MasteRX

I ordered a Racing Beat engine torque brace and it came in Monday, so I used my day off today to put it in. First off if you want a good write-up on this go to www.fc3s.org they also have some pics too. Here is what became of it:

Install was, for the most part, pretty straight forward. Just drill a hole, mount the brace and rod and tighten the bushings. But I got hung up on a couple of parts.

-First of all, after you get the hole drilled for the rod into the side of the engine bay (kind of tricky since you have to drill at an angle since the clutch cylinder is in the way), you have to get a nut on the end of the rod which is between the side of the engine bay and the fender. Now they give you a nut with a strap welded to it so you can snake the nut up this little hole and hope that it threads on to the rod while you turn the rod. This was the most difficult part. The nut kept on wanting to crossthread, and you couldn't tell if the nut was straight on the rod, or if you were even getting the nut to the end of the rod in the first place. So what I did is drill an additional hole straight down on the side of the engine bay so I could see what the nut was doing, finally I got the nut on (probably took an hour or so just to do this part, you can imagine the cursing that was going on)

-Second, the engine brace itself wouldnt fit correctly because it ran into the clutch slave cylinder. I think that RB may have sent me the brace for the wrong car, but I made it work. I just had to bend the brace a bit. My brace wasn't the same shape as the one on fc3s.org, the one that they had on their site is the correct one.

Finally I got it all bolted on and tightened and I gave the engine a little shake to see how it felt. Almost no movement at all, a huge difference from before. So I started up my car and took my car for the usual test drive. There was a very noticable difference over stock. The throttle feel was better, and clutch engagement seemed firmer. It eliminated the slight shuddering I always had when I pulled out of my driveway in reverse. At $65 I definitely recommend this mod, if you don't mind cursing and jumping around when trying to install that strap bolt.

vaughnc

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MasteRX,

Excellent. Can you post a pic since I'm not sure if this is the engine torque /strut tower brace combo or only engine brace.

Definitly want one for my TII, but I figured I'd better wait until all the performance mods, FMIC, etc.. were on so the torque & strut braces wouldn't be in the way.

MasteRX

I don't have a pic but, go to www.fc3s.org and look at their writeup on it, it is the same thing. (with the exception of the brace shape being a little different). It is just an engine torque brace, not a strut bar. It bolts to the transmission to engine bolts and has a rod which extends to the side of the engine bay to eliminate engine twist.

ARD T2

iTrader: (22)

Much appreciate the passing of experience and acquired knowledge. Even though I distribute for RB I have yet to try out that brace on any of my FC's, but now that you say it made a "noticeable" difference and the added "firmness" in clutch engagement that sounds good enough to me.

Gonna get one. Good ****, cause it's cheap. The FC I gave my sister for college is gonna need one. It shudders likea bitch sometimes.

Thanks, Rishie