Stock sway bars vs Afternerket sway bars

[1low03gt]

Hey guys, a lot of you track your stangs, so I would like some of your experienced knowledge with sway bars as I am thinking of moving in this direction for the coming season of 2018.
Are they worth the money? Do they aid in the body roll when cornering? What are you guys running for sway bars? What would you guys recommend?
My GT sits on Eibach Sportlines, and Koni adjustable on all four corners.

[fast Ed]

What are your goals, do you plan to track the car? If so, my suggestion would be something stiffer and taller ride height for the springs as your next step, or a change to coilovers. Factory bars on Mustangs are decently sized to begin with, and to me should be further down the list of mods to be done. If you just want less body roll for street driving and are happy with your low stance on the Sportlines, then yes bigger bars might be the way to go. Good to see that you have decent shocks in there already, many people skip that step.


cheers
Ed

[ZR]

I'm of the exact same opinion, still have stock bars in my own car. As for coilovers, you'd never regret ditching conventional springs for them. One of the best mods I did to my own in terms of ride quality and handling.

[1low03gt]

Yes my plan is to just improve for street riding, or out in the back country roads driving where you find the nice twisty roads for that nice afternoon drive with the family. Love how my GT feels right now, just want to improve the body roll with the corners.
I have thought of coil overs, just not sure if I want to spend the coin there right now. My GT’s ride feels, and rides good, it’s just the body roll in the bends or corners where I would love to improve thus far.

[ZR]

You would ideally like to control more of it with spring rates n shocks but given your otherwise happy, yes sway bars would most likely give you what your looking for.
Back in the day when most of us were first lowering our rides, was a cloud that hung over coil over conversions with the bulk of folks claiming it turned them into riding like Hondas with cut springs, nothing could have been further from the truth. I regret not experimenting with them sooner.
That being said, yet to have anyone ride in my car and not be surprised how totally civilized it is for how aggressive a set up I'm running.

[1low03gt]

I hear you Rick. I’ve done some good reading on them. I think if I was just starting off freshly stock, I would 100% go that route. But since I already have these sportlines in my GT, I’ve been pretty pleased with them since doing the Koni’s. I have had these springs in my GT now since the first weekend I purchased this car back in ‘03 lol..... and man when I think back to when that was the only thing done, man she would knock the fillings out of anyone’s teeth. Now the GT rides very comparible in quality as my FX2 F150. Not a good comparison, but gives the point at certain point of view for just driving around. I never thought about looking at sway bars until this summer, or maybe it’s me getting older, and not worrying about just going fast in a straight line anymore, but wanting a nice civil car with good street manners.

[ZR]

Look n stance of your GT is what got me into my 2000, love that car. Yes it's amazing how much a good set of struts n shocks can transform ride n handling. Crazy what we considered ok back in the day (make that younger days, LOL). On that car, ran Eibach Pro Kit + KYBs on all four corners plus set of Eibach bars, ride n handling was good. Later on moved to a set of Tokico adjustable shocks n struts, were not an upgrade over the KYBs under any conditions but were at least pretty much on par.

[1low03gt]

Ahh the good ol’ days! Miss them!!
So in saying that, we’re you pleased with the Eibach bars? I’m leaning towards the Steeda bars myself, but also been reading about the SR bars offered by American Muscle that are said to be very comparible to the Eibach bars, and possibly made by them for a more affordable price for American Muscle.... if there is any truth to that!?!

[ZR]

Our instances of having trouble with SR branded parts is just shy of 100%, no actual experience with their sways bars though. If it was me, Steeda or Eibach.

[RedSN]

Body roll? What body roll?

https://photos.smugmug.com/TMC/i-L6kmZdz/0/d76a65a8/M/TMP-04_zpseb0d070f-M.jpg

“If you’re not using the bumpstops you’re not using your full suspension.”

[1low03gt]

That’s what I figured.... you get the “cost saving” in the prices for a reason. You pay for what you get! I’ll do a little more digging on the pros, cons, and specs on the Steeda, and Eibach bars.

[ZR]

Interested to hear what you find.

