ENG: "BIG 3" upgrade + upgraded positive wires

[90Haccord]

Alright so after receiving many PMs to share my "big 3" upgrade and other electrical upgrades. I'm going to attempt to put a DIY for this and hope that someone finds some use of it. PLEASE FORGIVE THE DIAGRAMS my computer MB died and I am using my laptop with shitty PAINT.

Let me start with some foreword, I bought my CB7 with my own money when I was 15 years old, aprox June 2000. I loved this damn car from the day I got it. I was OBSESSED with cars that go BOOM so I set out to upgrade the electrical system to feed my need.

First let me go through the GROUND SYSTEM.

We will be upgrading:

1. battery negative to CHASIS , I used 4 GAUGE WIRE
2. battery negative to engineblock/transmission ground, I used 0/1 GAUGE WIRE. BATTERY BOX will need to be removed to trace the factory ground, and replace with 0 gauge ground.
3. valve cover ground to alternator ground(I believe thats what this one is), I used 8 gauge wire

Seen here each number I listed matches to numbers in the diagram.





Now we will be talking POSITIVE WIRE UPGRADES

There are THREE wires we will be discussing

1. Positive wire from battery to FUSE BOX/ELD, I used 4 GAUGE WIRE (stock was 8 gauge)
2. Positive wire from battery through engine bay eventually leading to alternator, I LEFT THIS WIRE STOCK, I believe it is 2 or 4 gauge.
3. Positive wire DIRECTLY TO ALTERNATOR, I ADDED this wire myself, its an ADD-ON to make sure the alternator is getting enough juice to my battery. I used 8 GAUGE fused with a 60amp fuse rating(1/2 of my alternator's output). You MUST fuse this wire as its added directly to the alternator's positive stud.







I used cheapy gold plated autozone terminals, they came with 1 0gauge output, 2 4 gauge outputs, 2 8 gauge outputs.


I also took out my alternator, inspected it, had the brushings replaced and the alternator rewound for slightly higher output(stock alternator is 90 AMPS, mine was rewound to 120 AMPS). It cost me $61 at the time.


Finally, I upgraded to a really nice OPTIMA ORANGE TOP. They now call this battery the REDTOP REVERSED TERMINAL.



I did this upgrade in the winter of 2000. It is still running strong and charges at 14V all day long, and usually stays at 14.7-14.9. My amplifers capacitors VOLTAGE output reads 14.7 for those who asked.


Finally here is a picture unedited of the whole engine bay as seen above without the drawing on it so you can get the best look possible at the wires and where they connect/are routed.




Post questions as needed

If anyone needs better pictures, please let me know and be specific on what aspect you need a better picture of.

[MikeW]

Very nice.

I love those gold plated terminals. Might have to pick some of those up. Ive been meaning to mess with my grounds. If not an upgrade, then at least new wire.

In doing this, and in your opinion....
Aside from the (-) to chasis ground, do you think turning the battery so that the (+) terminal is on the left, would work or be a good idea?

Just everytime i mess with my battery, it seems like the + and - cbales are spun or twisting around the battery and i feel like it would clean things up if the terminals were on opposite sides.

[90Haccord]

Very nice.

I love those gold plated terminals. Might have to pick some of those up. Ive been meaning to mess with my grounds. If not an upgrade, then at least new wire.

In doing this, and in your opinion....
Aside from the (-) to chasis ground, do you think turning the battery so that the (+) terminal is on the left, would work or be a good idea?

Just everytime i mess with my battery, it seems like the + and - cbales are spun or twisting around the battery and i feel like it would clean things up if the terminals were on opposite sides.

I like my gold terminals, they weren't too bad, I want to say $15 for both.

As for switching the battery, I'd say No and my reason would be my #2 positive wire in my diagram. That is the stock wire and it was TIGHT to begin with, if you moved the battery(or got a traditional battery). The #2 wire wouldn't even begin to reach if the terminals were reversed.

[H22A91CB7]

what were some of the things you noticed after all this...example: faster windows???/ bright headlights??? smoother idle???

[90Haccord]

what were some of the things you noticed after all this...example: faster windows???/ bright headlights??? smoother idle???

ehh the only thing I really aimed to do with this was keep ample AMPERAGE available for my amps and stop the damn voltage drops.

The windows still roll up slow, headlights are brighter with rising voltage, car has always idled smooth.

Main thing was, I could pound at night and keep the voltage at 14volts, instead of drops into the 12v range on stock battery + stock alternator + stock wiring.

I think I invested $50 in this upgrade + my time + using my own tools, it was WELL WORTH IT, esp if you have alot of audio gear as I did

[slick]

where did you get the alternator rewound at? how long did it take them? i am fixing to try to acquire that parts for this and saw you did that and i was like woah i wanna do that too

[MikeW]

Couldnt you just replace that #2

I just really hate how they wound everything around the battery.

