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Sway bars???

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Currently I have the Ford "P" springs and I plan on replacing the struts with Bilsteins from Vorshlag. While it's up in the air doing struts/shocks, would it be beneficial to put on some larger and/or adjustable sway bars.

Currently and for the very distant future the car is running a staggered wheel/tire set up.

If sway bars are a benefit, any recommendations ???
 

Grant 302

basic and well known psychic
You could probably benefit from a larger/adjustable bar up front like Strano or FP.

Depending on how you like your handling bias, a smaller bar in the back might also work. Assuming a square setup.
 

Grant 302

basic and well known psychic
Oops. :-[ Comprehension must be low on Monday morning... Sorry about that. :(

It's my opinion that you won't see a lot of improvement by changing bars. While I haven't used the Bilsteins, I think better damping should provide more grip.

The bad news, is that I think you need to get the car together with those parts before you know what bar changes you'd want to make. The Bilsteins aren't adjustable and I don't think anyone could truly tell you if your new setup needs a bar change unless they've run that exact setup. Might be perfect as you are planning it. I suspect it could be, or very close and that you'd need to drive it to find out.

But if you want to put in an adjustable front bar for any installation labor savings that would be the time. As long as it has an adjustment point that's close to the stock bar, I think you should be good. JMO, but I wouldn't change the rear with a staggered setup.
 
2012Boss302 said:
Currently I have the Ford "P" springs...If sway bars are a benefit, any recommendations ???

With any of the soft spring choices, stiffer swaybars are highly recommended. I've been partial to the Whiteline bars mainly due to the better hardware that comes with them and easy to adjust rear bar. But I've also used the inexpensive Eibach bars on the S197. When installing the bars, you will almost always have to hand trim the bushings so they don't bind up and cause addition friction. We always seem to have to do this no matter who makes the bar, the bushings are too tight. We also add zerk fittings to the brackets, to make them easy to lube.
 
I'll be testing out new Eibach front and rear adjustable sway bars this Saturday. I have done limited setting changes on the street, but i should get a much better idea on a road course.

After upgrading to sticky tires early this year (Nitto NT01), the associated body roll was ridiculous. Hoping to get it dialed in with adjustable suspension.
 

Grant 302

basic and well known psychic
Had to dig for this, but I remembered there was some info on bar rates in thread quoted below:

boro92 said:
Here's some info which may help you out:

OEM Rates:
Ford 34.6mm hollow (2011+ GT, Brembo, Boss): 436 lbs/in

Aftermarket:
Strano Performance 35mm hollow: 472, 547, 642 lbs/in
BMR-SB022: 441lbs/in - 506lbs/in - 587lbs/in

Looks like most will start stiffer, but BMR has the closest starting point.

Don't know about the Ford racing ones...
 
modernbeat said:
With any of the soft spring choices, stiffer swaybars are highly recommended. I've been partial to the Whiteline bars mainly due to the better hardware that comes with them and easy to adjust rear bar.


I see that the Whiteline front bar is slightly smaller in diameter than the factory Boss front bar but solid instead of hollow. Does the fact that it's solid effectively make it stiffer than the stock front bar ??

I also notice that the Whiteline rear bar is larger in diameter than even the Laguna Seca rear bar. I don't want to engineer an oversteer situation.

Would you recommend using both bars or start with just the front bar set on its softest setting and adjusting from there if needed?

Again as a reminder, I am not running a square setup.....

Thanks for reading
 

Grant 302

basic and well known psychic
Good questions. I haven't seen published or tested rates on either WL bar.

But as you note, the front WL bar is solid and while it does have ability to go stiffer than stock, it certainly weighs more than hollow bars. And that's kept it off my list.
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
refreshing the rear bar thread..... I know we are all going for smaller rear bars with good results..... But what do you think of this Whiteline setup. The setup seams more efficient.
DSC2083-S.jpg
 

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