First of all, here is the air filter difference, lol...
Here's the stock grounds...
Yeah, pretty bad...
Paint isn't a good conductor, so off it goes!
I used some 4-awg Stinger RPM series I had laying around from my stereo days. Bought the only crimps I could find for them and pounded them until they were in there solid...
Installed! (With Noalox, since mixing metals...)
The EPS wire actually looked good. I tested for resistance and my meter couldn't find any, so I decided to reuse it for now. I did sand down to bare metal on the chassis, though, for good measures.
I then went to the battery ground... pretty critical this guy is in good shape.
I bought a clamp-and-cable combo for $5, but it was definitely longer than the stock one... that's OK, I was planning to ground the battery directly to the engine anyways, so I built a 4-awg (with smaller ring terminals this time... didn't realize I bought such large ones on the engine to chassis grounds). Wouldn't have fit on the battery terminal otherwise. I wanted to do the engine ground directly to the head, but couldn't find a good reliable way to do so, but it's easy enough to change later. There was a large bolt hold above the O2 sensor connection mount (that also had some grounds going to it), but couldn't find a bolt to fit it. Might have stuck out too far anyways.
Finally, confirmed the engine torque mount was done for. Figured, taking off in 1st feels pretty "long" compared to what it should and after shifting as well. Dealt with it in my Neon by filling mounts with urethane. I used the McMaster-Carr stuff before, but I'm going to try the 3M Window Weld this go-around. It's around $28 at the local auto parts store and should be a little easier to apply than the McMaster-Carr stuff.
That pretty much wraps up today. Oh, I also found the oil was about a quart too high (like 1/2" higher than the 2nd hole on the dipstick!) so I uncorked and let some drain out. Seems to be just below that hole now.
Important question!: I went to pull the plugs out because I bought some new ones. I went for the center plug first and it was really resistant the whole way out. Towards the end, though, it got REALLY hard to turn out. I got scared and put it back (I've stripped out a plug head on an old Neon and it was a nightmare to deal with). Anybody experience this before? My only guess is the threads stuck in the combustion chamber a bit and caught some carbon build up. Seafoam through the intake and let sit? Try it on a warm engine?! Just looking for some advice. Never had plugs turn ~10 times and only get harder to pull out before!