Aluminum Subframe Bushings???

[marlonius]

Excuse my ignorance. I've had my SHO for 5 years now and I've only recently begun doing mods. I can't believe I only now found out about the forum. This is great! Anyway, I have a question regarding the aluminum SFBs. What's the deal with these bushings and lowered SHOs? I've read in a couple places that these bushings need to be "shaved" for lowered SHOs. Is this true? What's considered lowered? I have Eibachs which claim to lower the SHO, but if you ask me, they didn't lower the car a whole helluva lot. If I were to purchase the SFBs from, say SHO Nut, would I need to have them shaved? Any advice is appreciated.

 

[AutoXSHO]

Nope. Just buy them and install them. No problems for lowered SHOs.

I agree with your Eibach remark. They don't lower the car a noticable amount, but there are easy ways to get the car lower even with the eibachs.

John V

 

[marlonius]

Thanks! I'm glad to finally get a straight answer on that. I've been re-working my entire suspension. And the SFBs are my next move. thumbs_u

 

[sho4rob]

I just got some (yet to be installed) shaved aluminum SFB's off ebay. The seller stated that the "shaving" (on the ones I purchased) would lower the car 3/8" by themselves....so you might want to consider teaming them up with the eibachs to increase the drop. Good luck!

Rob

 

[ThrillSHO]

Shaving the SFBs has no effect on ride high because the suspension supports the car from the top of the strut towers, not the frame. There are two benefits to shaved SFBs:

1)Correction of driveline angles when the car has been substancially lowered. The lower you drop the car, the greater the operating angles are for the CV shafts. Normally, this will show up as shorter life of the CV joints. If you have coilovers and go really low the operating angles become severe and the resultant vibration makes the car undrivable. Shaving the SFBs raises the frame (and engine & tranny). The result is lower operating angles at the CV joints. For example, if you drop the car 3" and shave the SFBs 1", the driveline thinks you only dropped 2".

2)Increased road clearance. Because the frame is raised in relation to the body, you gain some ground clearance under the frame and exhaust.

 

[JaySHOguy]

marlonius:
Excuse my ignorance. I've had my SHO for 5 years now and I've only recently begun doing mods. I can't believe I only now found out about the forum. This is great! Anyway, I have a question regarding the aluminum SFBs. What's the deal with these bushings and lowered SHOs? I've read in a couple places that these bushings need to be "shaved" for lowered SHOs. Is this true? What's considered lowered? I have Eibachs which claim to lower the SHO, but if you ask me, they didn't lower the car a whole helluva lot. If I were to purchase the SFBs from, say SHO Nut, would I need to have them shaved? Any advice is appreciated.

Glad to see another MA person... Have you done subframe connectors yet? They do make a big differerence in the way the car feels. What year do you have also?

 

[AutoXSHO]

Hey ThrillSHO, haven't seen you post in a while. How's your autocross season going?

John v

 

[twr]

There is a con to shaving the SFB - It raises the motor in the engine bay - which can cause clearance problems - esp. if you have a strut tower brace.

Terry

 

[marlonius]

Thanks for all the great input! I appreciate the advice.

To Jay97SHO:

I've got a 95 MTX (emerald green). Oh, yes...had the subframe connectors done last year. I'm slowly working my way through the suspension mods.

 

[ThrillSHO]

Hey John,

The season started out well, unfortunately the SHO is resting peacefully waiting for me to get off my dead ass and work on it. Current list of dis-repair:
Broken Motor Mount - Wish some one made reinforced mounts for the ATX.
Plugged Radiator - Wish some one made a 4-row for the ATX.
No A/C - Looks like bad compressor ... Again.
Wore out Front Brakes - Ran at VIR back in April, should have put new pads on first.

I've missed two events so I'm way behind in points, but hopefully I'll be back on course in July. In the mean-time, I'm tinkering with an adjustable front swaybar.

How's your campaign progressing? Tearing up the course?

 

[RI-SHO]

The only thing I would shave down in a lowered SHO are the bump stops.

Also my SFB are mostly cracked and rusty looking, how much more time you guys think I have to replace them all, and will the stiffer aluminum versions really make my ride that much harsher?(its already rock hard) I dont really wanna shave them because my subframe is only inches from the ground right now, when I jack it up with a floor jack I have to have someone rock the car from the fender or door frame to wiggle the jack under it. So would new bushing raise the subframe compared to my tired originals one or will they need to be shave to stay at the same height there are now?

 

[AutoXSHO]

ThrillSHO,

I've missed one event so far, and have been doing "okay" but not great at the others. I have a third place finish and a couple fifths at one points venue and a couple fifths at the other venue. I still haven't figured out how to drive the new SO-3s - they are giving me fits trying to get a good front/rear balance. The results are at www.neohio-scca.org and www.autox.net (Akron Sports car club) respectively, you can check them out. We have pretty large STS fields.

Unlike last year there haven't been any other SHOs running, so I'm the unique car in STS. Everything else is about 500lb lighter .

John V

 

[Prophet78]

As far as the Eibachs not lowering the car I would have to disagree. Ask anyone around Fort Wayne, if my car is lowered and they will say yes.

I got atleast 1 1/2" on the front and atleast an inch on the back. I think the lowering depends on the struts you put in. I have Koni's and I believe those are the reason why it is lowered further than what Eibach states.

Another person here has Eibach and Tokico's and his car doesn't look as low as mine. He also has 17" rims too. I have stock slicers.

-Jeremy-

 

[94shoboy]

hey eddie, the shaved SFBs will bring your frame closer to the body, so it will give you more ground clearence, which you need badly lol.

 

[RI-SHO]

94shoboy:
hey eddie, the shaved SFBs will bring your frame closer to the body, so it will give you more ground clearence, which you need badly lol.

Oh ok I was reading it all backwards, I thought I would get less ground clearence, but wouldnt I need a cowl hood for the engine to clear the hood after it moves up a bit?

 

[94shoboy]

the easier way to find out is to take some putty or playdough, stick a big ball (about the size of a baseball) on each corner of your intake (maybe your TB too if it sits as high or higher then the intake, i havent seen my engine in quite some time so i dont remember) then keep the car out of gear and rev the livin shit out of it so that the engine rocks as much as it can. then open your hood, measure how thick the balls of dough are, leave yourself about another 1/4" or so for extra clearence. so, if the balls of dough are 1 1/4" thick, then you can shave 1" off the bushings. i wouldn't go over one inch though, you need to leave something between the frame and the body. it might not be as easy to work on after this, but the ground clearence is well worth the hassle IMO.