Big 3 Upgrade Stock Alt and Acid Battery

[Lvlpharaoh]

Hi I'm planning on doing the big 3 upgrade on my 2000 Chevy Malibu it has a stock alt and i'm using an acid battery 

also I'm not able to get access to my oem engine block to chassis ground wire

so i'm wondering if its ok to use the alt mounting bracket bolt as engine ground instead?

I read somewhere that the big 3 can cause acid batteries to explode which leads me to asking if I should wait 

and upgrade the battery first to an agm then do big 3 or will I be okay for couple of months

also planning on upgrading alt but having hard time finding one for my car... 

 

 

[bcbrassard]

Welcome to the forum.

I have never heard of the big 3 affecting a acid battery. It is basically a more efficient way to circulate current thru out the system which helps feed hungry equipment. 

The frame is a Ground, body is a ground, Any thick metel that you remove all paint & primer to get to bare metal can be a ground.

As for alts Mike Singer can rebuild a alt to give you more amperage, email him for a quote. He is usually busy as hell so give him a couple days to respond. I have one of his alts in my Lancer running 3500 watts and have been happy with it for years.

I have a 2012 Malibu i am upgrading.(3rd time) Need Battery's, fuses, wiring and a Singer alt down the road.

Hope this helps.     

[Dragonsyph]

Mechman has 240 amp for ur car, I picked 3.1l engine , not sure what u have. 

Ya alternator casing to frame is a good idea.  

Never heard or seen an acid battery exploding by upgrading wire size.  If anything it might make it run cooler.

 

If you do it all right and get the electrical set up needed for ur system it almost always cost more then the sub and amp.  But you need to make power to use powe aye.

 

[Wishuponasub]

Yeah whoever told you that about lead acid batteries is wrong. The big 3 is nothing but beneficial for any electrical system.

[Lvlpharaoh]

Yea they said something about it overcharging and bloating but I searched around and didn't see anything else about it, honestly that's the only thing that worried me since this car is my daily.

Dragonsyph you picked right it is a 3.1l engine and that's good to know that I can use Alt case to Chassis ground.

I had read a forum somewhere else that they wired Alt case to Negative battery instead something about better return but then they went on to talking about doing the big 4 (big 5,big 6,etc) and making it bigger which in return confused me.

I'm planning on using a wire loom but not sure on whats the most optimal choice and size for NVX 1/0 wire.

if using wire loom is even necessary?

[Wishuponasub]

No it won't cause overcharging. The alternator charges your battery, not the wire. Think of wire like a water pipe. The smaller it is the harder it is for the water to get through. Anyways we could dive deeper into the subject but I don't see a need. 

I personally would do alt case to negative post just for piece of mind but there is nothing wrong with alt case to chassis. As long as you have a chassis to negative post run.

I'm not familiar with the sizes on wire loom bud sorry. But wire is one of those things that it is beneficial to have to protect the wire some more but it is not necessary by any means. That will be up to you to decide.

[Dragonsyph]

You can do alt to bat neg but then ur doing bat neg to chasy  so it won’t matter 

[Joshdashef]

For my upgrade I did a

1 positive fused from the alternator to the batt pos

2 alternator ground to batt neg

3 battery neg to engine 

4 battery neg to chassis

The only other thing you could add to that is to wire a grounding wire from the engine block to the chassis 

hence the big 3,4,5 etc. it’s just all different levels of scrutiny to beef up your electrical

mechman recommends you ground the alternator directly to the batt neg 

[Dragonsyph]

1 hour ago, Joshdashef said:

For my upgrade I did a

1 positive fused from the alternator to the batt pos

2 alternator ground to batt neg

3 battery neg to engine 

4 battery neg to chassis

The only other thing you could add to that is to wire a grounding wire from the engine block to the chassis 

hence the big 3,4,5 etc. it’s just all different levels of scrutiny to beef up your electrical

mechman recommends you ground the alternator directly to the batt neg 

Nice mate, also it’s real nice and makes it easy that Mechman has a neg terminal on there alternators.

Can’t wait to install mine, have no garage and there another foot of snow out today lol, it just won’t ducking stop.

[Lvlpharaoh]

Thanks everybody for assisting me I'm gonna do the upgrade today and pretty much my setup is gonna go like this 

1. Positive Alt fused (300A) to Positive Battery

2.Negative Battery to Chassis 

3.Alt Mounting Bolt/Case to Negative Battery

and that should be it until further upgrades.