I want to go from this:


to this:


What is the best way to ensure my car will maintain proper voltages and allow for more power? When I play with my huge sound setup, my car feels so sluggish. I think the alternator is under some weird stress. I'm actually worried that I'm going to throw it straight out of the engine bay one of these days if it stays like this. I've got two wires - 8 & 2 AWG from the front battery and one 4 AWG wire going to the back battery and two capacitors.

I think I have some sort of composite/aluminum wiring, and I want to switch to a 2 AWG full copper wire to go to the back. I've found the least messy power draw is when I go unfused from the alternator to the rear battery and capacitors. For the ground back there, I've drilled a couple of holes through the trunk floor and put some self-tapping screws into the "frame" support beams that run all the way from the back to the front.

Someone suggested grounding out to the antenna ground because GM did it. I'm completely unaware of the benefit of this. In fact, it looks like that plate was added by GM just to ground the antenna.

What'* with the wire kit packaging'* obsessions by which we're given lesser ground wires? I put at least the same rating for ground as I do for the positive wire. Isn't this the way to go? With all of this powah, I don't have flickering lights at all, but the alternator just feels so horrible. Maybe it'* time to go to a 160 or the like, but will that solve the performance side of it all?

well, money definitely will play a factor when trying to upgrade the alternator, kinda why I never did it...also the ground should be the same size as the power, I have no clue why it would be smaller. I am kind of scared of you running "unfused", you know you can get high amp ANL fuses to get a good connection and still have a fuse, expensive but better than electrical fires. Quality of wiring helped out a lot when I switched over, use high strand wire, oxygen free is another thing that is advertised on most good wire but I really do not know if it effects it that much. The better flow of power, the less struggling when trying to draw power, so it should help out.

Yes, you definately need to have your ground wires as large, if not larger, than your power cables. Be sure to upgrade all three in the engine bay (battery to block, battery to chassis, block to chassis). Be sure to clean all surfaces down to bare metal while doing this.

Stock alternator or upgrade? Stock battery, and if so, how old?

I have a 2-yr old Duralast battery in the front and a 2-month old smaller battery in the back. This is run by the stock alternator.

if you have the 140 amp alt, ive seen them rebuilt to 200 amps. idk if you can go higher with that alt, but i know 200 can be done.

edit* oh and you can get o/1(zero gauge) wire kits on ebay for fairly cheap. i got one for 80 bucks shipped. and it came with a fuse block. which would be strongly recomended.

Yeah, it'* the 140, and I think I have a bad bearing in it. It sounds horrible without the belt, but with the belt I can't tell. I'd love to have it rebuilt. Who can rebuild it? Are there kits so I can try?

around here, there is a shop i know of. in Indy. sorry, idk.

never searched for kits, but id recomend calling starter/alternator rebuild shops. see if they have kits available to sell.