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240 Strut Tower Brace

You may have already done this, but to my perception, poly bushings tightened up handling "feel" more than the upper and lower bars did on my rig.


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Thanks. This is my next upgrade. Those IPD?

I'm on the fence about the rear trailing arm bushings. Trying to get a handle on why or why not.
 

I?ve always wanted to ask about this.....

Is this supported enough? I?ve never seen one in person and the pic?s, to me, seem like it couldn?t handle much of a load, it seems thin.

It seems I?m asking you guys, is it stout enough to do the job, can it handle the load successfully?

I guess I?m comparing it to Bens small tower brace, which is beefy in comparison.
 
I?ve always wanted to ask about this.....

Is this supported enough? I?ve never seen one in person and the pic?s, to me, seem like it couldn?t handle much of a load, it seems thin.

It seems I?m asking you guys, is it stout enough to do the job, can it handle the load successfully?

I guess I?m comparing it to Bens small tower brace, which is beefy in comparison.

This is plenty strong but Ben?s is ties the firewall also! These cars do not have frames, unibody! If you car is nice don?t dick around and get the best!
 
Well I was comparing bens small tower-to-tower brace, not the full Monty strut tower/firewall brace

But ya I agree if you have the coin, go full throttle everything Kaplhenke Racing Baby!!
 
More importantly: Chicks can't see the suspension bushings. And women swoon when they see one of these under the hood. Case closed!


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What other mods do you have?

Upper and lower IPD braces, 23/19 sways, IPD sport springs, Billy Touring shocks. Now working on the 300k mile "wonder" bushings. LOL.

This car corners so hard gasoline comes out the filler when I hit the on ramp.

:wtf:

Seriously, the ride is good and the handling fun. Not low enough to be "cool," but that's why I wear Wayfarers...


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I have a similar experience as keesue. I have used in a couple of cars OEM upper braces, home made OEM-style lower braces and a brace between towers. Adding just upper and lower braces give the most noticeable difference and adding brace between towers after that doesn't affect so much. But adding the braces in a different order changes that. For example adding lower braces last feels to affect the least. But as a whole it makes the front end behave completely differently.

As a first update I'd recommend using poly control arm rear bushing. Changes the behaviour to way better. And if not anything else, change Panhard bushings to poly too. A nice budget upgrade as a whole.
 
Superpro!

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=314692

Gary is THE MAN.

:cool:

If I understand prevailing wisdom, we put poly on the front control arms and the rear torque arms only. (And sways.)

Good luck.

Rgr that, thanks. I've heard horror stories of the control arm bushing squeaking like hell. Yes, no? And, I've heard a bit of both on the trailing arm bushings.

I used Lemforders on the control arms and the trailing arms because of this issue to play it safe; but, I've also heard the handling is way better with both and there is no noise issue.

I'm on the fence. I would hate to have squeaks but then I have just developed one in the rear. I have poly on the torque rods and the panhard rod. Made a huge difference in how the rear reacts.

I'm going to disassemble the suspension in the Spring to grease everything up so that's why I'm gathering experiences with the polys so I can make a decision.
 
25 miles in I am happy to say we are squeak free. :-P

My IPD panhard rod with poly does not squeak after a year.

100 years ago I put an Addco sway bar on my Celica. The the chassis mount bushings squeaked over speed bumps initially.
 
Rgr that, thanks. I've heard horror stories of the control arm bushing squeaking like hell. Yes, no? And, I've heard a bit of both on the trailing arm bushings.
Never heard a sqeak with PowerFlex or SuperPro bushings. I've used only the assembly lube supplied with the bushings and that's it.
 
Love that turbo plumbing.
Look at the camber......And what looks like a third motor mount under the coolant reservoir....and not only is there no battery, but the tray is gone. Relocated probably. That engine bay is full of curiosity. My bet is that car is nasty.
 
If you are going to be driving your 240 hard, you should run AT LEAST the GT upper strut mount reinforcement plates. Even better is to add a strut tower brace like Kaplhenke's that has a full strut top plate. Even better than that is thicker strut mounts like Kaplhenke and a few others sell. If not, you could end up with a strut tower like this:

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Yes, that is supposed to be flat, not domed.
 
Many lolls in this thread.

Guys if you can notice an improvement by adding strut braces from strut towers to the thin flimsy firewall the car is well and truly yelling at you!

They are ALL the flexible flyer! You remember that red wagon we all rolled so many times that bent itsself to deal with bumps and helped us lose so much flesh + appreciate rolling down that hill + head injuries as a tot. How did we survive?

Seriously... Our old junk's structure is 60s-70s Swedish Chic.... Which is another way of describing it as flimsy sh!t.

I gently suggest putting some effort into stitch-welding the car... Esp where the nose of the car mates up with the firewall... Double plate the firewall where strut bars will attach. Double plate strut tops... That section down low where the nose of the car meets firewall on outside.
The rallycar got roll cage tubing from the cage to struts to reinforced firewall for triangles. Not as hard to do as it sounds... But stinky work.

Not hearing the windshield moving around when pulling into a driveway.... Priceless!
 
Thanks ! Never thought of it that way and overkill for me I think but want to understand stich welding and what involved. Getting red to redo my red car Pictures will help
 
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