Hey guys, Im finally setting out to do the big 3 upgrade for my car and got a pretty firm grasp on what to do. I have a few questions and just want some affirmation on my ground locations.

Here is a picture of what's under the hood. I plan on adding a new negative terminal with two 0 gauge inputs. I plan to just add the ring terminal onto the stock bolt on the positive terminal due to my fear of messing up when cutting the stock positive terminal wires and putting it into a new one.



Instead of using my stock ground point for the negative terminal (pictured below) should I use a bolt from the strut tower? or is it possible to sand down an area a bit to the right of the bolts and screw a terminal down?



Here is the strut tower

I would like to sand down an area to the right of the rightmost bolt.

As for my engine block to chasis, can I use the exterior bolt for the engine cover, or should I use some bolts near the manifold pictured below?




Or should I lead these bolts attached to the alternator to the negative terminal as the engine block to ground?



I plan on routing the engine block ground to the negative terminal, which would ground to the negative to chassis ground.

Would it be a better idea to just ground the engine block directly to the chassis?

I would think routing the wire back to the negative terminal will make it a lot simpler and would make it look less cluttered with wires.

 

i never recommend using suspension bolts for grounding. sanding paint will introduce rust, and you don't want suspension mounting points rusting.

i never recommend using a bolt that holds an engine component on. the ring terminal changes the strength of the mounting point.

avoid mounting near exhaust components and never remove a bolt that is associated with a seal unless you expect to replace the seal.

when you remove the battery (and battery tray) you will have access to the frame rail. that is a good grounding point.
you will also have better access to the transmission housing and engine block with the battery and intake hose removed. you can find spare threaded holes on both the tranny and engine block. use one and find a matching bolt. the grounds should be as short as possible but with enough flex to allow the engine to move. it only takes 5 minutes to remove the battery and intake hose.

you can take the engine block to same chassis ground as the battery which saves a wire at the battery. i did that. the Big 3 sticky has pics.

don't forget the third is to the alt positive and that wire does need to be fused at the battery. also, the alt post uses a smaller sized ring terminal opening.

 

Thanks! All the wires and stuff finally came in the mail so I plan on at least doing the grounds during the weekend. I'll post pictures after the end result. As for the negative terminal, I did see a threaded hole at the bottom so I will probably go with that. Since it'll be less distance to go from my engine block to my negative terminal rather than the engine block to the ground point below my battery, I plan on just going with the first choice. and what size diameter do you recommend for the ring terminal that'll be going to the alt +

Thanks for all the tips! Hopefully all goes well this weekend

 

check out the alt. i can't remember, maybe 5/16" was the right size. you'll just have to inspect yours. they can vary.