Battery Cable Upgrade

[teoman]

It will affect injectors and spark plugs on relatively newer engines.

The spark is stronger and more andvanced and the injection pulse is shorter.

So that could be a bit like chip tuning in cars that do not have later model ECU’s that can adjust to that.

[Ecky]

Redpoint5, it's common in Honda Insights for the IMA system to function weirdly if the engine bay grounds are poor. It won't necessarily throw a CEL either; sometimes you'll just see the battery level do a "recalibration" or the IMA light come on instead. Sometimes lean burn functions poorly, with a rough or stumbling engine. I agree with you 100% that the cables themselves were not the source of the energy loss, but bad grounds can have a wide variety of symptoms which computers may not recognize.

[jakobnev]

He doesn't gain MPG from freeing up wasted electricity; he restores it from having better signals from his sensors, better spark and the like.

Any sensors will be insulated from the block and have their own ground wire from the ECU. They will not be affected by the potential of the block swinging.

Better spark would be hardly measurable in FE unless he had 12% misfires.

[elhigh]

I've seen the Big 3 get lots of recommendation in the big stereo circles, where amperage is a lot more of a thing just for keeping the sound system happy, and I think I recall seeing it get some coverage in these pages about, errrrrrr five years ago? Not sure.

I think you might be experiencing a little confirmation bias, then again I can't say yea or nay with any kind of certainty because I'm on the wrong side of the internet from your car. And all of that said, it won't hurt anything to make the upgrade. So hey, congrats on the improved performance.

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by jakobnev

Any sensors will be insulated from the block and have their own ground wire from the ECU. They will not be affected by the potential of the block swinging.

Better spark would be hardly measurable in FE unless he had 12% misfires.

[Ecky]

I personally used 2 gauge welding cables in my car.

[slowmover]

Originally Posted by Stubby79

He doesn't gain MPG from freeing up wasted electricity; he restores it from having better signals from his sensors, better spark and the like. Just cleaning the ground connections is usually enough, but replacing things would freshen them up as well.

Cleaning grounds is a normal practice in the geo metro community. It made one heck of a difference to my Miata, and my Ranger was doing all sorts of weird things before I cleaned it's grounds, like trying to die when I turned on the turn signals. Restoring power and MPG is just one reason to do it.

It’s a badly neglected system (including grounds). The upgrade means ALL ELSE on the vehicle runs well (as designed).

First time I did the B3 was on two XJs we owned.

CustomBatteryCables will the source starting point for my turbocharged diesel pickup. The B3 is possible, and a second alternator is likely (as well as yet more batteries).

The electrical SHOULD be treated as a system, not repair and wait for more problems.

80% of the time a vehicle is in the shop it is electrically related. 1959 or 2019.

Reliability IS economy.

.

[Taylor95]

Originally Posted by slowmover

Reliability IS economy.

.

One of the truest things I've seen. Everything saved from a few mods can be wiped away if something gets neglected.

I just filled up today. I got 17.47 mpg. This was with weather that was a lot colder (highs around 32-35F) and with using 4WD some of the time because of snow. I think its safe to say that something I did gave me an improvement, whether it was the bigger cables or cleaning the grounds.

I just put on a partial grill block. I'm tired of my heater taking forever to warm up. So any tank averages after this would be affected by those, although I only had enough material to cover 2/7 of the grill slots.

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by Taylor95

I think its safe to say that something I did gave me an improvement, whether it was the bigger cables or cleaning the grounds.

I think that the largest source of improvement(s) was registering on Ecomodder. After being part of the forums for 6 months you are subconsciously modifying your behaviour with things like P&G, engine braking, etc.

[Taylor95]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

I think that the largest source of improvement(s) was registering on Ecomodder. After being part of the forums for 6 months you are subconsciously modifying your behaviour with things like P&G, engine braking, etc.

Ecomodder has been pretty great about that. I think I discovered this forum about a year ago or so.

This is kind of off topic but the grill block worked out great! My heater is noticeably warmer! I think it did help out with mileage too. I got 17.3 mpg this tank, but the driving conditions were pretty terrible. My morning commute took an hour this morning because of snow and traffic. I'm sure using 4wd isn't that great for mpg either. So overall, pretty good!