Hey everyone, Looking at getting a strut bar for the Zed and was think of just doing the front strut bar and was wondering would this throw the handling out if i leave only a front strut bar on and not put a rear one ??
Chris you can use just the front strut bar on its own, without having the rear brace. Ive got a few lying around if your keen Abraham
Hmm interesting might end up getting bother then but not sure if the rear one will fit in my boot atm made a custom box for 6x9 speakers lol
The back of the speaker box i made is angled to incline with the angle of the back for the seat cause i got the 2+2 version and how do you make your own wont it just be like weak and not do anything?
The Nagisa fender braces are more effective at reducing chassis flex than a front strut tower brace: http://www.more-japan.com/nagisa-auto-gacchiri-support-fender-brace-z32-nissan-300z.html
Not sure when strut braces went put of vogue? Good explanation of what the do here http://www.tuninglinx.com/html/strut-bars.html Better one here http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strut_bar including an explanation of why strut tower flex occurs with McPherson suspension. Put simply the strut brace keeps the tops of the struts parallel to the chassis while under load. Whether you notice an improvement will obviously depend on how you drive the car.
Please explain? Weight is transferred to the front of the car under cornering -surely this is when maintaining suspension alignment would be most crucial? Also please explain why a welded brace is conclusively better than a bolted one? Surely any flex is going to occur along the 1m or more length of the bar rather than across 50mm of M8 (or higher) high tensile bolt? Am I missing the big picture?
You're on the money on the concept but think about the way in which the chassis/towers flex. They don't try to point towards each other at the top, they move up and down relative to each other in a parallel motion. With a 3 piece brace, any and all movement will result in rotation at the join at the bolts. QED they do nothing. Due to the lack of space under the hood and the height of the plenum relative to the shock towers, any front strut brace must be very very indirect, with at least two big bends (not to mention the ones across the top of the plenum) to simply get across. Then to make it worse, a thick beam can't be run or it'll foul on the hood. Flex city. Any brace on the front of a Z32 is going to have a very hard time actually doing anything. It can be done but I'm confident most designs out there, even one piece are simply cosmetic. Next time you're under your hood Rob take off the carbing brace and lean on it against the ground - does it bend just under your own weight? Rear braces are good though! One big beam going straight across, I could feel a difference fitting one to my car. Love it. I'm not criticising all strut braces, they serve a good purpose. Just braces on the front of Z32's. A lower tie rod brace serves the same function and will be much more effective. This is what I believe anyway. If people have experience and think otherwise I'd like to hear their thoughts
Hmm interesting and I will do more research. I guess it all depends on the direction in which you are trying to constrain the movement of the towers. **** it ill just have one of everything.
Front Strut brace does work .It supports movement of the top towers inward/outward.(Sideways) But because there is more movement with the rails going up and down in hard cornering the fender brace is more important. More importantly Braces should be all put on to work as a complete system As I have and not singled out as in which is better. Front strut brace Fender brace Lower tie rod brace.
Rob I think what Martin is suggesting is that the towers move up/down rather than left/right or fore/aft. For mine I'd think that up/down is chassis and left/right is movement in the unibody. Both addressed differently. But wanting to do more research before possibly making an arse of myself haha
I wrote that in my post ..more up/down movement But towers will also collapse under stress .. Again Have to look at it as a complete setup ! Like saying 58mm throttle bodies don't make much difference.. But add the bigger pipes and again add bigger coolers... Big difference as a complete system Now there's a can of worms :rofl:
As this link portrays there is most definately horizontal flex at the top of the towers on a mcpherson strut, I would imagine our suspension has a similar issue, I would not have any idea how much. I make this claim as I have seen the movement on some cars simply under their own weight as they are lowered to the ground on a hoist. I have also seen a skyline (2 door) with its back broken due to beeing too low and thrashed, as we lifted this car the door windows actually popped free of the rubbers and lifted at the rear 2.5 cm's in respect to the roof line
Making your own is not rocket science. It is very basic metal cuting and welding to the shape and neat position you require. And i bet the one i made for my rear which fits very neat and low unlike the bought one i had that was high and ugly is a hell of alot stronger than the bought one. I'am considering making my own front also as the bought one is not that neat.
