the standard on my gsr is 14mm i believe, would it be worth my while to change up to an 18mm one?

or should i go for an adjustable one, which i believe can go to stiffness of about the same level as a 22mm bar??

 

this is the rear sway you're talking about right? if so it's definitely worth upgrading to a larger/stiffer bar. if its' the front, only upgrage to a stiffer bar if you've already upgraded the rear sway bar. your GSR will already experience understeer when in hard turns, you want to move more towards a neutral handling experience, getting a stiffer front bar without changing the rear will only increase this tendency. however stiffening up the rear will bring you more towards neutral. it makes a huge improvement in my opinion in the handling of the car.

 

sorry, yes it is the rear i'm talking about.

 

what else do you have in your suspension package? are you lowered? strut towers and lower ties? you may want to stiffen the frame first, of course it depends on how much you're willing to spend too. but in any case, I'd say a larger rear sway is totally worth it. I really felt like my car was staying glued to the ground when I went through turns at the same if not greater speed as before. that my .02. HTH

 

my car is totally stock suspension wise.

i'm not planning on lowering it, i am planning on buying a set of new shocks later next week though.

 

To answer your question: Yes it is a good idea to improve the lateral sway, which is what an Anti-Sway bar does for either the front or rear. The real key here is since you are ready to replace your shocks and not loking to SLAM your car like so many amateurs, then I suggest;

Eibach prokit springs and a set of Koni yellow adjustable shocks. This setup is very good at least. You will desire new front and rear sway bars but the spring shock package are a better first step.

Remember that an Anti-Sway bar or Bars are to supplement and assist the main suspension componants IE Shocks, Springs or full Coilover setup, Not take the brunt of a mushy or overburdoned setup.

Don't just add the antisway bars and think you will get a world of difference yes you will feel some but, What LS said is true, you are looking to improve your cars handeling but, by just doing the front or rear you will unbalance the car and induce more probable oversteer or understeer depending on which end you do only.

Take your time when doing suspension mods, this is an area where you could get a lesser Teg GSR or LS to handle as well as or better than a stock ITR if done correctly. If done incorrectly your car and ride will suffer and it certainly will not be better.

After a good set of springs and shocks like the aforementioned setup, I'd suggest either the ITR front antisway and Neuspeed rear 19mm or ITR front and rear antiswaybars for the ITR rear sway you will need a mounting kit like the one BSQ offers. If this is for daily road stuff you wil definately feel and appreciate the difference over stock. If it is for the track you will again really appreciate it.

Do you need the above setup? Well that is your choice. I choose the best and do it right the first time.

Remember, you get what you pay for, so shop around for good pricing and investigate as much as you can about a full suspension upgrade. Another great but tedious and more difficult idea is to redo all of your bushings with something like the Energy uerothane kit.

Good luck and be safe,

A.

 

I couldn't have said it better myself. Take your time making decisions... it sucks to have to make them twice and spend twice the $$

 

i agree, hence the reason i'm taking my time in doing all this

actually, the real reason i am taking my time is the money.... but yeah.

i was thinking i would like to add stiffer front AND rear anti-roll bars, the reason being i have noticed that through switchbacks the car becomes very unsettled. I've had the car into roll-induced oversteer a few times.

I was looking at koni yellow shocks all around. $250 australian each.
The springs i'm considering very carefully, i really don't want too stiff a ride. The other problem is my insurance company doesn't let me lower my car (niether does my driveway). So any springs i get will have to maintain the stock ride height.

 

ITR springs, then. 1cm difference in ride height.

 

I say go at least 21mm rear swaybar. I wonder how much difference you would feel with an 18mm. hmmmmm

 

skunk2, itr, or comptech are the only three i feel are worth doing for the rear. at least in the us market...

 

You don't need a new front swaybar, unless you have an earlier 3rd gen non-VTEC Integra. All GS-R's, ITR's, and later LS and GS Integras share the same 24mm front swaybar. Just upgrade the rear bar and you'll be good to go.

 

Beaks makes a great bolt-on kit...look into that....for the rear ITR Sway bar (22mm) the front sway bar on a ITR is 24mm...better quality (OEM) bars...and the front is a blot on matter....i really like the beaks kit because it is a kit rather than some hardware store parts..but the BSQ is a great inexpensive way to mount the rear sway bar...look in to that also ... BEAKS is more expensive yes....but i feel that the BEAKS provides a more solid foundation for the rear sway bar mounts....


[Modified by mamaboy, 7:52 PM 3/12/2002]


[Modified by mamaboy, 7:53 PM 3/12/2002]


[Modified by mamaboy, 7:53 PM 3/12/2002]

 

good correction i was gonna quote you on it. beaks/bsq thing. its worth mentioning that if you upgrade to a bigger rear bar you need to do springs/shocks first or you will more thank likely experiece tearing of the subframe because the shocks will allow too much travel. keep this in mind.

 

I would have to disagree with this comment. I had my Type-R rear swaybar installed for nearly 1.5 years with the stock springs and shocks and never experienced any problems. Also, there are a few people that are using my mounting/reinforcement kit with the Type-R rear swaybar, with stock spring and shock, that autox and they haven't experience any problems either. As long as the larger rear swaybar (such as the Type-R) is mounted properly, you will not experience any problems with subframe tearout.


[Modified by BSQ, 3:32 PM 3/12/2002]

 

For about a year I used the BSQ kit / ITR rear sway bar with stock springs. I had no problems.

Rainmaker

EDIT: By the way, this is on a car that at the time was being autocrossed regularly.


[Modified by Rainmaker, 12:43 PM 3/12/2002]

 

One other thing to mention about this comment. This comment was expressed by Z.Speed/Skunk2 when users of their rear swaybar started experiencing subframe tearout. Their (ie. Z.speed/Skunk2) solution was to tell the people that were using their swaybar to run stiffer springs rates. They stated that this would eliminate a lot of the stress subframe. In some respects this will help, but it doesn't fix the real problem. BTW, I have heard from several people that were running stiffer springs (as high as 400 ft/lbs. springs in the rear) and they still experienced subframe tearout.

 

I'm about to install a 19mm ST rear bar on my 90 LS with stock front bar, springs and shocks. I'm planning on doing shocks in the summer, but I wasn't going to do springs this year because that would put me up a class in autoX and I can't afford to compete well in that class.

Should I be worried about subframe tearout?

-Chris

 

go to the 22mm, 18 won;t take the push(understeer) out completely.

 

so the ITR bar is 22mm??

coz i read through some other posts and ppl said it was 19mm...

 

22mm

 

Suspension techniques is 19mm, OEM ITR is 22mm.