Hyper Ground Tuning: Thoughts?
 

I've seen an ad on the August 2002 Issue of Sport Compact Car magazine about Hyper Ground Tuning.

http://www.sunautomobile.com/

Anybody have any thoughts or experiences to share on this?

It seems to work on WRX's we still have to try it on my P5 to see if it works. Doesnt hurt to try it. I probablly will custom make my own instead of going out and buying it online

I heard it's about a 100 bux.

For a $100 buck you can make your own using car audio wire for less than $100 and still make it look good.

QUOTE]Originally posted by dynamho
I heard it's about a 100 bux. [/QUOTE]

That's good to know. At this point however, being new to tuning and all, I understand the basic concept of this thing called ground tuning, but I haven't got an idea on how I can build this and install it on my car.

Please let me know if I'm mistaken, but isn't it basically getting low-gauge (thick conductive) wires and grounding the negative battery electrode to the car's chassis? I'm wondering if this is dangerous? I'm not well versed in the topic of electricity.

Every modern car already has the negative terminal of the battery connect to the chassis by a good sized wire. If not, your car wouldn't run, let alone any of your electrical accessories. The one thing that can make a small difference on a few cars is a better engine ground strap. Most modern cars use rubber in their engine mounts to reduce NVH. That means the engine ground strap is the primary conductor to the negative battery terminal. You MIGHT improve your spark slightly by having a larger ground strap, but not likely on most newer cars. $100 is much better spent elsewhere. As mentioned, this can be done much cheaper with any conductor, so if you'd like to test for yourself, go the cheap route.

Engine ground strap? Didn't know about it. Thanks for the great info!

No problem. Start by looking closely at the wires leaving the battery terminals. The negative terminal should have a large wire traveling to a spot where it's bolted to the chassis near the battery. It might have one or two smaller wires going directly to some other electrical accesories nearby also. The positive terminal shound have a large wire leading to a terminal on the starter, as well as some others entering a wire loom that supplies the fuse boxes, etc. You should be able to locate the engine ground strap going from the chassis, somewhere in the engine compartment, to a point on the engine block, possibly on or near the starter.

Your thoroughness impresses me.

I'm embarassed about asking this question, but I couldn't find the answer on the Web. Is the following true?

Touch the positive terminal (red) on the battery alone and you're okay. Touch the positive terminal on the battery while touching the chassis or the positive terminal and you're fried.

Yes and no. Touching the positive terminal without being grounded (touching the negative terminal or chassis) does nothing because there isn't a complete circuit for current to flow. Touching both completes the circuit and allows current to flow, but you still wouldn't be 'fried' in this situation. :) The automobile's electrical system is only 12 volts and the resistance in your body is to high for 12 volts to cause any real current flow. Contrary to popular opinion, it isn't voltage that hurts you, it's current. The difference between the two is voltage is potential energy, and current is actual electron flow. Think of it like this, voltage is like the water pressure in your home's plumbing system, and current is like the water flow you get when open a valve on a faucet. The last part of the equation with electricity is resistance. Voltage divided by resistance equals current flow. So a 12 volt car battery doesn't have enough potential energy to overcome the high resistance to current flow in your body to hurt you. Be careful where you put that metal screw driver though. ;) And old trick I use is wrapping any unnecessarily exposed metal portion of my tools with electrical tape so I don't accidentally complete a circuit with the very low resistance metal tool. For example, wrap electrical tape around the metal shaft of a screwdriver all the way from the handle to .25" above the tip.