sp00n

First off this is my second time installing any kind of system into my cobalt. My setup isn't pretty but I hope it helps anyone out and offers some ideas. My goal was to hide as much wiring as possible and retain usable trunk space. This is only 50% of my total install. I'm going to install a set of components and 4inch speakers into the front door panel of my coupe. Once I do that i'll more pics. Probally sometime next week.

First off a little about the install.
This setup includes two amplifiers, ground/distribution blocks, a 2farad capacitor, 4 and 8 gauge wiring, about 1cubic feet sealed enclosure and one 12 inch sub. The photos will make everything clear. It's still a little messy with wires hanging out and stuff. Once I complete everything I'm going to hide and tuck all the wires nicely to make it shiny clean.

This is the basic 4gauge wiring I used. The yellow tape measure is 12inches so anyone wishing to create something like this will know how much wire to use.


This is a photo of a simple distribution block (with fuses) and a grounding block (without). It was very simple to setup and wire and it really cleaned up and centralized everything. Clean and clean.


A shot of my grounding block and where I decided to place it. I used industrial velcro and spray adhesive to glue the block to the carpet.


This is the block wired and ready.


This is my favorite grounding location in the car. I don't know why, just is. I used it to ground my grounding block.


This is my distribution block. It will connect to my capacitor which is not pictured.


A closeup of the velcro I was speaking about. I cut the velcro to the size of the distribution block and grounding block. I used newspaper and cut out the exact size of the velcro so I would have a stencil for the spray-adhesive. It kept the glue from going all over my trunk.


This pictured here is my wiring plan from the battery to the capacitor, ground for the capacitor and the wiring for the power distribution block.


This is the completed wiring with the capacitor installed.


Again my capacitor, this time with the trunk carpet back in place.


AND last but not least, the finished product. As I said I still have one more amp to wire which i'll mount to the subwoofer enclosure once I install the new speakers in the door. Until then I hope this helps.




If anyone has any concerns or ideas for my setup please let me know. This is my first setup with multiple amplifiers and the first sub i've owned. I feel accomplished. I'm excited with the door speakers. A total of 6 speakers will be in the front, my 6X9 in the rear deck, the sub and i'm looking to hook up some more speakers in the rear somewhere sometime in the future. I'll keep y'all posted and take lots of pics.
Good Luck and Godspeed.

-sk

Area47

caps are a waste.

Moza13-

looks good dude, nice job it will be a clean install

widebody_balt_ss

Dont worry about more speakers. just nice ones. sound image and clearity is most important. if you get to many speakers it will sound worse. you will have sound coming from all directions. i dont even use my rear speakers. BUT you would never know it if you sat in my car. it sounds amazing. Nice set up in the rear though. pretty clean.

R&C_rallySS

Looks really good!

Alpine_Canada

False. Caps store the power from your battery so that when your amp requires that extra burst of power, your electrical system doesn't suffer (eg. headlights don't dim).

Johnboy12358

I used to be really big into car stereo's, and I had a cap... Helped some, but I think the real solution for hardcore power is a deep cycle battery on an isolator circuit.
Caps arent crap, they are a band-aid.

mesatrin

I think your ground might be lacking. You are on a piece of metal that is clear of paint but the end ground location is still on paint, and paint is not a good conductor.

Johnboy12358

I was thinking the same thing. You should sand that down to bare metal on your ground point. I also think that you should have your fuse off of the battery showing, not covered by carpet, but thats more of a personal preference.

cobaltNut

There are two very primary cap benefits:

a. your cap prevents your cars alternator from seeing the pulsing demands for power from the amp(s). This puts a lot less stress on your cars primary electrical circuitry. (which is why you don't see the headlights pulsing when using a cap because the cap intermediates the short term power demands and the alternator produces much more stabilized power output )

b. on short duration (4 secs or less) (ie: long low bass note) the cap will supply the power to hit those notes hard and recharges very very quickly for the next beat pulse. However, if your playing (say dub), you can easily out draw the caps recharge rate and then be limited by the cars battery draw capacity. JohnBoy is absolutely correct here. a deep cycle battery is your solution there (ignoring the expense of it), but your getting into competition level setups now.

also, as you say you are considering other amps and speakers, I would run zero-guage to the distribution block and ground. then run 4-gauge off the block to each amp.

ask any professional installer; Over guaged wiring is the source of more lackluster performance than any other reason.

keiserX13

iTrader: (3)

holly tread revival
3 1/2 years?

c4w18

what do you mean "over gauged wiring"?

cobaltNut

I agree.

Wouldn't it be great if we saw finished photos.

^_^

cobaltNut

In wiring, the thicker the wire, the lower the gauge number.

The way i use the word; over-gauged is using a thinner wire than what is needed.
ie: Using a 4-guage source wire when a zero-guage is really needed.

c4w18

I'm an installer I know the AWG specs....just odd you phrased it like that and was looking for clarification. thanks.

c4w18

mainly confused because when you "gauge" something, you're essentially sizing it....and to phrase it as over-gauging something would be somewhat similar to over-sizing....which means you would be using wire that was larger than needed, which, in this industry, never hurts.

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

lol thats what i thought too.... great minds think alike

but i was also thinking im not sure if his install minus the **** ground is that bad. i mean that sub amp doesnt draw that much power and i doubt his 4 channel whatever it is is any different. so 4g copper clad sucks ya but a 6ft run is short enough that its not the end of the world

c4w18

to be honest, i think the whole CCA vs OFC doesn't apply to 75% of the people that talk/argue about it....it's like two little kids arguing over who's dad can beat up who....yea, theoretically one can beat up the other, but you'll never see it happen....same thing with the whole CCA / OFC thing....a lot of these people don't even have systems drawing that much current or needing that much efficiency to be arguing about that kind of ****.

Ccadet02

how big wsa you and and how big was ur cap. 1 Farrad is only good for up to 1000 watts.

Cefaln452

iTrader: (5)

idk why people always want to show off their distribution blocks

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

fused one makes sense in case one blows ground one not so much

caps in general are bullshit