zoom44

in retrospect im not suggesting that thing in the last link i provided- i was just copying it from team rx8s post to discuss it. i dotn see how its worth a hundred bucks or why that plate is needed either.

Marietta 8

The coils are NOT grounding to the mounting plate. Coils harness wires include ground which is shared between all 4. Have a look at wiring schematic for ignition coils for clarification.

Spin9k

I know there is a ground wire for each coil. But what are you saying? Do you think the existing coil wiring grounds be ALSO grounded to the plate that's there - to do what zoom is talking about ?

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

Charlie....can you find out what they are doing to " ground" the coils better from the "source"

From re-reading the quote above it says coil harness....???

Marietta 8

Adding aux. grounds to the existing coil grounds and going straight to Battery (-)post w/all4.

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

will someone do a diy on this for us dummies?
olddragger

Spin9k

olddragger I don't think there is much to it, but it's going to be a bit messy. The grnd wire is one of the 3 wires in the plug that goes in the socket on each coil. To get the advantage of improved grnding, you'd need to splice into each grnd at the coil, then join them and just go back to the battery. Prob use like 6/8/10? guage wire. I'd be concerned about breaking the insulation seal, but it'd prop be ok.

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

I used a 4wire weatherproof connector.....and spliced into the ground on all 4 coils.....then connected the other end to an 8 gauge back to the battery. I used a connector that I had lying around, and waterproof heat shrink to seal the splices. Took about 1.5 hours.

I used the connector so that it could be disconnected like the OEM plugs if it needed to be removed.

There really isn't any difficulty if you are competant with a soldering iron. It is a bit of a PIA to get to the wiring harness though

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

My $5 e-bay grounding kit arrived today. I unpackaged and installed it in about 45 minutes, which includes time to take resistance measurements and pictures.



The kit includes 7 wires pre-crimped and heat shrink wrapped to lugs. Also included is a new battery ground terminal, a distribution block (with a fake MazdaSpeed logo on it!), a set of 10mm nut/bolt combinations, a 2-1 lug and some wire ties.



First I attached the new terminal (after cleaning the post).



Then I attached the distribution block and the two existing ground wires via the 2-1.



I then measured the resistance to the chassis ground buy the washer bottle to the negative terminal as a baseline. The amount of resistance to ground from this point in the chassis is considerable at 4.7 ohms.



I then attached the first wire to this point on the chassis to the distribution block.



Then I re-measured the resistance from the ground point right next to the one just connected (to get the actual change in grounding at this point rather than what is being carried directly by the wire). The resistance had dropped to .4 ohm! 1/10 the original resistance.



Then I measured he resistance on the other since of the chassis. It was down to .5 ohm. So, I connected the second wire to the area near the strut tower on that side.



The resistance dropped to .4 ohm.



Next was the alternator. This dropped the resistance across the accesible parts of the front of the engine block from .4 ohm to .2 ohm.



Last, I hooked up a wire to the plate to which the coils are mounted. I used the open mounting point where the part of OEM wiring harness used to be. I think this carried the wire for the VFAD with a plastic clip.



The resistance dropped from .5 ohm to .3 ohm.



The final result was this red cobweb of wires. With the battery cover back in place, it is pretty neat looking.



Results?

As far as I can tell, the idle is more stable - it now sits squarely at 820 RPM without the usual 50 RPM wander. Hitting my fan on switch (I had wired a switch that allows me to turn the fans on full at any time - you would be surprised how stingy the PCM is with the fans in the OEM configuration. Here in the desert, they really need to be on all of the time), I noted NO drop in RPM. The load used to take the RPM down a notch as the alternator (generator) fought to keep up.

Whether any of this produces any more power I can't say. However, I would imagine that is things are easier for the generator, there should be less loss. Also, making it easier for the coils to fire can't hurt.

I'd post a DIY, but since you can't put pictures in the DIY section, why bother.

Trekk

Did you not ground the throttle body? Some people are pretty sure it will help throttle responce, while others say it wont. After all it is electronic and bolted to plastic. If you got an extra wire go for it!

BTW 2 RX-8's? nice.

Tamas

iTrader: (1)

Jeff, this is great stuff - shows that the grounding kit indeed has some positive effect.

Huh? Five bucks? Isn't that a typo?

Strange... the DIY section is full with posts including pictures - or do you mean that you can't use the [IMG] tag, only attachments are allowed?

kwescott

great job.....forget the DIY...anyone who really wants this mod is already in this thread anyway. Thanks for the pics and the pre/post measurements. You have a link to the vendor you used on Ebay. I have some Paypal money from selling my rear aero flares I would like to spend

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

Great work MM. I am glad you have now satisfied all the folks that require scientific proof to believe us deductive reasoning folks. I have the same kit except my grounding plate is gold.
OD

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

The grounding plate that comes with the kit is gold (well, zinc really), but it includes that nifty coverplate..

Nope. $5 (well, almost $6). However, the shipping was $25. Still about half the price of "roll-your-own" and none of the work.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...BSAA%3AUS%3A11

Yeah, I meant no IMG tag. I hate attachments and I use my own WEB space for the images, so why should I be penalized?

zoom44

nice job jeff. thanks.

the point of no image tags is so that the pics stay with the thread. with linked photos they could easily get "lost"

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

So why not allow us to embed only pics that resolve to the RX8club server?
The problem with the thumbs at the bottom of the post is that they don't follow the narrative. Its hard to go step-by-step and then say "go look at all of the pretty pictures and figure out whey I snapped one of that hidden bolt in the corner and why its the third pic in the group".

kwescott

thanks MM, just bought mine.

jeffe19007

Thanks for your efforts MazdaManiac!

Ordered in a stylish blue color. I am a little worried about grounding using red wires!

You need to work a way to receive commission!

BoosTED

iTrader: (2)

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the bright red wires used for ground.

Silver should be okay right?

I have about the same kit that Mazdamaniac has but since I will be adding a sub setup I am adding a different negative post and will pull off of that. When I bought the post I also got a distribution block for the ground I may use that in the engine bay. And bump up to 4 gauge wire as I have 200 feet of it in bulk.

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

I went with red because it is a theme on my car.
Besides, even the positive battery connection is black, so red wiring in this context is meaningless. If I am carless enough to try to use a grounding wire as a power source, I deserve the fireworks display I get...

BoosTED

iTrader: (2)

You should be okay as the grounding system says grounding system on top and the big positive and negative signs on the Optima battery. For those that have their vehicle serviced by someone else it may be a good precaution to not go with red though.

Fireworks are cool just hate the feeling after when I feel like I got shocked but it is just guilt as to being so stupid for doing that.

jeffe19007

I am not so worried about me destroying processors as a junior mechanic (I have one of those in my house) or my wife offering someone a jump start.

Easy_E1

iTrader: (2)

Funny but some of the electrical systems on the equipment I work on have ground wires in red and brown and positive wires in black.
I hate looking at those schematics.
The equipment is manufactured in Germany and I have never seen such a wiring nightmare.

So the moral of the story is ,,,Never assume a wire is Pos. or Neg. by color.

09Factor

Nice pics Jeff and whose 8 is that?

brillo

Nice job jeff, do you think it would matter if you daisy chained the setup rather connecting each point to the battery? I don't have that plate and I have one connection to the battery that then connects to the other points.

I may look into this setup though.