Great pics! has your mod made a difference to how the car runs? looking foward to hearing more results!

 

I was able to drive two short drives today so far. My voltage (read from my Passport 8500 radar detector) runs .2-.5 volts more than normal. Lower rpm's are smoother. I don't know about the higher rpm's though, since I'm not all used to all this power yet. HID's are probably brighter, but I'm not sure, since I never paid much attention to its brightness before. They were always bright to me, hehe. My little rough idles are still there, however, with and without the a/c on. Of course, these are just based on my initial drives. I'll tell you how it is after much more driving.

 

Just did my install, same as Bishiboy did, but with 4 gauge wires. I removed my battery to get to the tranny. I started up the car and noticed that the car was idling around 1100rpm. Eventually after a mile of driving it came down to 900rpm. Turned on the AC, went down to 800rpm. Before this upgrade, it usually idled around 800 with no AC on. You guys think it's the ECU relearning again? Hope the rpm goes back down to normal...

Benefits of this upgrade is yet to be seen (didn't drive the car long enough yet).

 

Yes, the ECU take a little time to relearn. You should be able to feel your car idle a little more smoothly when you first start it up.

 

Hey guys, bought my stuff for this but I am having a hell of a time soldering the ends onto the cable! My eyelet connectors have a little tiny hole in the end and I cannot for the life of me get any solder down in there.

Any tips/ideas?

 

You dont' have to solder it.

 

Just crimp it really tight.

 

Installed DIY ground kit w/ 8 gauge and gold connectors. Didnt notice anything really. Waste of time and $ if you ask me. Oh well on to bigger and better things.

 

Yeah it's just a real ***** to crimp 4 gauge ends. They're not even split on one side, they're just solid all the way around, platinum-coated brass!!

 

OK folks just got this installed tonight with my friend Erik's serious help/tools.

First off, I'm very pleased. Idle is much smoother (I'd guestimate about a 50% reduction in "roughness" through the steering wheel). Top end feels smoother, sounds smoother, and may be slightly stronger, but I am not going to make any power gain claims here. Butt dyno registers basically 0, but the turbo timer says voltage is more stable, which I would assume has something to do with this. I'm sitting right in and around 14.24v in 5th @ 70mph.

As for the install, a couple of tips!!

- start off by removing the snorkle from the intake box so you can get better access to the clips/wires/tranny. The clips on the front are easy - poke them with your key or a screw driver until the center pops down, then just pull them up. They are ingenious clips I tell you

- it's the SMALL hole on the tranny, not the big one! Slightly closer to the center of the car than the obvious big hole you see first

- get yourself one of those magnetic extension pointers -- I dropped a bolt and a washer (doh)

- removing the battery tray is a pain in the ***. You need plyers to unclip the wiring tubes tied to the corners of the tray. Also don't forget about the 2 nuts which are on the fenderwell side of the tray. I actually couldn't get the clips undone, so I just bent the tray up enough to get my arm down between it and the I/C piping to the tranny bolt.

- I didn't reinstall the engine hoist bracket, too much of a pita and seemingly not enough bolt threads left (but I'm sure there were). Do this when your engine is cold btw, and don't tighten that bolt too much, as the metal will expand later when warm. Cold bolts -> warm threads in an AL head = not a good idea.

- be careful not to scratch your valve cover or strut bar, if you are concerned about such items

- you need to undo the slide clips holding the fat power wire running behind the valve cover. Also it helps for space to remove the two screws atop the back of the valve cover (they hold brackets to hold more wires/tubing/etc.).

- plan ahead for 2 hours or so of time, a 6 pack, a friend, and optionally a pack of smokes

Tools you need:
1/4" socket wrench with 8/10/12mm sockets
3/8" socket wrench with 8/10/12mm sockets
extension for your 3/8" wrench
standard open or closed 10mm wrench
magnetic pointer thingy (!!)

That's about it. It's a good mod IMO, definitely worth the $35 in parts and hours of labor.

 

Here is another breakdown for any diy guys/gals.

6 pair of 4 gauge Gold ring terminal
12 ft of 4 gauge power cable

 

Another one.

4 pair of 8 gauge gold ring terminal
12 ft of 8 gauge power cable

 

FWIW I only used about 6.5' (74+ cm) of wire. Also I didn't do the firewall -> pass-side fender.

BTW one additional item: CRIMP THE HELL OUT OF THE ENDS. You do NOT want these things falling out while you are struggling with the engine-hoist bolt.

 

For any DIY guys/gals.

Problem on crimping can be solve easily. Get a 5 lb hammer or 10lb hammer and start hammering it. Don't give any mercy. You will not see any loose connection.

 

Not trying to push this on anyone but if you want to shave 30-60 minutes off the install I sell built grounding kits for $40 shipped. The kit includes 6 4-gauge wires (cut and crimped), tranny bolt, lock washer, zip-tie, and directions with pictures.

You can find information on the kit in the following thread:
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...threadid=41420