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Did not see "big 3 upgrade" info in the sticky. Does that mean..

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mixtape

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Does that mean it's not worth it for our cars? I will putting in a JL 1000/1 and an Infinity Reference 475a in the 98 CSVT. Has anyone noticed great improvements after doing the "big 3?"

I will be using a 2 farad cap as well, but is that enough. I believe our cars' alternators put out 130amps but my system alone will probably use a good portion of that :blackeye:.
 
Actually, now that I think about it, 130amps seems pretty high for a stock alternator :shrug:. I'm not sure where I read that number but it was somewhere on CEG.
 
the big 3 doesnt seem to be a big thing around here but I have run some pretty big amps and setups in svt's with no adverse effects
 
big 3 wil help alot in tours. alot more than you think. the stock wiring is about 8 g. I ran almost 1700w with no dimming in mine and all i had was a stock everstart battery and a kintetick hc1800. i had alot of dimming problems even with 400wrms with stock wiring.
 
I grabbed some cables from walmart to do the big 3 but havent gotten around to it yet. Gotta love the cheap battery cables back in the automotive/lawn section.
 
icysvt said:
the big 3 doesnt seem to be a big thing around here but I have run some pretty big amps and setups in svt's with no adverse effects
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pre98zetec said:
big 3 wil help alot in tours. alot more than you think. the stock wiring is about 8 g. I ran almost 1700w with no dimming in mine and all i had was a stock everstart battery and a kintetick hc1800. i had alot of dimming problems even with 400wrms with stock wiring.
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It seems we're on the fence with this :blackeye::laugh:. I've always ran smaller systems in the past (800 watts max), but now I'm entering the big leagues with 1000 watts for the sub and 90rms-x4 watts for the 4 channel. The reason I'm so hesitant to do the big 3 is because of the alternator's location on our cars. Seems like a job and a half to attempt it. Though going from stock 8 gauge to 4 gauge does sound beneficial.

Are there any v6 Contour specific write ups on how to do this? Maybe with pics if I'm lucky :rolleyes:?
 
I'm running 170 amps, claimed 1050w rms, no cap, plain battery, didn't touch the wiring and I get very little dimming :shrug:


pre98zetec said:
i had alot of dimming problems even with 400wrms with stock wiring.
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really? I had no dimming running 375wrms
 
mixtape said:
It seems we're on the fence with this :blackeye::laugh:. I've always ran smaller systems in the past (800 watts max), but now I'm entering the big leagues with 1000 watts for the sub and 90rms-x4 watts for the 4 channel. The reason I'm so hesitant to do the big 3 is because of the alternator's location on our cars. Seems like a job and a half to attempt it. Though going from stock 8 gauge to 4 gauge does sound beneficial.

Are there any v6 Contour specific write ups on how to do this? Maybe with pics if I'm lucky :rolleyes:?
Click to expand...
i didnt say it wouldnt be beneficial i just said it doesnt sem to be a big deal around here. I am going to be doing my battery relocation and will prob do the big 3 while im at it for good measure. There really just aren't too many of us on here that are full blown audio junkies:laugh:
 
It doesnt seem like a big deal around here because face it, your talking about a 9-14 year old car. Not much new going on in the stereo world with our cars. Just look how the audio forum in general has dropped off. It will make a big difference if you have dimming issues.
 
I use a capacitor and have no dimming:shrug::shrug:

Wouldn't it just be easier to run one of those (40-50$, 80$ with all wiring from walmart) and just to be safe?
 
Easier, yes. The right thing to do? No.

A cap will act as a bandaid, but it would still be wise to do the big 3. It's just better overall if you're running stereo equipment.
 
pre98zetec said:
big 3 wil help alot in tours. alot more than you think. the stock wiring is about 8 g. I ran almost 1700w with no dimming in mine and all i had was a stock everstart battery and a kintetick hc1800. i had alot of dimming problems even with 400wrms with stock wiring.
Click to expand...


maybe the zetec is different but i replaced my alternator to starter to battery cable with a section of 4 ga wire from my amp power wire, had relocated battery and had extra, and it was the same size as the factory wiring. was alittle disapointed with that but what ever.

when this upgrade is done you want to use 2 ga or larger.

the battery cables are walmart are nice. I picked one up to use as a main battery ground when i put the turbo in my car and its long enough to go back and around out of the way and out of the heat. iirc it was a 52", 2 ga cable with lugs on it already. i should make up some for the other cables to upgrade more.
 
BrApple said:
maybe the zetec is different but i replaced my alternator to starter to battery cable with a section of 4 ga wire from my amp power wire, had relocated battery and had extra, and it was the same size as the factory wiring. was alittle disapointed with that but what ever.

when this upgrade is done you want to use 2 ga or larger.

the battery cables are walmart are nice. I picked one up to use as a main battery ground when i put the turbo in my car and its long enough to go back and around out of the way and out of the heat. iirc it was a 52", 2 ga cable with lugs on it already. i should make up some for the other cables to upgrade more.
Click to expand...

I thought factory wire to/from the alternator/battery was 8 gauge? If it is in fact already 4 gauge stock, then it wouldn't really be worth doing the big 3 since my sub amp will only be using 4 gauge as well. Though I guess a 2 gauge big 3 might help :shrug:.
 
I'm hoping to install my new audio system on the 26th, but I'm trying to gather all the facts first.

I was planning to do the big 3 either this weekend or next to prepare for the 1000+ watt system. Pre98zetec wrote that "the stock wiring is about 8 g." However Brian your post said the car had 4 gauge stock. I'm a little confused and not sure what to do, if at all anything to do.

Is the big 3 even needed if stock has 4 gauge already? I guess I can go to 2 gauge but 4 gauge seems plenty :shrug:.
 
Dyoel182 said:
Its definitely not 4 gauge on my car.
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I'm not sure what BrApple meant when he said that the 4 gauge from his amp power wire was the "same size as the factory wiring." :confused:

If it wasn't pouring here I might have ran outside and popped the hood to see if I could tell.
 
i'll check again but I replaced the wiring from the alternator to tha battery when the 3L was swapped into my car. I used extra 4-ga wire from the amp install kit I used in the car. the stock wiring was the same size.

if it is in fact 8-ga, which is pretty small compared to 4-ga, then I didn't note any difference upping it to 4-ga. I have a remote battery now and am running a 65 wrmsx4 amp and a ~250 wrmsx2 amp for my car stereo.
 
I'm pretty sure it's 4 gauge...I just swapped out my distribution block and was messing with those wires last weekend...
 
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