I was thinking of getting a urethane master bushing set for the suspension and urethane inserts for the engine and trans mounts. What are your experiences with them? I was explaining to a buddy of mine that I feel all of the bumps even when driving at low speeds (neuspeed springs, tokico shocks) and how my cars getting a little sloppy with the handling aaaaaand that the engine & trans are starting to slop around as well. He told me that if I feel all the bumps now, that it would be worse with urethane. He recommended that I go with an OEM set for more comfort. What are your thoughts and experiences? I figure that a set from Energy Suspension would be cheaper and more durable, but what about the feel?

 

bushings are the DEVIL! if you don't have a hydraullic press don't attempt to do this yourself, im pretty sure some people have developed a method to do this but i still wasn't able to , it took me three days to put in four pieces

 

You will get less wheel hop, but you will definitiely feel more vibration inside the cabin.

 

There is a way, its a total pain in the *** but you don't really need a press. Once you have the method you can knock the stock bushings out in about 8 hours of work.

You will feel the road more but it's not as bad as people make it out to be. I have had the bushings in my EG for about a year now and I don't notice the degradation to ride quality, even on the roads of Washing DC which are worse than most third world countries.

As for the engine mounts I have heard that the full set will rattle your teeth out. What many people do is just use the front AC bracket mount and tranny mount to stiffen up the engine without making it unbearable.

E-mail me directly if you want to know the "secret method" for removing the bushings.

Mike

 

I will tell you the trick to removing the bushings, take the control arms out, take them to a machine shop and have them pressed. I paid 6 each for 14 to be pressed out/in. $84, or 8+ hours of agravation and busting your butt? You decide. The only ones i took out by hand were the rear trailing arm bushings. I just took a drill drilled holes every 2-3mm, then pry the bushing out, and use a 3" diameter sanding wheel with 80 grit sandpaper.

I greased up the new ones and pressed them in with a regular table mount hand vice. Considering you are gonna spend approx 200 in bushings, isnt it worth it to make sure the job is done right and the bushings arent mangled cause you were cheap????? That was how i looked at it. My time, blood and sweat was worth more than 10 bucks an hour.

Oh yeah, I just took it to a tires plus (Don olson/firestone store). Told them I wanted them pressed out. They asked me how much i was quoted, I said well you told me you needed to see the parts, but the shop down the road will do it for 6. And voila all the bushings pressed in for 6 each.

Steven

 

I've replaced EVERY bushing plus the ES motor mount add-ons, and it took 3 of us 6 hours working in a shop with all the right tools including a press! We had a pretty good system but man is it alot of work!

As for final result, you definitely feel more engine vibrations, but you get used to it. The ride is likewise more stiff and bone-rattling, but again, it's not the end of the world.

There's one more side-effect, and that's the suspension stiffness. I run 400lb springs and every suspension stiffener you can, and it amazing to find how much those stock bushings were absorbing the forces that get transferred to the suspension parts. I'd estimate that my 400lb springs on ES bushings translate to about 600lb springs on stock bushings. I'm currently running my "winter springs" which are 315-340 front & 250 rear, and I'm STILL tail-happy!!! It's absolutely mind-boggling! I'll post more on that soon in the dfh forum.

 

I spent 9 hours installing a full set of prothanes in my 91 rex and that was at work (honda dealer). Many of the bolts were rusted to the inner bushing collar. Sometimes you are lucky and sometimes all of them are a real pain in the ***. You should have access to a press with many accessories, a torch, saw, cutoff tool, and patience. I love the way the car handles now- the only complaint I have is I can hear much more tire noise now. It felt like a totally different car. You should get an alignment once you are done. IF your car has radius rods, be sure to get those bushings- wheel hop was almost totally eliminated. I replaced all bolts that went through a bushing.

 

I have all the Energy mount inserts (with brand new OEM mounts all around/poor man's type-r motor) in my '93 LS and the vibration difference was not all that noticeable! The biggest difference is in the firm feel of the motor...my engine does not move at all! You should really notice how much more solid the down-shifts feel(no more hop-skippidy-jump while the clutch engages!)----Good Luck!

 

that's what I'm looking for out of the engine and trans. That tight-I-just-bought-the-car-with-2-miles-on-the-odometer feel.

 

Like i like to call it " THE WAR OF THE BUSHINGS". A battle i just one with my 92 GSR. I bought the whole kit master kit for my car from summit racing. I will mention the E.S. kit does not include the rear trailing arm bushings which are like an extra 30 bucks or so for both sides. I did it all at home with regular tools. If you dont have a press available , which I didn't, you can simply drill out the bushings rubber area with a regualr drill bit and then cut the sleeve of the bushings housing with a hack saw and then just chisel out the remaining area and presto your ready to slap a ureathane bushing in. The work is very slow and tedious especially with only one person working but, it can be done. I believe a member of overboost.com once gave a detailled description of this procedure once. Best of luck!

 

Well, I've done 5 cars and one of the cars are mine and i don't have any complaints about them, because you have to give-up one thing for another. The car handle better like the diffrence between night and day. So, i say, DO IT!

P.S.
One more thing. Don't get the S/T motor mount inserts, get the Hasports solid rear mount. It's worth the money.


[Modified by WykidEG6, 1:13 AM 11/9/2001]

 

The easy way to remove the trailing arm bushing is with a small torch. Heat up the 'shell' not the bushing. Heat it just enough so that it starts to look shiney around the shell. When that happens, start pushing the old bushing out.