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Strut Tower Braces |
Mark Sutyak bought a strut brace ($98), and reported back:
I finally installed a strut tower brace on my Shadow. The brace is a Greddy adjustable brace made for a Nissan 240sx. It took me a couple hours because I'm a bit slow and picky on these things. However not picky enough. I ended up bending both mounting brackets a bit. My final verdict is that it works great and is worth whatever you end up spending on it.
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Installation
You will need to uncsrew the the ends where the mounting brackets are to adjust the length. There is an adjustable nut at each end so when you get the desired length you can tighten it and the length will stay. Once yet get the desired length and line up the brackets with the bolts on the towers mark your holes very carefully. This is not something you have a lot of tries on. You will need a beast of a bit to drill through the brackets. I found it easier to remove the brackets from the bar to drill them. Drill a hole, check the tower bolts. An eighth of an inch will ruin your day! You may not be able to use all 3 of the original nuts. I could only use two because of the 3rd bolt location. I had to use a nut without the washer on it. Be Very careful of the AC line that passes by the passenger side tower. Installing the brace will indeed push it down some, but won't break it. I mounted the brackets first, then the bar. Be very picky on the position of the brackets on the towers. If it is not centered, like mine, then the brackets will bend as you torque the nuts. The brace should look like this: @________@ sort of. You will be able to get to your air filter too.
Original post
Greets all you EEKers! Today I recieved my Greddy 240sx strut tower brace. According to Rick, the 400hp Daytona guy, it would fit my Shadow. Well, he was right. The brace is adjustable in legth, but the brackets need 3 new holes drilled to fit the bolt pattern. It's not the most beautiful installation because I ended up slightly bending both brackets when I torqued down the nuts. Other than that and a couple hours installation time (I'm slow) it turned out great.
After some nice curvy WV driving I came to the conclusion that my steering has tightened up along with my cornering ability.
Note: if you do use a strut tower brace, we suggest you also stiffen up the rear end with an Addco sway bar (unless you use one on a CSX). We believe they will fit most EEK!s - Daytonas, Shadows, Sundances, Spirits, etc - but we only know of tests on a Daytona, the following LeBaron convertible, and this Shadow/Sundance.
Another experience
Phil Goller got one for his LeBaron convertible. He wrote:
I have successfully installed the Greddy strut tower brace in my '89 LeBaron GT convertible (turbo 1). It went in fairly easy and lined up perfectly. It would have taken less than an hour, but I ran down to Pep Boys to buy new M8 nuts and washers to mount it.
I had to drill two new holes in each bracket, but one existing hole on each side lined up fine. The strut doesn't seem to block access to anything. As far as performance or chassis stiffness, I can't really perceive any improvement. I think the car's lack of stiffness is not in the front end, but aft of the firewall. I am considering bolting or welding in some steel tubing underneath to try reducing chassis flex.
Safety notes
While we make every attempt to keep our guides correct and up to date, installing performance parts may void your warranty, result in damage to your vehicle, reduce the safety of your vehicle, or cause failure of emissions tests. You are solely responsible for the consequences of using aftermarket parts of any kind.
