this is just a FYI for anyone that would be interested in buying a kit. I was, as I am sure most are with grounding kits, weary of actual performance that can be gained from a grounding kit. We all know it helps to make things run smoother, but its been contested as to if it does anything for performance. I took my car to Dave at KDR and I was surprise when we actually made some power out of it; especially as to how much power we made. We dyno'd the car without the kit and then dyno'd it again with the kit. Ill save the numbers for the conclusion. Note- I ordered a WRX kit on accident, as the guy that I ordered it from said it was a universal kit. Some lines were longer then we might've wanted, and we had one extra line, and extra battery terminal connectors that should actually work for batteries located in the engine bay. The battery terminals weren't useful for mine as my battery is located in my rear bin. Other then that though, the WRX kit worked just fine on the FD3S.

Product: HKS Circle Earth Grounding kit
Build Quality: 10 (out of 10)
Install Difficulty: 3 (out of 10)
Overall Grade of Product: 10 (out of 10)

Positives:
Negatives:

Power Numbers according to runs on a Dynojet dyno:
Price: $133.00

Look at the Blue run and the Green run to see the difference in power. (The red one was a dyno run at 13 psi with the ground kit.)



Please forgive the cell phone pictures. i really need to get a good camera. Maybe after i stop spending money on my car.
























I hope that helped.

 

Interesting. So the runs were back to back, same day,same dyno?

Here is a link to a similar system used by damian in the Archives (using the Hyper Ground) System: https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ghlight=ground

 

are all your ground connections the same as damians? what are your other mods?

 

yup, same day, same conditions, same dyno. the only difference was the time for installation that took 20+- minutes. there is a +1.75* difference in temperatures too from the run without the kit and with the kit.
EDIT: there was a 1 hour and 2 minute difference in time from the before and after dyno runs. this included install and down time

Dave literally ran the car on the dyno, tuned it for what we had, got a number for the set up without the grounding kit, installed the grounding kit, and threw it back on the dyno without tweaking the Power FC. what you see is the difference made from the kit without any tuning influence. in case anyone is questioning the legitimacy of my review, i don't sell any parts, so am not using any monetary influence in selling the kits. i just think its a cheap and easy way to gain some extra power, and had i known about this before, i would've had this kit years ago.

i remember seeing Damian's write up years ago and have his install pic saved for reference. that custom kit from Ball Joint might not be a bad thing to look into for anyone considering a kit. Especially for the money.

i am pretty sure my grounds are the same as Damian's, if i remember correctly. next time i am home i will compare his set up to mine and make a reference to any differences.

my engine mod list is as follows:

• Stock Hitachi HT12 Sequential Twin Turbos
• Stock ported motor
• HKS Type S Front Mount Intercooler
• HKS Racing Suction Kit
• HKS 3" Downpipe
• Pettit Racing Resonated Midpipe
• HKS Carbon Ti 4.75" Exhaust
• HKS Circle Earth Kit
• Unorthodox Racing SS Pulley Kit
• Efini Y-Pipe
• HKS Super Sequential Blow Off Valve
• RC 550cc Primary Injectors
• RC 1200cc Secondary Injectors
• Walbro 255lph Fuel Pump
• APEXi Power FC and Commander
• NGK BUR7EQP Leading Spark Plugs
• NGK BUR9EQP Trailing Spark Plugs
• Magnecor 8.5mm Ignition Wires
• Fluidyne Aluminum Race Radiator
• Pettit Racing Air Separator Tank

 

Since the AFRs are pretty much identical between both runs I am not convinced that grounding can explain the power difference. I would suspect reduced AITs in the second run. I'm assuming timing was not changed?

Not knocking, because it is good to see fairly controlled back-to-back dynos, but I have a very hard time believing 12 whp from better grounding - unless the original grounds were severely degraded. I would have been good to see a dyno with the stock grounds with the contact points sanded and reinstalled. Or, hell, just disconnecting the new grounds to see what happens.

 

thats a very good point moconnor, as the grounds that this kit replaced were either 93,000 miles old or 38,000 miles old from when the motor was rebuilt before i bought the car. they definitely looked like they've been weathered over the years and needed to be replaced, so I am sure replacing them made a difference no matter what. how much of it came from installing the kit alone, unfortunately, i can't accurately establish. timing was not changed from run to run, as Dave was also interested in seeing what the difference would be. either way, I can conclude that it makes a difference, but the amount will vary from application to application. i wish i was able to get better, more accurate and useful information for everyone.

i would also be interested in seeing someone elses results testing it with stock grounds, uninstalled grounds, sanded contact points, and the aftermarket ground kits. it would make for great information. that would definitely be the end all to end all research on proving if it makes a difference or not.


on a side note, moconnor, i was able to get 20.25mpg out of my car on the 9 hour round trip drive to KDR. i was pretty impressed. granted it was a majority highway with some stop and go through New York City, but i wasn't expecting it to be anywhere near that. it was 20.25 there and 20.18 on the way back. that's better then what my mom's RX-8 was getting for mileage! insane! i know you were just busting my b***s with the midpipe install. nothing personal, of course .

 

I really appreciate that you took the time to do this comparison, I wish everyone did this will their mods . However, usually when a car gets dyno tuned, the AIT's get on the higher side and the rwhp fluctuates accordingly (usually about 10 - 15 rwhp). After an hour of down time, they would have gone down significantly. I would think that this had a lot to do with the rwhp gain.

