I'm an Idiot

I would go with the frame.....only because the intake may not be a good ground the aluminum material makes no difference, if the intake has a grounding strap to the firewall then I would think you'd be fine\, otherwise I'd be a little more cautious about it.

there is nothing worse than wiring something and knowing you did it correctly and then have it not work after all that work, and onyl to find it was a bad ground, it happens a lot to me
-Josh

It think it would be alright. If you want to check exactly how good a ground you've got, you can take a digital multi meter and place one lead on the negative post and one on the area in question. The higher number you get, the worse the ground. It's been a very long time since I've taken anything remotely electrical, so I'm not even going to hazard a guess of what would be acceptable, but we should be talking a couple tenths of a volt at the most. Generally, the intake makes for a pretty good ground.

-Tony

The intake is a terrible choice. Run the ignition ground to the battery if at all possible.

Griswald said:

The intake is a terrible choice. Run the ignition ground to the battery if at all possible.

Click to expand...

-One reason beeing that it is pretty well isolated from the rest of the engine
that the ground straps usually are bolted to. The only real contact points should be the intake bolts, and i know i use thread sealer on mine and that should not make things any better.
Cast aluminum also isn't the best material to run low voltage power through.

I would run a huge isolated high end power cable with soldered connectors to the frame and route all other ground connections from there.

Got Torque? said:

Griswald said:

The intake is a terrible choice. Run the ignition ground to the battery if at all possible.

Click to expand...

-One reason beeing that it is pretty well isolated from the rest of the engine
that the ground straps usually are bolted to. The only real contact points should be the intake bolts, and i know i use thread sealer on mine and that should not make things any better.
Cast aluminum also isn't the best material to run low voltage power through.

Click to expand...

Aluminum is a much better conductor than iron or steel. Your statement about the intake being isolated is spot on.

Tommy

Where the heck does he have that MSD box mounted that the intake was his choice of ground location?

For hells sake ground it to the fender, and if that doesn;t work run it back to the frame/battery
-Josh