I've seen other posts about this issue already.

I've recently purchased some mugen strut towers front and rear. I have some Koni Yellows and GC spring that i want to throw on once I have the chance. The issue is that when i got my konis the valve stem is 12mm rather than the oem 10mm, so the OEM tophats dont fit without having to drill into and replacing some of the components. is it possible to use other integra model top hats so i dont have to get top hats for the Konis? unless GC has some shorter top hats. Thanks

 

It's the bushings not the top hats themselves that are too small.

You can drill out the itr bushings (not hard to do), replace them with lower trim (and softer) oem rubber ones, and hard race makes stiffer top hat bushings as well.

 

would drilling out the itr bushings not allow me to go back to OEM if i ever decide to? i just want to be assured in the process of doing so. I've attempted to drill the top hat once and i found that in the middle its a metal piece thats 10mm, i dont know if thats replaceable or not.

EDIT: could you point me in the direction of installing Koni yellows on a ITR, especially the top hat? i found koni installation on civic and integras without fisheye LCAs but not for ITRs.

 

You would not want to go back to oem shocks with drilled out bushings as there would be 2mm of slop. The metal piece is embedded in the rubber bushing.

From memory, I think all 8 itr bushings cost ~$90 oem, s2k bushings are the same thing but I know one is priced cheaper then the other.

The hardrace bushings are $40 from ebay, I bought mine from dohcgarage.

 

Save your stock bushings and buy a new aftermarket set that will fit your Koni Yellows. Why making thing harder on you. This is one of the thing that it make more sense to spend the money.

 

Anyone have a link to a set of bushings that are Koni-sized and equal to/better than the OEM ITR tophat bushings?

 

I use the HardRace

Interesting material, it's more like a hard plastic then rubber or poly. After 6 months of use I inspected them and they still look new.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hardrace-Front-Rear-Shock-Bushings-94-01-Integra-92-95-Civic-/350989090784?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item51b8947fe0

 

Are they better than OEM ITR though? The stock ITR tophat bushings are seriously hard...one of the vast improvements that they did to the car vs. the normal Integra.

 

Energy Suspension also makes top hat bushings. I used them with my Koni's before I upgraded to GC extended top hats.

 

In my hand, yes but I haven't done any real measurement based comparison. I would be surprised if you could notice the difference in the actual car tho. Even sphericals wouldn't make a major difference if the rest of the car is using rubber bushings.

 

as of right now, money isnt an issue but can be an issue. I wanted to get GC top hats but the regular vs the race ones looks like they wont clear my Mugen strut towers, fronts only. unless the race ones will clear. i just need other options to run otherwise ill have to find other OEM top hats and drill the bushings and holes myself. Thanks.