1998 V70 T5 Battery Cable and Grounding Advice?

[WagonLagan]

I'll keep this short.

Tomorrow I'm going to be replacing/repairing my negative battery cable/ground cabling to see if it resolves my dim headlights issue: (https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... 1&t=66704&)

I have 2 questions that it isn't necessary to have all that background on, and would really appreciate some input.

A: Building better battery cables.

I am an electrical novice, so I want to be sure I do this correctly.

I have these:

TerminalEnds.jpg (44.01 KiB) Viewed 1881 times

and

CableLugs.jpg (39.25 KiB) Viewed 1881 times

Now from what I can tell thus far, all I need is the proper gauge wire.

Summary:
This is my primary question: I have no idea what to look for (or even where to look for) in proper battery cabling. I figure 100% copper is good.

I would really appreciate knowing:
#1: The wire gauge (what you recommend, I think stock is 4 gauge?)
#2: The lengths, if you know it
#3: How should I go about connecting the block ground to the chassis/battery ground wire?
- combine them into one "cable lug" and crimp it?
- use a separate "cable lug" for the end of each wire and then stack them on the chassis ground point?
#4: Anything else I should know about making my own battery cables?

B: Engine block ground.

#5: Is there a better place that I can ground the block on? That horrendous placement under the intake manifold is going to be hell to deal with.

Thanks very much for your help.

[tryingbe]

#1: I would get the 1/0 gauge welding cables.
#2: 15ft would do all the cables, alternator to starter, starter to battery, engine block ground, chassis ground.
#3: I ground both at the battery, see below pic.
#4: See below
#5: I sanded the block down to get a good surface and just ground.

I upgraded my alternator to starter, starter to battery, battery to ground, and battery to chassis cables with thick 1/0 gauge welding cable. It's at least 70% thicker than stock.

Here are what you want to buy.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181074818504?ss ... 1497.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261298170208?ss ... 1497.l2649

http://www.harborfreight.com/hydraulic- ... 66150.html

And two battery terminal that you can get at your auto part store.

With everything on, the voltage drop between the pos of the alternator and the pos end of the battery is now .07 V vs .7 V before.

[abscate]

A 200 amp 3 foot run can use a 8-10 gauge wire, especially since the 200 amp load ( starter ) is extremely short cycle use. A 4-6 gauge has more headroom, going to 2-0 gauge is engineering overkill