Im doing this because i notice a dim when i turn on my highbeams or when i hold a window switch up/down once the window is completely up/down. Its not a HUGE dimt or drop, but its definitely noticeable. That and the shape of my wire isnt too good. 16yr old wire FTL.

[90Haccord]

where did you get the alternator rewound at? how long did it take them? i am fixing to try to acquire that parts for this and saw you did that and i was like woah i wanna do that too

Any alternator shop should be able to do it. I just looked in the yellow pages, found a local guy, told him what I wanted. He said 120amp was the most he could do due to the SMALL CASE alternator that our cars use. I took him a junkyard alternator, he cleaned it up, new brushings, whole 9 yards...lol and he rewound it. Its been in the car since 2000, and I've had 0 problems out of it. I could have gotten a high output alternator, but in 2000 the only options really for honda's were STINGER customer alternators for $900 + custom brackets. I didn't have that kind of cash, so a junkyard alt($10) + rewound to 120amps($55-60), gave me exactly what I needed.

[slick]

Any alternator shop should be able to do it. I just looked in the yellow pages, found a local guy, told him what I wanted. He said 120amp was the most he could do due to the SMALL CASE alternator that our cars use. I took him a junkyard alternator, he cleaned it up, new brushings, whole 9 yards...lol and he rewound it. Its been in the car since 2000, and I've had 0 problems out of it. I could have gotten a high output alternator, but in 2000 the only options really for honda's were STINGER customer alternators for $900 + custom brackets. I didn't have that kind of cash, so a junkyard alt($10) + rewound to 120amps($55-60), gave me exactly what I needed.

thanks i hope i can find someone near me that can do that

[kc8enb07]

i might do this when i do a tune up, hope for a better idle

[Maple50175]

can one of these alternators with new brushings and shit help reduce engine noise? I have an 02 civic and i have alternator whine, and noise and its soo damn annoying

[mak]

A few things to note about The Big 3:

1.) It's always a good idea to stick with 1 size wire when doing The Big 3. Most people use 0AWG, some use larger (but it's not necessary with a car that has a stock alt). You can use 4AWG, but at some point you'll almost definately want or need to upgrade it, so might as well get it out of the way now.

2.) You almost never need to bother replacing the batt. (+) to alt. (+) wire. Simply add a second, larger fused cable to supliment the power. While the OP did do this, it wasn't mentioned that replacing the wire is basically useless in most cases, since power will always take the path of less resistance (e.g: the larger wire).

3.) The last wire added, the 8AWG fused to the alt, is almost useless, since the stock wire going to the alt. (+) is 2AWG and, as I mentioned earlier, electricity always travels down the path of the least resistance (e.g: the 2AWG cable). This wire should have been 0AWG as well, or at least 4AWG - since you ran 4AWG from the batt. (+) to fuse box (+).

On a side note, upgrading the chassis (-) to battery (-) from 8AWG to 4AWG is a good move, but you should have gone with 0AWG, since you're alt. (+) to battery (+) is 0AWG. Your amp(s) ground to the chassis, and use a dedicated run of wire for the amp (+) to battery (+), you might as well buy an extra 8" of 0AWG for the battery (-) to chassis (-), in case you ever want to run 0AWG battery (+) to amp (+), or if you're already running 0AWG to your amp(s).

If this confuses anyone, I'll elaborate, simply PM me.

Aside from that, your tutorials seems to be a great instructional 'how-to', so long as people understand that they're not really upgrading if they're using anything less than 4AWG.. or anything under 2AWG, really, since our CB7's have 2AWG batt. (+) to fuse box and 2AWG fuse box (+) to alt (+).

can one of these alternators with new brushings and shit help reduce engine noise? I have an 02 civic and i have alternator whine, and noise and its soo damn annoying

Yes, but only if your alt. is making noise. Make sure it's not a belt making the whine. If it's the alt., most likely the brushes are going bad and you should have it rebuilt/replaced.

-mak

[loud92CB7]

i want this to be cleared up now... the wire that runs from the alt+ stud with the 10mm nut to the fuse panel is nowhere near 2awg. its 8awg at best on my 92ex and my buddys 91lx. im in the process of doin a big 3 again on my car with 0/2 awg since im gonna be using a 170amp max 120amp idle ALT from powermaster.

keep in mind that u can only produced the power that can be grounded. if ur grounds are crap or not upgraded this is pointless...

[H22A91CB7]

how do you do the wire going from the alt to the batt if your batt is in the trunk, also the (-) on the batt to engine ground??

[Stoner51]

I recently did this with knuconceptz 1/0 gauge. I was having some idle issuesand other various electrical idiosyncrasies. Idle is smooth as new car runs like new, also put in HO alt 160 amps. Fused the batt to alt wire with 120 amp fuse, I may need to get a bigger one, Knuconceptz says theie 1/0 wire is good up to 250amps.
I should have done this years ago.
I would like to say that the wire is huge, if using stock alt I would prob go with 4 gauge, rated to 150 amps.
Thanks to the OP for making this easy for all of us.
Steve