My Big Three (3) Upgrade

stadt11

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Kris, curious what the upgrade of that wire from the junction block gives you? From what I read from multiple sources they say you don't gain anything by upgrading it to the stock size of 4AWG, just to leave it as-is and add to it with the 1/0 wire like you did.

...

Welcome to the Big-3 Club :thumbs:
 

Z71 Kris

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Well I had the wire and figured it would not hurt anything and it looks better. I might not notice a gain but there should be some gain..that wire from there splits off to other places before the battery.

Thanks for the welcome :thumbs: :cool:
 

ScottyBoy

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Great write up. It is very important to have a good grounded system. I found this out on my 91 Jetta diesel. I upgraded just like you did and it made a huge difference in the way it started.

I'll have to upgrade my Silverado as well. Where did you get the wire and fuse?

http://www.knukonceptz.com/

They are local to me, and they make great stuff, price its comparable to all wire, but better then most!

Nice write up! Looks great! Only thing I would have done differently is crimped the ring terminals in addition to soldering them. If I do decide to upgrade my audio system and/or get electric fans, I'll have to do this to my truck. :thumbs:
And good lord thats some cancer. Makes me glad I live down south. :rolleyes:

Unless you have a pneumatic crimper most of us just dont have the tools to crimp 1/0 gauge wire

I've done it a few times on a VERY solid workbench or smooth concrete and a hammer. Just flatten it some till you feel its tight on the wire. :dunno:
 

Z71 Kris

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Great write up. It is very important to have a good grounded system. I found this out on my 91 Jetta diesel. I upgraded just like you did and it made a huge difference in the way it started.

I'll have to upgrade my Silverado as well. Where did you get the wire and fuse?

http://www.knukonceptz.com/

They are local to me, and they make great stuff, price its comparable to all wire, but better then most!

Nice write up! Looks great! Only thing I would have done differently is crimped the ring terminals in addition to soldering them. If I do decide to upgrade my audio system and/or get electric fans, I'll have to do this to my truck. :thumbs:
And good lord thats some cancer. Makes me glad I live down south. :rolleyes:

Unless you have a pneumatic crimper most of us just dont have the tools to crimp 1/0 gauge wire

I've done it a few times on a VERY solid workbench or smooth concrete and a hammer. Just flatten it some till you feel its tight on the wire. :dunno:

I thought about buying one of these..

417orSGYoqL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


but with the solder it should be fine, I gave them all good tugs...
 
B

Bernie

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I'm not quite sure how to say this diplomatically, and I sure don't want anyone to be offended, but based on about 25 years of experience doing electrical work I cringed a little reading this. I'd like to offer some advice, if you're willing to listen...

You had great intentions with this job, and I see that you really wanted to get it right, but here's the problems I see:

  • The ring terminals you used won't be able to handle the same current load that the 1/0 cable can, and will probably get pretty hot. You need some heavier, solid copper, terminals.
  • While the 1/0 gauge is a good choice, looking at the specs for that cable I see that it's mostly aluminum, and aluminum requires special procedures to prevent oxidation at the connection points. Also, when using aluminum you need to "upsize" your conductor gauge by one to get the same current capacity as copper. (ie: If you want 1/0 copper then you need 2/0 aluminum) And, because of the oxidation factor, aluminum isn't a good choice for automotive wiring.
  • The terminals really, really need to be crimped and not soldered, for an acceptable mechanical bond. Solder is not acceptable as a mechanical bond, only as an electrical bond, because it will crack and loosen, and because it can't take much in the way of mechanical stress. The soldering you did, from the photos, didn't make a good bond at all, and never penetrated the conductors. It looks like the solder itself was heated, and not the work. You always want to heat the work itself, and not the solder, so that when you touch the solder to the joint the heat of the work makes the solder melt and draws it into the joint. Also, using the right solder is very important. For electrical work you want to use a rosin core solder, or rosin based flux and solid solder, preferably a 60/40 type solder. If you use regular plumbing solder and plumbing flux, the flux will eventually destroy the wire because it's acid based, not rosin based. This is especially true with aluminum conductors, which shouldn't be soldered anyway.
  • At one point it looks like you removed a fusible link and replaced it with cable, and you're relying on a single 200 amp fuse for your protection now. While that fuse does add protection you have to look at the system as a whole. Think of it like the wiring in your house. You have a main breaker (also usually 100-200 amps, like your fuse) that protects the main coming in (in this case your battery and alternator) but them you have individual branch circuits coming off that main, each with their own protection, because they use lighter gauge wiring and handle lighter loads. If that fusible link was for something like that (possibly a feed to the fuseblock) then it's entirely possible now to have a short that will draw enough current to melt the wiring, yet not blow the fuse, because the wire can carry less current than the fuse can. In the example I gave of house wiring, think of what would happen if you bypassed the 15 amp breaker for an outlet and ran it directly to the 200 amp main breaker, then tried to draw 100 amps of current through the outlet. The wiring in the walls would literally glow and melt, but the main breaker would never trip because you never exceeded 200 amps.
Again, I really didn't want to rain on your parade, and I applaud your efforts, but I couldn't just pass this by without comment since there's the real potential for some serious 12 volt arc welding suddenly happening if one of those joints fails or a wire cooks. Electrical fires in the engine bay are no fun, trust me on this.
 

stadt11

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The ring terminals you used won't be able to handle the same current load that the 1/0 cable can, and will probably get pretty hot. You need some heavier, solid copper, terminals. - Then why does everyone sell those terminals then?

While the 1/0 gauge is a good choice, looking at the specs for that cable I see that it's mostly aluminum, and aluminum requires special procedures to prevent oxidation at the connection points. Also, when using aluminum you need to "upsize" your conductor gauge by one to get the same current capacity as copper. (ie: If you want 1/0 copper then you need 2/0 aluminum) And, because of the oxidation factor, aluminum isn't a good choice for automotive wiring. - I used 1/0 Gauge Ultra-Flex Copper Welding Wire for mine, is that better?
 
B

Bernie

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The ring terminals you used won't be able to handle the same current load that the 1/0 cable can, and will probably get pretty hot. You need some heavier, solid copper, terminals. - Then why does everyone sell those terminals then?

While the 1/0 gauge is a good choice, looking at the specs for that cable I see that it's mostly aluminum, and aluminum requires special procedures to prevent oxidation at the connection points. Also, when using aluminum you need to "upsize" your conductor gauge by one to get the same current capacity as copper. (ie: If you want 1/0 copper then you need 2/0 aluminum) And, because of the oxidation factor, aluminum isn't a good choice for automotive wiring. - I used 1/0 Gauge Ultra-Flex Copper Welding Wire for mine, is that better?

Yes, pure copper welding wire is much, much better. Why does everyone sell those cheap terminals? Well, because they're cheap, and they usually work for low amp uses, like speaker systems, where you're using heavy cables for better signal, not high amperage.
 

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