[98 Snake]

I have also been considering some bars and will Likely try the eibachs

[Mustang4]

On my 91 Fox, I just recently matched the Eibach Pro-KIt springs with some Eibach sway bars and found a noticeable improvement, flatter still on turns.
Already had Bilstein shocks, Ford Racing front control arms, upper rear arms, Maximum motorsports - lower control arms, panhard bar, 4 point K-member brace, and Sub-frame connectors.

[1low03gt]

So far I’m starting to sway.... no pun intended lol.... towards the Eibach sway bar kit. Lots of positive things about them. Zero negative. Plus during my search, I came across Maximum Motorsports site, guess what they carry in their inventory, and support, Eibach. So that’s a plus considering my GT has Eibach, and Maximum Motorsports suspension parts. So that would be the ideal marriage to keep together.
With Steeda there was positive, but one negative due to a cracked/broken rear sway bar.... but that is only one!
They both run tubular fronts, and solid rears. The sizing for both is 35mm front, and 25mm rear.
So far from reading here in this thread, Eibach so far gets the main preferred choice.

[Slick_89_Hatch]

I really thought that most Fox/SN95 platform stangs suffer from understeer and using a larger sway bar upfront is going to make that worse. From what i've been reading if you're going with fairly stiff springs then you want to go to a smaller sway bar to correct a bit of that understeer. Examples from Ford are the 93 Cobra and the 95 Cobra R which both used both used smaller sway bars upfront than the GT's. Larger sway bars may also cause a decrease in ride quality as they would decrease the amount of movement in the front lower control arms while going over small bumps etc. Unless the Eibach and/or Steeda are larger in diameter but softer which would decrease weight and allow for less understeer.

[Slick_89_Hatch]

Also don't forget endlinks, I am finally putting in shorter ones in over the winter when I take my sway bar out to blast and paint it. Might change to a 4cyl sway bar like they did on the 93 Cobra. I run 275lb 10" coilovers upfront so they are plenty stiff for how I drive the car.

[ZR]

A good chunk of what a person might select for a street ride is what feels good to them. While it may not necessarily be the hottest set up for the race track, we can't push anywhere close to that on the street so what feels best is just fine for their application. Same can be said about ride height, much of the ground scraping killer street ride look set ups under perform at the track. Loved the look of my own lower, just didn't work well at track days so up it went.
On Brians Fox, honestly expected larger bars would have upset the balance, feel n ride on the street, car feels awesome.

[1BAD92LX]

Also don't forget endlinks, I am finally putting in shorter ones in over the winter when I take my sway bar out to blast and paint it.
I'm running stock sway bars front and rear. I found having the correct length end links made a big difference. Maximum Motorsports have the correct length spec based on ride height on their website.

[Slick_89_Hatch]

I'm running stock sway bars front and rear. I found having the correct length end links made a big difference. Maximum Motorsports have the correct length spec based on ride height on their website.

I just got a set, they are actually stock rear sway bar links from a Dodge Neon SRT-4 lol.

- - - Updated - - -

In what way did you notice the difference with the end links? Just curious as to what I may be able to expect.

[ZR]

On my own with correct length links, felt like I'd just installed a slightly larger bar. No not a huge difference but enough to notice.

[ZR]

Worth noting, Brads Fox is always one of the fastest / smoothest looking rides out there in the twisties. Certainly doesn't hurt he's one hell of a wheel man. Gonna be a piss off when he gets more power. ;)

[ZR]

In the same breath (long winded one I guess) Dave is also uber fast n smooth at the track, his is sporting aftermarket sway bar (don't recall if front and back or just front), maybe he'll chime in. Car also has very good street manners.

[1BAD92LX]

In what way did you notice the difference with the end links? Just curious as to what I may be able to expect.

As Rick stated, felt like it was a stiffer sway bar. I cut my stock length links down. Cut the spacer to MM's spec and put the extra length on the other side of the sway bar.
My car shows how good MM's stuff is and makes me look good.

