EKSedAndy

I have an EK sedan, which has a stock 22mm front sway bar. I purchased the ASR 22mm rear sway bar and brace setup recently, but I haven't installed it yet. I just came across the opportunity to purchase a full Si/EM1 26mm front sway bar setup, which of course means swapping to the Si front LCA's and shock forks.

The guy is wanting $180 for the full setup with the LCA's, forks, and throwing in the EM1 upper strut bar as well. I know this isn't a huge amount of money, but I'm just wondering how much difference I will feel between the 22mm and 26mm bars up front.

I'm also not sure on balance, since I'm assuming the 22mm bar in the rear with the 22mm up front will provide better turn-in, but the 26mm F 22mm R might give better balance. Anyone with experience with either setup please chime in. I know feel and balance is all subjective, but I'm looking for opinions and ideas. The car is mostly a daily driver so I'm not looking for any kind of aggressive snap oversteer or anything, just something fun but mostly predictable.

redlinetuning

I have a hatch with 26mm/22mm setup. It's pretty neutral with all the other suspension components I have. I like it a lot, but I don't drive it very often except at events.

EKSedAndy

Thanks for the reply, Redline. That's what I would have expected on the 26F/22R setup since that's the stock sizing on the CTR, correct? I would guess Honda's engineers probably did a pretty good job sizing the bars on the EK9 for optimal performance.

I am a little curious to know if anyone has a 22F/22R setup that can chime in with their experiences, but for the price I'm thinking the EM1 bar upgrade is a pretty good one.

redlinetuning

If you are serious enough about it, just take your car as-is to the local autocross for a few sessions. Then upgrade for the next season and you may see a difference.

93egSLEEPER

My old EJ1 had a 22f/22r setup and it was perfect IMO. It was by no means an auto-x car, but it would tear up the corners and was pretty balanced. I was running omni-power streets at the time (10k/8k) and had zero complaints. YES is was stiff, but it was very streetable.

TracerAcer2.2L

Sub'd so I have this info for later

EKSedAndy

Thanks for the input. I was mainly worried that it would make the car unbalanced. I have S2 Pro SII's that are 8k/8k, so the setup would be pretty similar.

I think I'm just going to stick with the 22mm in the front for now, I was originally thinking that upgrading would be a double win because I'd also get newer bushings in the EM1 LCA's (mine are original with 355,000 km's on them!), but the more I think about it I'm probably better off just going with something like the Energy Suspension bushings kit for the same price and having everything new.

There are also lots of aftermarket front sway bar options, like the Eibach that is 26mm, and they bolt up to my current style LCA's if I wanted to upgrade later down the road.

TracerAcer2.2L

Do you have past experience with energy bushings? I've seen people refer hardrace or PIC bushings over energy about 3 times in the past couple months, saying both are better than energy bushings

EKSedAndy

No experience, I just know they are relatively inexpensive and locally available. But I'll look into those two options as well. If they have kits that are semi-comparative in price then I'd be open to them if others say they perform better.

Do you know why they liked those brands better? Did they last longer, or squeak less?

FlewByU352

I'm currently running a 22mm front/24mm rear setup with 450/400lb springs. Turn in is good but I honestly feel like there is way too much roll. Stiffer springs is the correct way to solve this, however jumping up another 100lbs on the spring rates scares me for drivability.

The 24mm bar in the rear isn't nearly as "scary" as people make it out to be. The only time I felt the rear being butt clenching lose was last week on a long sweeper around 130-140MPH it was light and swaying, taking a fine balance of steering and throttle to hold it to the straight. That could just be lack of aerodynamics and the rear bumper creating lift without a diffuser.

When you can't up the spring rates themselves, increase the bar size. 26/22 will surely understeer, but you might like that. The EK9 is very pushy compared to driving the ITR which is very balanced feeling. Also remember having a sedan there is extra weight over the rear axle making it more stable and less likely to rotate with a given bar size.

93egSLEEPER

I'm running 600 front and 550 rear right now w/ my yellows/GC setup. No front sway bar right now but have the ITR subframe brace w/ 3 point strut bar. Rear is all ASR w/ 24mm bar. Set the front shock settings to 3/4 stiff and the rear to 1/4. Feels very balanced, maybe VERY SLIGHT oversteer but I prefer that. Car almost drives itself through corners. Ride quality is IMO pretty good. I like a stiff ride though. Rides comparable to my old 10k/8k setup when I had omnipowers.