Redoing system need opinions and suggestions

[bjohn118]

2012 honda civic si coupe

ELD and Fuel economy Alternator control disabled with flashpro.

 

Headunit

Sony xav-ax7000

 

Rcas

Sky high 6 channel rcas - head unit to dsp

Sky high single male to 2 female Y

Sky high 2 channel Rcas from dsp to amps

 

Alternator

TBD

 

Batteries

Xs power d5100r 2000 watts (main battery)

Xs power d3100 5000 watts (aux battery)

 

Dsp

Audiocontrol dm-608 (1A draw, 3A fuse)

 

Amplifiers

Mids and highs - Rockford power 600.4 (40A draw, 80A fuse)

Sub - x2 rockford power 1500.1 (100A draw, 200A fuse)

 

Front speakers

Highs - Pair DD audio at-28a silk dome tweeters (50w rms s4)

Mids - Pair DD audio am-3a (50w rms s4)

Low mids - Pair DD audio aw-6.5a (75w rms s4)

 

Rear Deck

Mids - x2 DD audio vo-m6.5b (100w rms s4)

 

Subwoofer - x2 DC audio level 4 10" (1500w rms s2)

 

Wiring

Speaker wires 

Mids, Low mids, Highs - 14 awg 

Subwoofer - 8 awg 

 

Power and ground 

Factory grounds - bigger 4awg

 

Ground from knukonceptz negative ultimate terminal on main battery to chassis 1/0

 

Ground from knukonceptz negative ultimate terminal on main battery to Alternator case 1/0

 

Factory fuse box to knukonceptz bassik 3 way distribution block bigger 4awg (fuse 150A)

 

Alternator to knukonceptz bassik 3 way distribution block - 1/0 (fuse depending on Alternator)

 

Knukonceptz bassik 3 way distribution block to knukonceptz ultimate terminal on main battery - 1/0 (fuse TBD)

 

Knukonceptz bassik 3 way distribution block to knukonceptz konFused 3 way fused distribution block in trunk - 1/0 (fused 300A)

 

Aux battery to knukoncepts konFused 3 way fused distribution block in trunk - 1/0 (fused 300A)

 

KonFUSED 3 way fused distribution block to 600.4 - 4awg (fused 80A)

 

KonFused 3 way fused distribution block to 1500.1 - 1/0 each (fused 200A each)

 

Main battery knukonceptz ultimate terminal to knukoncepts 6 way ground block in trunk - 1/0

 

Aux battery knukonceptz konFused negative terminal to knukonceptz 6 way ground block in trunk - 1/0

 

All amp grounds matching power wire size and type but individually ran to knukonceptz 6 way ground block in trunk

 

DSP positive and negative (size TBD) ran to positive and negative distribution blocks in trunk (fused 3A)

 

All wire outside of the vehicle and engine bay will be knukonceptz kolossus flex tinned ofc 

 

All wire inside the vehicle and not exposed to elements will be SkyHigh bare ofc

 

Places using lugs will be crimped with a hydraulic crimper and heatshrinked 

 

Places where lugs are not applicable will be wire ferruled and heatshrunk. 

 

All grounds will be cleaned and protected with dielectric grease 

 

Unfortunately the 1/0 from the front to back has to be ran under the car however they will be secured with clips to floor pan away from heat and moving parts, and also covered by the oem underbody panels 

 

Rca's and remote wire will run down the center of the car under the carpet 

 

Speaker wires will be techflexed into 2 separate harnesses left side will go down left side of car and right side will go down the right side.   

[SnowDrifter]

Looks solid!


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I think you're on the right track using tinned OFC for exterior wire, but saving a few bucks using raw OFC for interior. Nothing wrong there.

Nice to see another hydraulic crimper user. Only thing I'd add is to mind the lugs you use. Closed ended, tinned copper lugs are the way to go. Solder and crimp lugs are quite different!

For heat shrink on exterior wiring: Make sure ya grab adhesive lined. Or, if  that's not in the cards for one reason or another, you can get away by putting a thin layer of high temp hot glue over the area, then putting the heat shrink over that and warming until the glue melts and oozes out. Not as cheesy as  it sounds, that's all the weather-sealed heat shrink is - just pre-applied for ease of use.

I'd also get some wiring loom to add some protection to the cable. Bumps and abrasion can take their toll over the years. Get the woven variety - less apt to trap and hold moisture than the plastic corrugated stuff.

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Other notes:

- Don't forget the grommet when passing wires into the vehicle. Butyl putty is awesome for sealing stuff up and excluding salt/moisture long-term. It doesn't cure - stays soft like chewing gum.
- Can also consider a pass-thru bulkhead if that's up your alley
- Alternator wise, mechman, singer are the favorites. I've used DC power and been happy but that was many years ago. Not sure where they stand now

[bjohn118]

Thanks man, yea I prefer hammer on lugs and hydraulic crimped more than anything these days I use to crimp and solder but I never really got the hang of good caps and I always seemed to melt the wire covering. Started doing hammer and hydraulic crimps and no problems ever since, all my lugs I have currently are closed end but not tinned, I will have to look into getting some of those.

