CorkSport (Or Any) Strut Bar On KLZE IM (56k Warn)

[Nd4SpdSe]

Still seems to be some uncertainty on mounting a strut bar on a KLZE with the curved-neck intake manifold. Although there are a few ways to go this, i've had a few recent inquiries on my setup with the larger CorkSport front strut bar, and I just got a digital camera this weekend, so might as well put it to good use.

This type of mod will work on the more generic strut bars (Kp2t and Deimos have it done), but the concepts are the same, it's that damn high point screw on the IM that you need to clear that's directly in-line with the strut bar. Just a few simple pieces needed.



Besides that I repainted it (getting stratched from the hood and that I didn't clear coat it) and the longer bolts, this is basically the regular setup of the CorkSport strut bar.




This is just the idea on what needs to be done. You can do this on a regular thin-bar strut bar as well, it moves it just enough to work. On either bar, the problem with this is that when you tighten up the bolt, it will never tighten, and the arms that hold on the bar will just squish together, voiding out the point to his mod, ruining the look of the bar itself, and have fun prying those arms apart again after.






So what you need to go is put a spacer in between the arms. We just has a piece of metal pipe was the perfect diameter to look good, just neeeded to cut it to length. On the thin-bar strut bars, you can use a piece of pipe or a solid tube of the sort, but what we did on Kp2t's is actually fit in 2 nuts in between; took a little convincing, and it was tight (which is good), but it worked.









And the finished mod to the bar




But we're not quite done yet. It's still too low. Just need to raise it up a tad, which is easy as well. You actually keep the strut bolts on. On mine, we kept just the two inner, thinking the angle would help pull it up, but I dont believe it's necessary.



Like I said, I kept the two inner bolts, but I'm fairly confident that keeping all 4 will work fine as well. I know it does on the thin-tube strut bars, but haven't had the oppertunity to try it on any other CorkSport bars.

With my strut bar on top. Just need to get a second set of nuts to bolt it up. You can get some shiny new ones, or get them for cheap/nothing from the wreckers.




The bar mounted, moved away from that pesky screw.


And the clearance underneath is tight, but works.

[Hoodzy]

I remember an old post about how you are not supposed to put the strut bar under the existing bolts? Is this just a myth or whats the reasoning for not wanting it to be under your existing bolts?

[monty73741]

thats kool, but it seems very weak to me, where he extension is. it has nos support

[Mnemonic]

i dunno i've never been sold on this idea, i do know that the strut bar will fit if you remove one bolt on the upper plate of the IM, basically you need to replace it with some type of flat screw. even the round bar will fit.

[Mooneggs]

I copied nd4spdse's design but I made a few changes...

I shaved my top intake manifold piece so it the bar could lay flat beneath the strut mount nuts... is it really true I should not have the strut bar there? anyways either way I noticed a big difference in handling...

[chertel]

The strut bar is hollow. I just shaved the strut bar under where the bolt hits it and it fit great.

[havoc13]

this mod worked on my ractive strut bar but it leaves a scary amount of clearance i will see what happens

[mx3autozam]

The strut bar is hollow. I just shaved the strut bar under where the bolt hits it and it fit great.

Doing that your making the bar really weak. especially since its hollow. teh best way to do this is to put a small flat headed screw on the intake manifold so you ahve clearance.

[PGT97_Racer]

Nice design, just don't know how much it will help the stability being hollow.

[colinsmx3]

I will post pics of my Neon strut bar installed! ahaha Yea I got the bar for $25 and it is a GOOD Vibrant solid one and flat! it has a huge hump in it so I am gonna post pics of it on my buddys ZE since it looks super awsome! All I had to do was cut on both ends of the bar 1.8th of an inch and it fit right in using my original Ractive strut mount braces!

[bbunkerc397]

Looks like the only way to do it is custom build one that butts up to the firewall almost.

[Redline322]

I've seen some factory ones on fullsize gm cars from the mid-late 90s that would be easy to mod and dirt cheap at a junk yard, most were straight but some were angled back toward the firewall to clear the 3800 s/c.

[bbunkerc397]

I would like to some pictures of that setup.

I've seen some factory ones on fullsize gm cars from the mid-late 90s that would be easy to mod and dirt cheap at a junk yard, most were straight but some were angled back toward the firewall to clear the 3800 s/c.

[Redline322]

I couldnt find pics of the one angled toward the rear, but at one time I did measure the straight one for a 323. I think the main bar had to be trimmed down an inch or 2 and one of the bolt holes had to be opened up or a new one had to be drilled, it was a few yrs ago. At least its square tubing so you only need to cut to length and redrill instead of dealing with sleeved round tubing.

[Nd4SpdSe]

Looks like the only way to do it is custom build one that butts up to the firewall almost.

This mod counts as doesn't work? The only "issue" is usually the price.

The Pontiac ones wouldn't work. The first one just mounts funny, you'd have to fab something to mount it to the top strut mount bolts. The point is to connect the strut towers to stiffen the chassis and distribute the cornering forces to reduce understeer. The second one, it's center to the strut mounts. That's the problem, you can't go high enough to clear the IM because the hood gets in the way. You need to get an off-center one like the original MazdaSpeed Mx-3 one. Rx8, XB, Soarer, R32/R33, BMW E30?, Evo9, etc. Those I just found doing a Google image search for strut bars.