need to know what source / pn to order for a birthday gift for my son
need pn of the strut tower brace that spans the engine bay or if there is one available.
just lost my job a couple weeks ago, hope this $ doesnt hurt too bad
Try BlueOval Industries....They offered them at one time for like 1oo bucks.
no dice there either... i thought for sure i had seen members on here with this on thier engine bays.
may have to just make one
Shouldn't one for any fox body stang work? If so maybe check a Mustang site like Late Model Restoration? Im pretty sure Vinnie has a strut tower brace on his Sport as well. Maybe Vinnie can chime in here. Good luck with the search though.
Any mustang one should work, but you may have to drill a hole or two out for it, and the winsheild hose squirter is in the way of the tri brace style.
i assumed the stang ones were too short due to narrower chassis, assumed the strut towers were closer together as well,, will likely order a stang one then,, those seem available.
http://www.coolcats.net/modifying/frame.html
firewall forwards is basically identicle. there are minor differances in suspension and wheel base, but most parts for a mustang will physically bolt in place.
never even thought about checking out eric's page,, thanks!
Make sure one for a Fox stang is ordered, the SN95 cars had a different firewall/cowl and the bars for them will NOT work, or at least the 6 or 7 I have seen haven't.
I've got one for mine...Maximum Motorsports, I believe.
Lou, (thunderjet302) has a bar, though I don't recall the brand.
Stacker is correct, you'll need to relocate your washer fluid hose, other than that, direct bolt-in.
I used a Maximum Motorsports strut tower bar. It went in with one mod to the passenger side strut tower mount. It did hit my hood insulation but that's because my car has a thicker aftermarket hood insulation pad. Link here:http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?33889-Maximum-Motorsports-strut-tower-bar-hits-hood&highlight=strut+tower
Maximum Motorsports. Please realize that there is one for injection and one for a carbureted setup like the '85 Mustang GT. Give them a shout as they have dealt with this before on the T- Birds.
This is a shameless pig but give my buddy John George a shout at http://www.chicane23.com as he can usually get you a better deal than buying direct from MM. Chicane is a MM dealer so it's on the up and up.
Darren
I used the fuel injection one. Make sure you get that one if you have a 5.0 with SEFI. The carb one will work for the CFI 5.0 cars.
sorry guys, i pulled the trigger before reading the posts above.
i got Item # 16196 from american muscle.
looks to be from user pics for FI 5.0 fox mustang chassis.
ah yes, MM , looked at them again.
couldnt tell from anyones pics how the fire wall connections were made. i imagined in a collision the two bars getting shoved into the firewall penetrating things.
the MM looks like it has the strut tower metal connection plate i wanted.. the one i just ordered does not have that much meat. I could weld on to suffice this adder on the item i just ordered. oh well..
ships to me sometime next week.. may have time to fit test it to my 20th and have it ready for my son's bday when he's here around the 15th of may.
There are two pinch welds on the firewall where the cowl and firewall meet. from the factory there are also two holes in these pinch welds. The MM bar actually bolts to those pinch welds. Other strut tower bars require you to drill holes into the cowl. The MM bar has a much more rigid mounting point than the strut tower bars that have you drill through the cowl.
As for the strut bar getting pushed into the passenger compartment in an accident: if you're in an impact hard enough to push the strut towers back then you've got bigger problems than the strut bar moving ;).
installed the new part that came a few days ago , birthday gift for my oldest son.
this installed pretty easy,, worked very well and i would suggest it to anyone.
Looks good...
Thanks!
with this unit you have to dress it to the pass side.
there is a provision on the firewall mount to avoid the windshield washer tubing but since its intended for a stang, its location is off.
in my pic you can see the unit is dressed to the passanger side to simply avoid the conflict.
you also have to stand on the passanger side, grasp the hvac line and bend it **towards** the driver side and just slightly *down*.
We re-routed our accelerator cable and our washer fluid hose in behind the MAP sensor mouting bracket to avoid these to conflicts.
the top bolt on each side strut tower is kinda tricky.
just put your 13mm socket on a 6'' extension, drop the nut in the socket and reach up and start & hold the nut with this tool combo.
I found an easy way to get the nuts/bolts in on the strut towers. Just stick the bolt up from the bottom and thread the nut on it. It's much easier than dropping the bolt through the hole and trying to thread the nut on from below.
yeah, son considered that but i was not for it because of nothing more than how it looks. i see your point though.
I tried it your way with one bolt. It was such a pain that I did it the other way. Your way looks better but I didn't feel like screwing with it that much ;).