interesting find on grounding

[ss86b]

something interesting happened today i talked to the boss and he was ok with me putting my pure street motor on the dyno and play with some grounding and some ignition modules we had layin around. i tried 3 modules a stock borg wornner a dyna mod and an accell mod in my 358 sbc with hei and a msd in cap coil. funny thing is all 3 modules made the exact same numbers. well within .6 hp to be exact.

i also played with grounding and i was supprised. with a strap to the back of the headto the block and to the negitive side of the battery it made 378hp. i made a jumper from some number 8 wire and put it to the hold down clamp bolt to the distrib. it made 381 average hp. took the ground off the hold down clamp and it went to 378 again. we have decided to look into this a lil farther with other motors we will be dynoing in the next few days. but for this weekend i am putting a ground to my hold down bolt.

[joeltjen]

ya, we've always ran a ground wire from each head to the chassis but never to the distributor itself. got me thinking! thanks for the info!
john

[ss86b]

when i joined i saw a few questions that got me thinking. when i get something in my head i have to do a lil research on it. the post that had stock car driver saying that he tested some 4 pin modules and they all were basically the same really had me thinking. a $12 borg werner and a $55 dyna mod with a good coil work the same so thats 40 bux i can spend somewhere else.

i think when we slow down some i am gonna play with external coils and wires. i have a different type stock intake that showed up i have questions about as well.

[stock car driver]

when i joined i saw a few questions that got me thinking. when i get something in my head i have to do a lil research on it. the post that had stock car driver saying that he tested some 4 pin modules and they all were basically the same really had me thinking. a $12 borg werner and a $55 dyna mod with a good coil work the same so thats 40 bux i can spend somewhere else.

i think when we slow down some i am gonna play with external coils and wires. i have a different type stock intake that showed up i have questions about as well.

When I ran hei I grounded my dist clamp. It helped keep the modules alive etc I thought. I havent dynoed to see if it makes a difference but I surely can next time I go. I run msd now and hadnt thought about grounding that in years.

I checked all the modules on a ignition tester deal we had at Super Shops when I was the manager. I also checked coils at that time and back then the best I had in my possession was a oil filled oem black coil off a junk car in my yard. it was not even new. I tested all the name brand coils remote and hei style.

The tester was a deal you could spin the distributor and pull the plug gap apart as it was basically two sharp ended bolts..

I also tested plugs, champion truck, split fire etc. I run ngk v gap only now. they put out the widest spark as it goes all the way accross the post of the plug due to the v notched in it. split fire put out two tiny sparks, truck plut was a tiny spark. regular old auto lite were better than all but the ngk v gap.


Tech west told me the BEST coil on the market is oem 88-91 mustang 5.0. Its 20-30 at the parts stores I bolt it to my chassis solid by drilling 2 of the holes to 1/4 inch.

Borg Warner E-92 Is the #. I just got one for my 2nd car last week.

I am cheap, I buy the generic everything but toilet paper... So I like to find the best bang for my buck.

[ss86b]

when i pulled on the motor i never got over 6800. its about 10 to 1 compression my cam and intake give out at around 6400. dont really know what the gas octain was there was close to 3/4 gal of 93 pump gas and i tossed about a gallon of old 110 from last year in and had my back up 4412 on it the housing and base plate are bone stock from holley and the meatering block id one off an old willies carbsomeone broke the baseplate on. i may could have gotten more hp had i played with timing and put a good carb and fuel in it, but this was just playing around to answer a few questions.

[dynoman14]

Excellent work, there goes another trade secret, next thing you know somebody will try running grounds from all of the spark plugs to a common ground. In the High end audio business it is called Star Grounding. You also might want to measure the impedance and capacitance of the chassis, charging the chassis to static hold the powder and heating it up to melt the powder turns it into a big RLC circuit.

I guess folks might actually start believing me when I tell them there is 15-30hp to be had in the ignition system alone. Since last year I have run 57 distributors on the chassis dyno and they all picked up 11-17 RWHP with an average of 13RWHP. Costs ranged from $200-$300 and averaged $237. Works out to $18 per RWHP.

The only cheaper HP / $ is matching your carb to the fuel you are burning. In 3 years the average gain is 17hp. Results in changing gas from one brand to another can be +/- 20hp. A carb jetted and optimized for VP110 can make 435hp swapping to Sunoco 110 can drop you to 415, and the exact same thing will happen if you start with the Sun110 and swap to the VP.

If you do not do either or mix and match imporperly you could be as much as 50HP off where you need to be.

I'll just throw this out there for some extra food for thought...there is 20-30RWHP in a carburetor part that costs $2 and you would not know which direction to go unless you tested repeatedly on the chassis dyno, it won't hardly show up on an engine dyno because the acceleration rate of the dyno and the water brake absorbs most of the gains you would see.