While my car is down for a little while waiting on parts (03.5 G AT5)I'm in the process of a Wire Tuck along with redo of my grounding kit. I installed a 7 wire kit inside the engine bay area and now I'm onto the ECU/TCM grounds.

Simple, quick question

I just mount these ground wires to the mounting brackets of the ECU and TCM correct? Than to whatever grounding location I want. What confuses me is so many people run different methods. Some run a wire inside the engine bay to factory ground strap. Seems like a really long ground wire. Wouldn't it be best to use a factory ground inside the dash that's on bare metal?

 

A ground wire just needs to be connected to clean, bare metal like you said at the end of your post. Go for it!!

 

Appreciate it. I think some of the DIY's I've read the people are trying to make it look extreme or overdoing it. Some of the pics I've seen make me scratch my head. I found a busted lower ball joint today right when I got under the car so some of my endeavors are put off. Seems like when I plan to mod something I find something else that needs to be replaced and or fixed.

 

Yep that's the way it happens for a lot of our G's, especially now a ot of us own high mileage cars. DIY though is a lifesaver for me, having that ability has saved/still saves me thousands of dollars yearly.

 

Watching some of these bushing replacement DIYs, I'm dreading the job since I don't have a real press or Impact. Agreed, my mother who is 59 just paid $170 for a serpentine belt install on a 4.6 modular Ford. It's a 3 minute job with a wratchet and a $30 belt. It's horrible

 

Replaced my radiator and thermostat last month, ordered them off of rockauto.com and paid $93 shipped to my door. Add in a gallon of coolant and some distilled water and I spent just a touch over $100 and with an hour and 15 minutes of labor I was done.

I went to a Firestone a couple of weeks prior to get an estimate for grins and giggles, total OTD charge for all of that was $691. Seriously WTF people................

 

Which radiator did you order I'm curious. I've bookmarked a lot on RockAuto, can't be the prices, same brands at less than half the cost.

Reason being, they have 2 different style radiators listed but say both will work in either application. Coupes radiator is 28 inches while the sedan is 26 to 26.5 inches wide. So I was curious with which one you used and so on. Did you get a OEM 170 or 180 stat? My temps under load are usually 203 degrees and normal cruising 195-199. I would rather tone is down to 185-915 degrees if I can but honestly have no idea if I have a 180 or 170 stat in the car

 

The Denso 2213426 radiator listed here. http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo....1975&jsn=10328 It has a 12 month warranty.

And the thermostat was the Gates 33940, it's 170*. It also has a limited lifetime warranty. Here's the link to it. https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...=1431975&jsn=1

Both working just fine and fit like a boss.........

 

Yeah I'm familiar with both those. FYI for everyone on parts especially with the overpriced Autozone/Advance crap. Motorad makes thermostats for Duralast. Not even rebranded sometimes. Denso, Motorad, Gates, Beck and Arnley all good brands.

Could you tell any differences in your factory radiator vs the Denso one. From past experiences aftermarket OEM type replacements are actually upgrades. And is the car cooling any better than lets say factory. Like normal operating temps. I'm working on lowering normal operating temps about 15 degrees or so. Data logging my car it goes into closed loop at 165, runs at 195-199 without much load and sits at 203 with a load, like up hill

 

Since I don't drive the G much anymore I have a limited sample to report but so far the car seems to act no differently than with stock parts. I have an OBDII scanner and Torque Pro but have never datalogged the G. So I'm just going off temp gauge but I see no difference. Not that it's related but my gas mileage has remained unchanged if you're curious.