Sway bars

[JoeR.]

As I just run my first autoX event, I found out even with my mods, I have way to much body roll.

Suspensions mods I have done are, Eibach pro kit, and 94' gt take off rear sway bar.

I want to lower the car a bit more, its at almost 1.5" lowered, to reduce weight transfer during hard braking, but as of now my dad wont let me cut my springs

So I thought less body roll, during turns would help also. What im trying to figure out is how to increase the stiffness of the sway bars without adjusting the ratio of front bar to rear.

Currently I have a 25.4mm front and 24mm rear. But to my understanding the front bar is solid and the rear ba ris hollow. Im using that logic based on this site http://www.miracerros.com/mustang/sway2.htm

Does anyone know if all v6 sway bars, fonrt and rear, are solid? and all v8 bars, front and rear, are hollow?

If my thoughts are wrong about my front bar being solid, then all my numbers im figuring out are wrong. :oops:

[Zim]

i hate linking to this site... but this thread has everything you could want to know about sway bars.

http://www.3.8mustang.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29792

[Danger Dude]

Most front sway bars are not solid because of the weight. I dont necessarily agree with everything Nikko says in the thread but it is basically good general information

[JoeR.]

While is answers a lot of questions, some I didnt even think of yet. It doesnt answer this:

Quote: Does anyone know if all v6 sway bars, fonrt and rear, are solid? and all v8 bars, front and rear, are hollow?

Also afer reading that, how stiff is to stiff? And I dont mean a rear or front kind of way, but if the bars are done together maintaing there front:back ratio.

[Rick0636]

You could get yourself a Steeda heavy duty front sway bar, and a Steeda adjustable rear sway bar, I don't agree with much of anything that Nikko says, thats why I am a moderator here now and not still on 3.8. Another good way to go is a set of older model (pre independant rear suspension) Cobra sway bars, which is what I have on my GT.

[Danger Dude]

Yep what Rick said I have Cobra front and rear sway bars and my car corners like like a champ

[JoeR.]

What year are cobra sways? I was doign some math and the ratio front bar to rear is 1.26 is on the 98 cobra. the 00' gt is about 1.77, and from what I figure my car is between 1.38-1.59.

What I figure is the closer to 1:1 ratio means a more neutral car, but from reading so much info, if you get to close you get snap oversteer. So I figure with the cobra being a track meant car, 1.26 is the closet ratio of front:rear bar you would want.

When you start to go look at the chart on the miracerros site, you can get sucked into figuring out why Ford did this or that. Wierd how they adjusted the new gts, to have less front and rear bars.

[Zim]

i dont like nikko either, but some of that info is useful... and being that i dont know much about the suspension stuff, i just referred to that listen to what the guys on THIS site have to say... theyre cooler anyway lol

[Danger Dude]

well thanks Zim you are pretty cool yourself

[Rick0636]

Well, we try to be cool here, lol. My cobra bars are not a matched set, I had a matched set but one of them was bent, they were from a 98, I couldnt' use the front bar so now I have a 98 cobra rear bar and a 95 cobra front bar on my 99 GT, didnt' have any luck finding another 98 front bar is all.

[Danger Dude]

Mine are either 97 or 98 Cobra swaybars

[JoeR.]

Ok cool, im thinking the 98' cobra front and rear sway bars would work good. Next question is, where to get them????

Also side note, I was talking to my dad. He said upgrading my struts/shocks might be a better upgrade. The transfer of weight would be smoother for autox, and more controled. He said I should upgrade my suspension to complment each other. So mabye going overbored on sway bars, would not help as much as gettin new strusts/shocks. I was thinking my Eibach Pro Kit springs really arent that much stiffer though....

Just more food for thought Suspension is so cool.

[BlueDonkey]

For my own eddification, how much would subframe connectors help him with roll and chassis flex?

[Rick0636]

SFC mean everything for controlling chassis flex!! 8)

[BlueDonkey]

sorry if this goes off-base. (If it does, delete this post ) How much difference do you notice with subrames? How much when on track? how much when on the street?

[Danger Dude]

I will be perfectly honest when I put on SFC's the chassis stiffened up considerably.
But I did also make the car more sensitive to the road conditions.

[Rick0636]

I had them on my V6 for a long time, and loved them, they make the car feel so much more solid to me. So that is one of the first things I got on the GT. I didn't get crossbraces when I got them thinking I could add them later, nope, once they are welded in (steeda clones) you can't add cross braces. I do miss that. I might have them cut off later and upgrade to full length Global West, I think they would be worth the investment. I have never really raced, well, not on a track, and not in several decades, so I can't comment on that part, but it does stiffen the chassis and in my opinion improves your handling overall.

[JoeR.]

Quote: Ok cool, im thinking the 98' cobra front and rear sway bars would work good. Next question is, where to get them???

[Danger Dude]

Quote: Originally Posted by JoeR. Quote: Ok cool, im thinking the 98' cobra front and rear sway bars would work good. Next question is, where to get them???

Terry at Midwest ped5stang@aol.com
This is where Rick and I shop or good used stuff. but you could check in the local salvage yards to

[Rick0636]

Another place to check for used Cobra Sway bars is Ebaymotors.com, that is where I got the one I had on the front of my V6 stang. Sometimes you can find them there.