Ok I will check next cold start. Thank you very much for all your help.

 

Also glad to see my Delta around 5degrees at 75mph. Better than the 8-10 I was at before.

 

Are you sure electricity flows from negative to positive?

 

Um....electrons flow from Negative to Positive.

(for the math) Positive charges flow from Positive to Negative.

ALL electrical engineering calculations "assume" Positive Current flow....... (but the actual current [NOT Voltage] is due to the electron flow)

 

Thank you.
Beef up the negative wire, it will increase voltage output of the alternator and clean your grounding locations.

 

My perspective ....

You really don't need any alternator negative wire upgrades as all the charging electrons have a large pathway through the block to the 2/0 wire up to the negative terminal on the passenger battery, and an 8ga wire then to the frame pathway. However during the highest load, during starting, the layout is deficient and you need an upgrade by running a 1/0 wire from the drivers frame rail connection to the engine block. IMO, this is the reason that some people have noticed that the passenger side battery is the first to lose its charging ability. A battery's life is determined by how many starting events and how much is drawn at each one of those (with a given it is recharged correctly each time).

With the addition of a higher amp output alternator you do need to upgrade the positive side wire as it is only a 6ga wire. The addition of a fused 12ga wire from the alternator output to the passenger positive terminal will do this for a 140amp. If you go to a higher output alternator like a 230a, then the additional wire should be a 4ga. All the other cables on the truck are sufficient. Going a little higher in ga won't hurt anything but it is important to use a fuse or fuseable link for the additional current rated at the proper size.

Some people feel more comfortable in adding a wire between the alternator terminal and the drivers side battery positive terminal in case a high resistance issue develops between the two batteries positive cabling. That gets more complicated as the size of the wire and fuse has to be implied for the situation your expecting. If current is shared equally then the sizing is simple. But if you are designing around limited flow to one side, how high in amps do you fuse at without exceeding the point you are trying to protect at? It is just more simpler to go to the passenger side and insure that the connections are good at every oil change.

But whatever makes you comfortable! That's why we mod.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...batteries.html

 

The reason I like to think in both perspectives is that I see so many modifiers or vendors who sell cable upgrades only think about the positive side. It's easy to find vendors who supply all this fancy cable and fusing upgrades that in reality are not doing anything for the real issue. It might look great when you open the hood, but you are spending money for a no cure situation. Not that people shouldn't spend money for how they want their truck to look. For the most part I think the Ford engineers sized correctly, it's just the ground or negative side that is deficient.

 

Thanks for all the good info again. I'm going to pick up some new ground cables from the battery's to the frame/block then add one from the driver side frame rail to the engine block. Think that should pretty much cover it. Thanks again.

 

Btw, you did a great job documenting your work.

 

TooManyToys- So I put in a 140 amp alternator just before Memorial Day. I wanna do this upgrade as I am noticing that if I let the truck sit for a week or so, the batteries are low. I doubt this will fix that, but I wanna improve the electrical system! Everything else is stock as far as the wiring goes. So, if I'm reading your posts correctly, I need to add a 24" 1/0 wire from drivers negative frame rail connection to the block where the passenger battery negative connects to? And then I need to add a 12g fused wire from the alternator to passenger positive. What fuse size do I need? Then, where to get the cables?

 

Thank you very much. It was my first little build thread so I hope it helps somebody in the future.

 

Awesome thread and great pictures..

It's pretty common once you do this job for your Oil Pressure Sending (OPS) unit to act up "soon". So, if/when you start getting the "check Gage" lite and your Oil Pressure "gauge" reads 0 it's just a simple OPS replacement.. to fix it.

I noticed your OPS was a bit oily already in your early pics.

 

You are correct. The current is what "flows" not the voltage.

I completely agree with Watson, adding extra cables is a good thing.

 

Cool thanks for the heads up. I will pick one up and change it next oil change. Then keep the old one for a spare.

 

Mark_in_co,

I'll answer over in the battery thread rather then hacking J Balkans excellent thread.