That being said, I had a ground kit on my old FD and felt t ran much smoother with it. It does do something; I’m just not convinced a ground kit will gain 10+ rwhp.

 

Definitely. It is not cheap either (and probably cost as much as the mod in this case) but really helps others evaluate modifications.

 

thanks for your input Gordon. It was great to finally meet you over the weekend. between you, the other Gordon, Kyle and his brother, and Dave being there, it made for a great visit that i wish could've lasted longer. my girlfriend was more then patient, and quite a trooper for signing up for the trip, but i could tell she wanted to get home. i wish i lived closer. id be there every free chance i got. it was cool to walk in and immediately see your car. it was undeniably recognizable. very very clean, and that was just what i could see from underneath it. i have some pics of your car on the lift and of your 3 rotor if you want them.

whenever you get those pictures and movies up, please let me know. i would like to use those files for personal use if you don't mind. i'm in no rush to get them, so whenever you get some free time. if you could please email the files to me at zumspdrx7@yahoo.com, i would appreciate it. thanks much.


as for posting these product reviews up, i really dont mind it at all. as you guys have said, i really wish everyone did these product reviews with their mods; it could have saved me money in buying and replacing parts that i wasn't pleased with. had i started when i bought the car, i would have at least 50 product reviews. maybe i can do retrospective mod reviews and how they have held up over the years. unfortunately i cant do any differences in the product as far as power or reliability differences go. i actually enjoy doing these write ups because i know the community needs it and it would be useful to others. im not the first to do one, but i hope it catches back on. kind of like how FD3S.net was set up with all of its great write ups. its a lot more fun then accounting and it's nice to take a break from crunching numbers.

 

I would be interested to see some before and after PFC logs which monitored Advanced and Auxiliary parameters (wideband input). From there we can see if injector pulsewidth changed, boost changed, IAT reading changed, WG or PC solenoid duty cycle, etc. That would flesh out the picture much more.

Can KDR provide you with any log files from their datalogit?

 

Its hard to tell from the pictures but where exactly did he put the grounding circle itself? And what all ground points were used?

 

you've gotta understand i am giving the forum all the information i have. I am not going to bother Dave with this, as he already helped enough in doing a pre and post run with the kit at no extra charge; but out of his own curiosity.

I will make a detailed map of where i grounded the kit out when i get a chance. Like i said above, i know it will help your car; how much it will help will vary from car to car. It's worth the $133 to find out though. This is pretty cheap compared to a majority of the mods on mine and most of our cars. even if the (speculative) power difference was a fraction of that it would be a good deal.

thats the best i can do for now.

 

Sorry if this is a noob comment, but is that connected straight to the block?

 

Nice write-up, thanks. I installed the "Sun Grounding Kit" in my FD and did notice it ran smoother and the lights shine brighter. It did help, no clue if any more power was made.

 

yes the distribution block where all of the grounds are is bolted to the block. if you look at the 4th picture down, you can kind of see where i grounded everything out on the block. i will try to get some better pictures with a real camera when i get the chance.

 

Fact, he changed ground wiring
Fact, he gained Hp under a controlled condition

Hypothesis, new wiring will improve Hp .. not enough information
Hypothesis, regrounding will improve Hp .. not enough information

Conclusion, grounding (good or bad) can have a significant effect of Hp.
Conclusion, grounding may be fixed by cleaning and regrounding existing wires, cost 0 plus sweet. Installation of new cables may fix prior dirty poor ground or high resistance grounds, cost 133 plus sweet. Cost is cheap, result is no improvement of a existing excellent condition system to drastic improvement over a lacking system.

We speed a lot more on our cars with lower probabilies of improvment.

 

Interesting....I would assume the main purpose of this is to increase spark with a better ground?

 

Been there done that with grounding systems on a dyno. If your stock grounds are crap then you will notice a difference. If your stock grounds are good then adding the HKS unit will yield very little gains on its own. I think we gained 1-2HP after adding it and hard to prove it was the unit doing anything.

 

if i made my own kit, would 4gauge be over kit? basically i have 4gauge left over from my stero and was wondering if i can use that or is it too thick?

 

Never can be too thick. other than weight.

 

If you think you can run 4 gauge around your engine bay without having it look like a mess then go ahead. For myself even running 8 gauge it was hard to tuck the wires..

 

Can you post the individual lenths of the ground wires?

I don't like the fact that they are purple, I'd like
To make my own in black.

 

I did the HKS grounding kit and i didnt "notice" any hp gains however idling and throttle response improved. That i know for a fact.

 

True.

I think the better idle and improved throttle response should justify spending 100+ bucks for this kit anyway, i feel like anyone who gets it to gain that 2, 3, 4-5 whatever hp shouldnt be the main reason TO get this.

If you gain HP, thats great, if not, i think better idle and throttle response is a good tradeoff IMHO.

I did the kit not to gain power but for the other reasons. Hence why i dont even care if i gained HP or not. It "feels" the same but i will not dyno the car hoping to see a gain.

 

The REAL "dyno test" would have been if you have accurately measured the resistance in your grounding circuits before and after this install.

Personally I think you would get thet same "performance" increases by cleaning the existing ground connections. Same labor and $100+ is still in your pocket.