In the September issue of Turbo magazine they tested DPS (Direct Power System) grounding kits. They tested an Evo8 350z and other cars on the dyno with the system installed. They came up with 12whp with the evo and i think 8 with the Z. My question is does anyone out there own one of these little magical hp boxes? Plus, do they acctually work?

 

I'm not sure about the full grounding systems that use the box, but a while back I installed some simple ground wires in my accord and had a noticable difference. The grounds ran from my battery to my head, tranny, alternator, 2nd chassis ground and intake manifold. The better grounds through the engine bay gave me a lower/smoother idle, better throttle response, and better overall performance while running anything electrical within the car. I've had many skeptics say it's bullshit, but there was a slight noticable difference for myself.

 

I have to call BS on it, but to be fair the only way to know is back-to-back dyno comparos. I want to know what gets "improved" to free up 12whp. Nope, I just can't see it...

 

i have heard in many other threads about this.
it is a very contraversial subject.
but the thing that stands out the most to me, is that first of all all of your electric parts are going to run better. ex. head light, dome light. And second a guy claimed to have done a dyno test before and after and gained 12hp.
But this is all just 1 case. Im guessing that its diffrent in evey application.

 

ive got some basic grounding cables and they just made the car more responsive, didnt feel any poiwer dif .

 

In the tests that the magazine did they installed the box, dynoed it and got 12hp on the evo, then they took it out and it went back to normal. So it seems pretty convincing. Do any of you guys suggest buying a kit like that? If so how much do they cost?

 

Hondas are grounded pretty well from factory. So it probably won't result in much power gain but will improve response.

 

import tuner dyno the grounding wires and they gain nothing on 5th gen lude

 

You're right, it will run better, the lights brighter and so on, but the % "better" is tiny. That's where marketing BS comes in, "guaranteed to run better."

Again, what's changing to free up 12whp? I'd need to see a good before-after-before dyno run on a completely stock car... of course I still wouldn't believe it...

 

I made my own grounding kit with 4g wire and honestly i can say i feel no differance other than the car runs smoother while cold.
I ran my ground like this
Negative battery- starter
negative battery- stock wire harness ground
stock harness ground - tb
valve cover stud to chassis.
I also have another tranny ground going to the chassis

 

HOW THEY WORK: i haven't looked into these kits much but from what i know, better grounds allow better current flow, therefore your engine doesn't have to work as hard to make the alternator produce voltage. i had a corroded chassis ground that got really bad, my shaved door handle kit stopped working and my engine was slow to respond. i replaced the ground wire with a much thicker gauge and it made a hell of a difference. i wouldn't install a grounding kit for horsepower gain but i think its a good idea to make things easier on your engine

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by luda94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">HOW THEY WORK: ...therefore your engine doesn't have to work as hard to make the alternator produce voltage. ...</TD></TR></TABLE>

Actually it would make it easier on the alternator because the perceived load would be lower.

Anyway, yes, good grounds are essential. But going from 1ga wire to 00ga isn't going to fix anything... unless the original wires were broken. The only way 12whp will suddenly show up is if the factory grounds were f**ked up before the test. In fact that may be how the test was run... run it on a car with screwed up wiring, then show how "good" the wires make the car... when in actuality, it only fixs the bad wires, not adding any power.

 

I seriously doubt a new evo8 and a 350Z are going to have 'f'ed up wires'.