[1low03gt]

Also don't forget endlinks, I am finally putting in shorter ones in over the winter when I take my sway bar out to blast and paint it. Might change to a 4cyl sway bar like they did on the 93 Cobra. I run 275lb 10" coilovers upfront so they are plenty stiff for how I drive the car.


I'm running stock sway bars front and rear. I found having the correct length end links made a big difference. Maximum Motorsports have the correct length spec based on ride height on their website.

Been catching that too. Might be the first thing to try before spending a good chunk of coin on sway bars. It’s one area that might be over looked. I would’ve never even thought of it if I didn’t start researching. It makes perfect sense.... When dropping the ride height the front sway bar does change its angle when the stock length end links are still present, and by the sounds of it, it wouldn’t perform as it should properly.
So.... my first move then is to get a proper measurement with the suspension under load in relation to the sway bar’s position.
Got to say it’s great talking about tech stuff again. Been a long time for me!

[1BAD92LX]

http://www.maximummotorsports.com/Front-Swaybar-Endlinks-C220.aspx

[ZR]

^ Best of all, super cheap mod.

[FoxRod]

Did I forget to add this to my list?... :)


^ Best of all, super cheap mod.

[WidowrRacing]

I swapped the sway bars front and rear to Steeda pieces when I did the suspension on my 88GT years ago and enjoyed the upgrades.

I've since changed everything up BUT when I installed the UPR K-Member I made sure to have sway bar brackets in place so that I could bolt it back on for street driving and remove it for the drags.
It really does suck street driving it without one on my car. I quickly get reminded how bad it is without one every time I get on the hwy or exit off it.

[RedSN]

http://www.maximummotorsports.com/Front-Swaybar-Endlinks-C220.aspx
One half of me is saying: "Thanks Brad! Great link! (no pun intended)"
Other half of me is saying: "Thanks Brad. Great, another MM part i need to order. And that's a terrible pun."

[1low03gt]

http://www.maximummotorsports.com/Front-Swaybar-Endlinks-C220.aspx
Thanks for the link. Looking at the lengths I thought there would be a larger difference between the stock length, and the short length.

[1low03gt]

Had a chance to check the sway bar position today while under load. I definitely need the 4 1/4 length end links. The sway bar is sitting at a good angle with my GT’s current ride height. I also noticed that the bushings to the chassis are showing cracks, so that will be on the order as well. So this will be the starting point, and I hope will be the fix. The more I think about , and see what is going on with the sway bar, the end link lengths do play a good part in how the car can handle. Something that can be overlooked by many, probably the reason that most like myself look towards the sway bars first. So I’m glad I brought this subject up. So thank you guys. Been a big help.
Wished I got into this sooner, and didn’t wait now that the GT is parked for the season. lol.

[ZR]

Fresh mod for next year is all.

[1low03gt]

A little update. Picked up the energy suspension sway bar bushings, and endlinks. Got everything installed, but no test drive yet. Roads are still to dusty for my liking. Doing the proper length endlinks had gained me another half to one finger digit space above the front tires, so that’s a plus considering how low the front sat for the last 14 years lol. So it goes to show how the body to sway bar to endlinks to lower control arms interact with each other. With the proper length endlinks, the sway bar is no longer “pulling” down on the chassis so to speak.

[Mustang4]

One half of me is saying: "Thanks Brad! Great link! (no pun intended)"
Other half of me is saying: "Thanks Brad. Great, another MM part i need to order. And that's a terrible pun."

I'll have to order a set as well.
I have Energy Suspension ones, that are the same specs except the length is 6" instead of the 5 3/8" length of the MM ones.

[FoxRod]

I guess I'll find out the benefit of these once I dial in my ride height...

12030

[1low03gt]

Well I got the gt out this morning for the first quick ride for the season. What a difference in replacing the endlinks with the proper length ones. The front now has very little body roll/nose dive going threw those sharp corners. Not sure if the bushings to the chassis had made any difference, but I’m sure it helps. Next step is a bumpsteer kit, and poly bushings for the control arms. Part of my quest in improving my gt further.

Thanks for the info guys. Saved me a tone of money from getting sway bars.