beewerks Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 I'm looking to improve the power coming to my subwoofer in my '94 850 wagon. Looking online, a lot of people said that a capacitor or capcell wasn't such a great idea and that I should just do "the Big 3" upgrade which I guess is bigger wiring from the battery to the alternator, engine ground, and chassis ground. Has anyone done this? And if so, do you have any tips? I'm trying to find out what gauge wire I should use and how long it needs to be. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magicaljake Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 what are the negative effects of a cap? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdlimy Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 what are the negative effects of a cap? not too many negatives but they are pretty useless really, its kinda like the honda cold air intake of stereo mods, everyone thinks they work great but really they arent doing much for you. on a low end stereo if you are getting voltage drop or dimming lights it might help a little, but it did nothing for my 2000w system. The big 3 is definetly the first upgrade anyone should do before installing any somewhat decent stereo, but our cars arent too bad compared to others. I run all 1/0 gauge wire for my grounds and power, you will notice a difference if you are running a decent wattage stereo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaotic Kreationz Posted December 22, 2009 Report Share Posted December 22, 2009 Definetly upgrade all the ground and power wires you can. I upgraded to 0 gauge and I added a second battery in trunk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HPTDoh Posted December 22, 2009 Report Share Posted December 22, 2009 If you look at some of the factory grounding straps, even 8 awg is an upgrade! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beewerks Posted December 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2009 Definetly upgrade all the ground and power wires you can. I upgraded to 0 gauge and I added a second battery in trunk. Did you use those "fancy" battery terminals with the holes for different gauge wires? If you did, do you recommend a certain kind? I have a 4 gauge cable running to my amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaotic Kreationz Posted December 22, 2009 Report Share Posted December 22, 2009 I changed them, tho I need to upgrade them to better ones like the ones I have on the second battery in the trunk. I bought tsunami battery terminals and the positive terminal has a digital volt read out on top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave 54 Posted December 22, 2009 Report Share Posted December 22, 2009 I am getting ready to make my own Alt. to starter and starter to battery cable. I am going to be using all oxygen free tinned 4AWG battery cable wire, matted with 4AWG tinned seamless lug terminals using 4AWG solder slug pellets and all finished off with dual walled heat shrink for a super clean finish. I purchased new battery terminals from IPD as they were the only one's I found that I liked and looked as close to OE as possible. I'll def. throw some pics in a thread when I make them up. I was very fortunate to get hooked up by another member with a new Neg. cable and engine ground straps, Modus you the man . Here's a table I found to be useful to gauge what size wire to use for my positives, LINK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TorqueSteer Posted December 23, 2009 Report Share Posted December 23, 2009 Just finished the job about an hour ago. I thought it was a bit too much work on this car for a seemingly simple job. Once you remove the intake manifold, everything is simple from there. I wasn't able to get the larger 2 gauge cable into the stock harness though. Plan ahead and do PCV, EGR cleaning, and knock sensors if they need service. Ive had to pull the intake manifold for each of those jobs over the past year, when I could have done it all at once. I bought 10ft of 2 gauge battery cable from West Marine. It was enough to do alternator to starter, starter to battery, and the two main grounds coming off of the battery terminal. If you want exact measurements of all the cables, I have the old OEM ones to measure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave 54 Posted December 23, 2009 Report Share Posted December 23, 2009 Just finished the job about an hour ago. I thought it was a bit too much work on this car for a seemingly simple job. Once you remove the intake manifold, everything is simple from there. I wasn't able to get the larger 2 gauge cable into the stock harness though. Plan ahead and do PCV, EGR cleaning, and knock sensors if they need service. Ive had to pull the intake manifold for each of those jobs over the past year, when I could have done it all at once. I bought 10ft of 2 gauge battery cable from West Marine. It was enough to do alternator to starter, starter to battery, and the two main grounds coming off of the battery terminal. If you want exact measurements of all the cables, I have the old OEM ones to measure. Measurements please, it will save me some time, was planninjg on hitting the pick and pull to grab some up so I could mock up the new one's. I'm going to be using 2AWG now, did you use closed end lugs? I plan on using these, 2 AWG SEAMLESS LUGS ,Solder slugs for 2AWG ,CL Flux , 2 AWG tinned marine cable I'm replaceing the2 stock grounds with 1 2AWG cable, thanks to Modus for making a kick ass ground for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TorqueSteer Posted December 23, 2009 Report Share Posted December 23, 2009 Sure ill get those measurements up soon. I used the closed end lugs, the 2 gauge copper ones they had at Advance Auto Parts. I did not solder though, I went with a crimp connection. Man that cable is cheap, I got raped at West Marine for $6.50/ft. It still came out cheaper than buying prefab cables though. I haven't driven the car yet, but idle voltage went from 13.2 to 13.9, so i'm very happy about the outcome so far. The cables did not even look that bad either. Any luck on the B+ cable installation, or even sourcing the part? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave 54 Posted December 23, 2009 Report Share Posted December 23, 2009 Sure ill get those measurements up soon. I used the closed end lugs, the 2 gauge copper ones they had at Advance Auto Parts. I did not solder though, I went with a crimp connection. Man that cable is cheap, I got raped at West Marine for $6.50/ft. It still came out cheaper than buying prefab cables though. I haven't driven the car yet, but idle voltage went from 13.2 to 13.9, so i'm very happy about the outcome so far. The cables did not even look that bad either. Any luck on the B+ cable installation, or even sourcing the part? Yeah the cable is pretty cheap, I was going to get a crimper Crimper but have decided to use the solder slugs for a sure connection plus it's cheaper than buying the tool. As for the B+ cable haven't thought to much in that area yet as I want to get the mains up to snuff first. Are you going to be doing both, positive and negative B+? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TorqueSteer Posted December 23, 2009 Report Share Posted December 23, 2009 Cable Lengths: Battery + to Starter +: 35" with terminal and lug Starter + to Alternator+: 25" with lugs Battery - to Engine Block: 35-36" without terminal, with lug Battery - to Chassis (in front of battery tray) 24-25" without terminal, with lug These are my best approximation, the cables were tough to straighten out, but the measurements should be within an inch or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TorqueSteer Posted December 23, 2009 Report Share Posted December 23, 2009 Yeah the cable is pretty cheap, I was going to get a crimper Crimper but have decided to use the solder slugs for a sure connection plus it's cheaper than buying the tool. As for the B+ cable haven't thought to much in that area yet as I want to get the mains up to snuff first. Are you going to be doing both, positive and negative B+? Not completely sure about the B+ cables yet, I need to do some more tests to see if I really need to replace them. I love making my own wiring, but I hate hacking into OEM wiring harnesses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave 54 Posted December 23, 2009 Report Share Posted December 23, 2009 Not completely sure about the B+ cables yet, I need to do some more tests to see if I really need to replace them. I love making my own wiring, but I hate hacking into OEM wiring harnesses. I think you'll find they are probably fine, in our cars the battery and grounds seem to be an issue were as in the x70 they seem to have the B+ cable going bad more frequent. I'm gonna volt drop mine and see where they stand, if they need replaced i'll probably just go OE for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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