help maintain the grounds.

There is no real direct connection between the Chassis and the body. All the mounts are rubber insulated, hence the engine to chassis grounds you see installed by all manufacturers. You just improving on the idea. Wth the underhood temperatures of a Turbo, there is definetly an increase in resistance in the ground path.

What is one of the most common causes of solid state electronic failure? ESD. How do you reduce the likelyhood? ground.
Before anyone jumps on that one, all I am saying is that poor grounds increase the likelyhood of ESD.

 

I tend to agree with that. Until I see a bona-fide experiment with a dyno and several cars that shows a significant (as in measurable) power increase, I'll believe it's nothing but a ploy from the manufacturers to separate fools from their money. Really, now is it believable that or any other manufacturer would pass up a chance to market a car with 10 more hp by not adding $5 (or less in mass produced quantities) worth of wires? I've spoken with racers and tuners who work on their cars to get the most results for their money and effort. None of them had those grounding kits and all of them were highly skeptical of their effectiveness.
I vote for the placebo effect......

 

I don't make the arguement that you will see a power increase, although it is entirely possible on an older car.
What you are doing is providing the best possible conditions for the various circuits in the vehicle to have a clean path and report accurately the readings of the sensors, potentially improve the charging and starting system, lighting system, ignition system, etc.
I also don't agree with the way Mitsu does it. It is clearly better to have as many of the grounds as possible terminate at the battery, since that is the source. Given that the alternator has a quality ground also.

It is the same as plumbing. What is less resistive, 1 inch pipe or 2 inch pipe. Given you may not need 2 inch pipe but if the 1 inch becomes dirty or corroded it is now really a 7/8 pipe.