Request - Grounding Kit
 

i'm looking at the stillen grounding kit for the 370z. anybody install these or would like to share information on how to install these?

I've installed Stillen's kit already. They're shipping us basically the same one they used on the G37. I actually ordered mine from the G37 page before they made it available for the 370. One nut they shipped (M6 for the battery terminal) was the wrong size for our car (needs 1/4-28, or at least those were the best thread match I could find), but otherwise it went on easy. I'm not sure if or when they're correcting that, but it's super easy to go grab a 1/4-28 nut from any hardware store anyways. A bag of 5 is like $0.60 at the place by me.

Just follow the install instructions and it's cake. A couple of their pictures from the G37 are slightly different than how things look on our car, but it's pretty obvious what the equivalent is on ours (just look for obvious ground lug spots in roughly the same configuration, most of them have factory grounds at them already).

well considering that i never worked on a car before, it is easy enough for n00bs like me to look at the instructions and install?

Well, I guess given sufficient noob-ness, anything can be made impossible :p Seriously though, I think the only easier job I can imagine is changing your own oil, it's pretty hard to mess up installing some ground wires in the engine bay. My biggest complication was the same complication I have on every other job I do on this car - dropping a bolt with my butterfingers, and then having to remove the stupid plastic undercover (again!) to retrieve it.

i've read that installing a grounding kit on an automatic transmission will have more impact? and that it gives a little bit better gas mileage... any truth to all of these claims?

Well, the Stillen guys think so, and they tend to be pretty smart and honest. I can't honestly claim that I felt any change that couldn't be easily dismissed as just "all in my head". I've had fewer laggy shifts from the 7AT, but that could be any kind of random variation in my driving or the car really, or me just wanting to see an effect after installing something. I'm actually kinda skeptical myself of the benefits of adding some fat ground wires to the engine bay.

They basically provide extra low-resistance ground paths between critical grounding spots on the engine, a few places on the body, and the negative battery terminal. I can see how in theory this might help stabilize the electrical system under voltage spikes and dips from various accessories as well as sudden RPM changes to the alternator. That might in turn help prevent spurious responses from various sensors that feed the ECU, as well as spurious lack of response from various electrical actuators, which might in turn yield some benefits. (Along that line of thinking, I suppose a good noise suppression circuit installed between the battery and/or alternator positive terminals and the body might help level out voltage fluctuations too, or even just a really good capacitor of sufficient rating).

On the other hand, the car body itself serves as a very-low resistance ground path for anything connected to it (for simplistic purposes, you can picture that the resistance of an electrical path is a function of how much metal you have available (fatter wire = less resistance), and the metal of the body as a whole is a pretty wide path), and the factory installs plenty of ground wires to the body that I would assume are designed to handle sufficient current to keep things running well.

So I'm kinda indifferent on this subject, I'm not really sure whether to believe it has benefits for a car with perfectly-functioning factory wiring or not really.

The reasoning that led me to order and install it was basically:

1) Hey, they claim it helps, especially on auto transmissions, and I have an auto, and they seem like they know what they're talking about, so why not?
2) Oh yeah, and I had to remove a factory ground strap that went from an exhaust manifold ground stud to the body when I put headers on, and there wasn't any easy way to replace that, so I probably should be adding back some engine<->body grounding anyways.
3) And I'm about to install an underdrive pulley, which is going to drop my alternator output at idle and possibly exacerbate any electrical issue the car may have, and a ground wire kit might help with that too. At least it certainly couldn't hurt.
4) It's cheap and easy.

ditto on the cheap part - actually seeing how stillen knows what they are talking about and that it's cheap, i think i'll be ordering these real soon.

Here is a good kit! 4 guage wire too! this is way better than the Stillen kit.

UNIVERSAL GROUNDING GROUND WIRE EARTH KIT * RED *:eBay Motors (item 150386207609 end time Dec-04-09 12:31:43 PST)

I wouldnt waist my money. I did the mod on my 5at and did not feel any difference. If you wanna shift fast, and I mean fast, send GTM your valve body. It shifts so hard that youll be chirping gears and thats with an Auto lol

GTM Motorsports*::*AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION*::*GTM Valvebody Upgrade