I'm considering putting in Neuspeed sway bars front & rear on my Civic. Since I don't have a factory front sway bar, I think I'm going to have to get a new ( or used ) lower control arm with the mount for a sway bar. Anyone got experience with this swap? I haven't done much suspension work myself so I'm wondering about the degree of difficulty on the install for a new lower control arm and then the sway bars.

On another subject, I just put in my order for parts to have my exhaust done. I'm wondering what opinions are out there on the setup I'm planning to use, so here it is...

Since I've got a ZC w/ZC header, it uses a 4-2-1 setup. I had to pull the A pipe from a friends motor & it hangs a bit too low. Since I don't think I'm going to find a ZC A pipe anytime soon, I'm having the shop remove about 2" from the pipe so it sits much closer to the oilpan.

All the rest of the piping from the A pipe back will be brand new, custom bent 2 1/4 pipe.

I'm getting a high-flow 2 1/4 cat, a high end, performance MagnaFlow muffler that will sit sideways just as the stock one does & a stainless dual ovals tip. I'm planning to have everything hooked up and see how loud it is (I'm not interested in having anything super loud - just better performance) and if it's too much then we'll put in a resonator.

The owner of the shop doing the work says that he'll be able to mount the system high enough that it'll tuck right up into the exhaust channel, which would be way cool since I'd hopefully stop smacking the A pipe everytime hit a bump...

Finally, I'm thinking about having a shop set up some sort of skid plate for under the oil pan & the front of the exhaust. Has anyone had something like this done? How hard would it be to do?

Thanks for any info/opinions....

Eric

 

I'm not sure what kind of Civic you own, but I'm assuming either the Dx, or Hf. You're half correct, in that you only have one swaybar, but it's the front you've got and not the rear. I know there's a certain aftermarket swaybar that doesn't use the stock (si) mount points, which may or may not work, you might want to check it out. If you want to mount the si swaybar, it's really not too hard, as the holes for the bracket bolts are already there. The catch is they're not threaded, so you'll have to put some nuts on the ends of the bolts to hold them to the body. You'll have to cut into the underbody to install the nuts (you'll know what I mean if you look at the si rear swaybar area compared to your own). The addition of the si rear sway will definately overpower your smaller than si front swaybar, and cause enough oversteer to get yourself into some MAJOR problems driving on the street if you're not careful (trust me, I know as well as several others who have done this mod). Just make sure you don't push it too hard on the street and you'll be fine.

Let me know if you have any questions or anything,

Ryan P.

 

Actually, I have a 90 Civic EX 4dr....

I guess I'll take a good look at the underside when it's up on the rack for the exhaust work, but I don't think there's even a front sway bar on the car, but I may be wrong on that...

Eric