Stillen grounding kit-50 hp gain?
 

Well I finally got around to installing the grounding kit that was free with my long ago purchase of my Stillen G3 cold air intake. Like all of the Stillen products that I've seen it is very well made and installed cleanly. It's supposed to enhance the operation of the electronics in a number of subtle ways, so I'm guessing at least a +50 horsepower improvement, right?

Back to reality, I'd be pleasantly surprised if it does much of anything as it seems largely redundant. Perhaps Josh at Stillen can offer some insights. Have any of you had any experience with this kit?

I'm going to bet that unless you had a problem with your OEM setup, the only thing it grounded to any additional effect was your wallet.

I wasn't expecting any gains, but I do like how it looks in the engine bay. I have heard it is suppose to help smooth out the shifts on the automatic.

i suppose it can help if you have a powerful stereo amp running... (?)

Grounding kits are effective in a number of ways, and have huge performance improvement potential on older vehicles, as years of crap buildup and things with connections and the like. Obviously with newer vehicles like the 370Z's, less performance gains are there, but it will set you up for less drop off of performance due to electrical ground issues as the car gets older.

Some feel bigger responses than others, but it's especially beneficial for those with automatic transmissions, and you'll read all over the place of people reporting snappier shifting and better shift response times with the grounding kit installed.

:iagree:

Except it was free with CAI purchase.

Mine is an AT7 so maybe it will make a difference. Anyway, the price was right, free.

I'm still hoping for that +50 horsepower though.

Glad you scored them in one of our promotions.. :D

There were quite a few guys on here who acheived +50whp with the installation of our cat-back, HFCs and Gen 3's.. :tup:

Well of course you could do all that stuff but where's the fun in that?

:icon18:


What do they go for regularly?

I had the grounding kit and I didn't feel a difference in gains. It did make the engine bay pretty tho with the red ones

The grounding kit is a simple way to ensure smooth signal response from all the fly by wire components in the 370Z. Many people can attest to the gremlins you can face chasing down a poor ground connection. Having the Stillen kit is a way to massively increase the ground path between components and therefore achieve the fastest possible signal response between components.
Placebo effect? Doubtful. HP gains? Doubtful. Insurance against signal dropoff and degraded performance over time? Guaranteed!
I bought mine with other parts from Stillen and as a Military Electronics/Optronics Technician, I can definitely see the benefit to having a grounding kit versus not having one. Well worth the minimal cost of these systems. :twocents:

Just to clear up some electrical misconceptions here (not that your overall point isn't close to the truth):

The speed of signals from your sensors and to your actuators is not affected by a grounding kit. Electricity's speed in a metal medium is a relatively reliable and stable value regardless of any wiring changes you make to a functioning circuit, and is an infinitesimally small component of the ECU's reaction time. Even if you somehow *added* several feet of signal path between the ECU and some sensor, it's not going to have any significant effect on the ECU's reaction time to the sensor's physical input due to electricity "speed".

Obviously, if existing ground connections on the car (factory ground wires, and also metal mounting points between components) have rusted, deteriorated, or been disconnected completely, adding new ground wires connecting the two points is going to lower the resistance between those ground points, leveling out the ground plane.

By electrically leveling out the ground plane (decreasing the resistance between various points that are all considered "ground": anywhere on the engine block, the chassis, and the negative battery terminal), you *can* improve the accuracy of your sensors. One way or another, most sensor outputs are measures as volts or ohms, and if the sensor's ground has some resistance between it and the ECU's ground, those readings' accuracy can be off.

I still think mostly installing a grounding kit on a factory-new car is a placebo though, unless the car was defectively assembled, or you've made other changes that affect grounding. (Case in point: when I switched out my headers, I lost 2 factory grounding points from the engine block to the chassis). For the most part, Nissan probably grounded everything correctly when they built it :)

The speed of the signal from the sensors to the actuators IS affected by the ground path IF there is resistance between the sensors and the actuators. Hence a stronger/better ground will complete the signal more efficiently. Albeit minutely... :icon17:

Exactly my point. :tup:

Agreed. The factory configuration is very well built and well grounded. However, adding addtional grounding paths and linking key components together to ground can only help further down the road when corrosion/wear and tear etc start to take their toll.

I think we are barking up the same tree, merely quibbling over the benefits. ;)