 

The heat shrink was one thing I forgot to mention, I have knukonceptz heat shrink for exterior and it is self sealing (stuff is nice but it's pretty thick) and I have regular sky high heat shrink for the inside that isn't self sealing and not as thick so it works great for wire ferrules and such.

 

I have used tech flex wire loom for years now and absolutely love the stuff I just have there plain stuff on hand but I will look into more abrasion resistant for the wires under the car, that is an excellent idea, I never liked the plastic loom, looks cheap and is a pain and gets brittle over time.

 

The majority of this system is already in place. The main battery wiring, and the upgraded factory grounds are done and the extra chassis ground is done, waiting on more wire to get here to do the Alternator ground. I already have one run of 1/0 under the car to the trunk from my previous setup, and I used a bulk head style pass through for sealing and to hold the wire in place.

 

Do you think one run of 1/0 for power and one 1/0 ground wire run is enough to tie the main and aux batteries together with having the distribution blocks intersecting the two and supplying and ground to the amps is enough, or should I do 2 runs for power and 2 for ground? Also do you think I should run a 3rd battery, I have the room but that's a lot of scratch for batteries. Possibly even considered factory battery for the main and 2 d3100s in the trunk as an alternative.

 

The reason for not grounding directly to the chassis is to keep the chassis isolated for the factory components and engine management, Hondas from my understanding are terrible and ground loops, I already have experienced this with my wide band and ethanol content gauge I am sending to the ecu.

 

As far as alternators go, I haven't found a company that offers one for my car, apparently it's a weird setup on the 12s, but companies make them for the 11s but the 11s have a different plug on them. If you have any knowledge on this please let me know.

 

Also forgot to mention that I previously had the entire interior out of the car and when I did I lined the floor and trunk and whatever else I could get to with paint on rubber water sealer to use as a base sound deadening material and I have to say it actually made a pretty big difference! saw it at the home supply store and thought you know this might be useful haha. Also used some expanding foam in other areas but will still need to use sound deadening material on the doors and the roof. 

 

Lastly I have never used them but for the door speakers and rear deck would it be a wise idea to used the rubber buckets they mount into, I forget the name of them but I'm assuming they act as a make shift speaker box and add some protection to the speaker.

[SnowDrifter]

Wiring/batteries: Honestly, 1 run of 0ga +/- should be fine unless you're pushing absurd lengths. Can calculate voltage drop across wiring to get wherever ya need as far as Vdrop goes. Same goes for batteries. That's plenty for the power you're running. As always though, you can always adjust/upgrade if you find your electrical isn't performing how you want. I don't have any hands-on with those rigs, so I'll take your word on the ground loop shenanigans.

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Alternator: Again, prefacing this with I don't have any hands-on with these. So if you've already done the research on it, apologies. Just want to have a talking point on it. I'll also add that if you wanted to bypass ELM altogether, ask mechman for an external regulator. If you go that route, throw the wiring harness in the trash and wire the +/- on the regulator with 8ga tinned OFC. In my experience, the 14(?) gauge the kits come with creates a bit of a feedback loop of sorts and yields inconsistent voltage. the tl;dr is voltage drop across the sense wires causes the regulator to read low voltage, increasing power, increasing voltage drop, and so on until it sees an equilibrium. At which point, the regulator eases up, eliminating the voltage drop, then reading a higher voltage, and so on until that sees an equilibrium. Then the whole process repeats cyclically. See it more with larger battery banks or capacitors than  with smaller stuff, ironically.

Would this one work?
https://www.mechman.com/alternators/acura/ilx/2-4l/2013-2015/240-amp-alternator-for-select-2-4l-honda-acura/

If so, honestly, you could probably ditch the rear battery and replace w/ capacitors to save some weight, or throw a smaller one in there. Idle output might be challenge though, IIRC these hondas have a smallish crank pulley. That's something you'll have to weigh the pros/cons of on your end.

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Trunk coating: Be careful with any sort of painted on material, especially in low spots like the trunk, and absolutely don't use it on exterior. It likes to trap water between the coating and base material and can cause some corrosion issues. Nice idea on the off-label use though. Always like to see those sorts of experiments.

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Rear speakers: depends how stiff they are. Rear stage usually isn't a huge consideration on builds like this. But there are 2 trains of thought on it:
1. Remove them altogether so you have a gaping hole to let pressure through to the cab. Test and check to see if your system performs better with them in or out. It's not always better because of resonances. That turns your box+trunk into a psuedo series-tuned-6th-order.
2. Install the rear speakers and leave the buckets in place to protect them. The pressure from the sub will shred the things otherwise. Depending on how it goes together and how stiff it is, you could use sound deadener to firm up the area and bolster your efforts to seal off those drivers.