Almost done with the line of questioning....then we'll see how it all sounds. Here we go.
-I'm assuming stock speaker wiring is 18ga....would there be any loss of performance by going to 16 or even 14 ga?
-The speakers I'm running are 4ohm units. The amp puts out 60rms at 4 ohms and 75rms at 2 ohms. If I wired in another 4ohm resistor in parallel with the speaker, would this damage the amp or the speakers in any way? Is it worth the trouble to get the extra 15W?
I think that's all for now....

 

18 to 14 over what in feet
if 1 foot you are ok if 10 feet ,i would go with 14

 

1) no
2)thats not how its done, well not the easiest way. when wired alone the speakers are a 4 ohm load. first question is is it a 4 channel amp? or just a 2 channel amp?
when wired in series it will be around 8 ohm's final load. what you want to do is wire the speakers in parallel to get a 2 ohm final load to the amp.
4 ohm's should be a clearer sound though
and no a 15W increase is usually not really a huge jump in power.

 

The stock wiring will work fine.

Do not wire a resistor in parallel with your speakers...you won't gain anything. The additional power by doing so will be wasted in heat. Also if the resistor fries, it could damage the amp.

 

awesome....for the front speakers probly around 5 to 7ft to the crossovers and for the rear speakers probly closer to 10ft to be safe. I figured the tradeoff would just be heat and if I'm not gonna gain anything out of it then I'll just keep them at 4ohms just to be safe. It's a 4 channel amp so I figure it was designed to be run at 60W anyway so being new at this, I'll keep it that way. I'll take pics and post them when it's all done and let you know how she sounds.