Thoughts on T3 'Rear Power Braces'?

[artishard116]

Any thoughts on this new product for our Z's? Necessary/beneficial? 

 

T3 advises not using the front diff crossmember when doing a short nose r200 swap, which I thought was a little concerning. Never considered tying the control arm mount points together in the other direction.

 

 

 

 

[JMortensen]

There is already a link there that ties those points together. This one looks cooler, but I think that's the only benefit.

[JMortensen]

One thing occurs to me. If they slotted the holes on both sides, you could adjust the toe with this. You'd need to pry the arms instead of using a turnbuckle like the Poor Man's Toe Adjuster that many of us have made, but that's not such a big deal if you're doing an alignment every couple years.

[artishard116]

3 hours ago, JMortensen said:

There is already a link there that ties those points together. This one looks cooler, but I think that's the only benefit.

 

Which link would that be? The control arm itself?

[JMortensen]

If I'm looking at it right, this goes between the lower control arms in the back, connecting the bushings. There is a piece for that in the stock suspension.

Looked at their site, and it appears that they use a different brace mounted higher, which would allow for the use of a finned cover with a bigger sump. I guess you could use this piece and their other brace together? Not sure that would really improve anything.

I dunno. The more I'm looking at it the more I'm not sure what it is. Can't figure out why you would want the brace up higher and this one too, since they both do the same thing.

[artishard116]

Ah you mean the front diff mount/crossmember thing? They did make a replacement for that but I was referring to the silver bits which connect the front and rear lca points on the same side. This picture is for a long-nose setup, so if going with a short-nose and their rear end conversion, you delete the crossmember, use their overhead diff mount, and then use their 'drop caps' (little gold bits at the rear of below pic) in the front and rear to hold the lca's on, which are provisioned for these new power braces which run front to back. 

 

 

 

 

1 minute ago, JMortensen said:

If I'm looking at it right, this goes between the lower control arms in the back, connecting the bushings. There is a piece for that in the stock suspension.

Looked at their site, and it appears that they use a different brace mounted higher, which would allow for the use of a finned cover with a bigger sump. I guess you could use this piece and their other brace together? Not sure that would really improve anything.

I dunno. The more I'm looking at it the more I'm not sure what it is. Can't figure out why you would want the brace up higher and this one too, since they both do the same thing.

 

[JMortensen]

Ok then. Obviously had that wrong.

 

Seems like it's not necessary so long as you keep the big ass bolts on the control arms tight. Probably have to sand down the bushings so that you can actually bottom the bolts out. Hardly anyone does that though. 

[jhm]

Many people using an RT-style diff mount have eliminated the lower front differential crossmember....it's bulky, heavy, and often interferes with a larger exhaust system. 

 

If you are wanting to eliminate yours, but are worried about negatively impacting structural integrity (between the left and right LCA mounting points), you can fabricate your own crossbrace from suitably-sized flat bar or angel steel.  Not as pretty as the T3 unit (like Jon mentioned), but $140 cheaper.

[Ironhead]

I honestly think these parts are pure bling....which is ok....but I don't see any performance improvement they would provide at all....

 

It seems to me there would be more benefit if they designed a part that tied together the rear control arm bushings, since they sit out somewhat cantilevered away from the body, I could see where there would be relative movement between them when loads are introduced.  Even then, the benefit would be minimal, since the TTT conversion already has the "dog bone" tying them together.  It would primarily be lateral movement rather than fore and aft movement, and these TTT parts seem designed only to address the fore and aft.  As someone else mentioned, the control arm bushing mounts are tied pretty solidly together fore and aft by the control arms themselves. 

 

I think TTT knows that if they crank out cool, machined, anodized aluminum parts that bolt right into place, people are going to buy them just for the bling alone....without really thinking through whether there will be actual performance benefit.  IMHO, these parts are a perfect example of that.  I could see some appeal if the replacement front cross-member was at least designed to facilitate a dual exhaust....but it isn't.

Edited March 4, 2019 by Ironhead

[JMortensen]

To be fair, I have read of some people losing the control arm bushings on a hard launch. Seems to me Jeromio did that about 15 years ago and posted here, and there might have been another one. I'm not going to go looking for it now though. The point, for me, anyway, is that if the bolts are tight, the tube in the control arm already does this job. IIRC the way that happened to him is that the bolts came loose and the control arm slid out of the bushings under hard accel.