Recommendations for FD engine torque braces that work and are currently available. The Garfinkle brace was good but apparantly not available any longer. Would be interested in comments on fittment and how effective various models are as well as NVH issues.

 

IIRC the ones that appear to have a dampener on them are really just a nylon plug of sorts. I used mine for a year or so before pulling the engine for a coolant seal rebuild and replacing the stock engine mounts with Noltecs. Mine wasn’t terrible for nvh once I got things adjusted but it was there. I think most owners eventually moved on from etb’s the same way.

 

Mazdaspeed or poly mounts, gearbox brace and diff brace. Don't mess around with gimmicks.

 

Yeah just get some good engine and diff mounts and maybe look into a brace. The torque dampeners really weren't that great.

Also you don't really need to go over the top with bracing and stuff unless you are making big power (like 400+). Or doing serious drag racing.

Dale

 

I have a Garfinkle brace if you really want one, but I agree that with a good set of engine mounts you really don't need it.

 

Those braces are just for engine bay dress up or a band aid for bad motor mounts. If you want to have a shiny thing in your bay then use one but dont use it for any actual performance benefit. Same as everyone else said, just get a good set of mounts and you'll be fine

 

Like the guy who was just looking for a set of the crack-prone but slightly lighter 93 wheels in the for sale section… I guess if you had an investment-grade 93 FD and wanted to preserve the stupid but slightly lighter original aluminum arm and glued-on engine mount, an etb it might make sense.

 

It would be an eye-sore on an investment grade FD imo. I'm running 400+ hp and have never felt the need to have one. The rotary by nature is a very smooth engine so the only place a bad vibration could be coming from is bad motor mounts. Even if that were the case (mine were bad before I swapped them out) it's highly unlikely an ETB will do much to help.

 

I was being semi-facetious. And it’s easily removed anyway.
But actually a blown OEM aluminum mount is why I had one for a driving season.. Solely as a bandaid it worked well enough. I anticipated a rebuild and installed good engine mounts then, rather than risk disturbing my oil pan seal any sooner than needed.
But cr-rex has it right… the vast majority were just for bling.

 

Thanks for all the good imput. I had recently replaced my mounts with new stock mounts and now am going single turbo, so will have a major increase in HP.
Was thinking a brace would help control engine movement. Kinda hate to bail on over $600 worth of mounts. I think it was Howard Coleman that stated the mounts
hold up the weight of the engine and a brace controls the torque motion. Thats where I got the idea for using a brace. Have a friend with urethane mounts and he had
some vibration at certain RPM's.

 

Like I stated earlier, I have been single turbo for quite some time and with new IR Performance PU mounts, vibration is not even remotely a thing. Your friend has something else wrong if he’s experiencing vibrations. Now a transmission brace/diff brace…THATS where you’ll notice a huge difference in drivetrain vibration.