Hooking directly to battery

[TAMELESS79]

I am 95% finished with install on a 79 f-body with 383 sbc, and so far no obstacles and have followed instructions to a tee..except for one thing. I got a good friend of mine who is an extremely competent VW tech helping me out in the wiring department, and he suggested I use a small fuse block in the engine bay due to electric fans and other things that were wired directly to battery. I told him the instructions stated to wire directly to the battery and he said going to the fuse joint first is fine because it still offers a direct connect to the battery. He went on to say that this setup wants 14 volts initially, and not the 12v you would normally get if connected to something else. Is this true? Or should I be expecting a problem right off the bat? Thanks!

[FAST Tech Maxwell]

Not too sure what he is talking about with the 14 volts thing.

I don't think we can make it any clearer, battery means battery!

It's not really so much of a voltage issue as it is an EMI(electromagnetic interference) issue. The battery will act as a filter and help prevent ignition noise from affecting the EZ system(or XFI). By hooking the main positive and negative battery leads directly to the battery with their own wires you will greatly reduce the chance of problems caused by EMI.

It may not make sense to your mechanic buddy(Heck, it didn't make sense to me before I saw the difference with my own eyes!), but trust us.

[SoCal]

Amen.

Wiring power leads to something other than the battery doesn't mean a lightning bolt is going to come out of the sky and strike you dead the first time you turn the key. There are probably some people who have disregarded that advice (or is it a mandate at this point?) and didn't have any major issues. But there have been so many others who went through all kinds of grief because they didn't follow the advice that its just not worth risking it.

So give in to conformity. Jump on the bandwagon. Drink the Kool-Aid. Go to the battery and be done with it.

[TAMELESS79]

Hey guys thanks for the quick responses on this! I will follow your guidance! Just thought I'd better check because I didn't want to offend his expertise by challenging him...especially since wiring is one of his specialties and he has done some amazing work, but I read the directions, read posts from other people, and thought I'd better verify and move on accordingly. Thanks again!!