I took a trip up to Xtreme to meet up with Hybrid901, who works there, and to my suprise, Josh had a set of JimFab traction bars, ready to be picked up by yours truly.

I hung out up there for a while today, and then loaded up the ole Mustang and headed home for the install. I started a little after 3pm, and the last of these pics were taken by 4:30 or so, so as you can tell, VERY easy bolt in installation...

On to the show:

This is the box that they were delivered in...


All wrapped up:


Nekkid!


Assembled off the car:


And a couple of general clearance pics for those interested...

This is a first gen b16a in a 4th gen Civic (same engine bay as 2nd gen CRX) with HaSport WELDED mounts. Not their new billet ones. I've heard alignment on the billet ones is slightly better.
















And for anyone wondering EXACTLY how it was done, here's the tank, coolerand lines setup for my water/air intercooler system:


Let me know what you think... I'm pleased, but i feel clearance wasn't what I expected...

Regardless, I'll bet my car will be out and about SOON.

 

Looks sweet!

 

Looks good bro. I see you have a turbo as well...Mmmmm turbooooo!!

 

looks great! good luck with the turbo!

 

that kinda answers my ? on if my oil pan tap will clear, how far over from the edge of your pan is it tapped?
I have the 90 like you have.

 

how much was the jimfab
whats your turbo set up ?

 

can u jack ur car up from that crossmember i know you can't with the placeracing one

 

yep its made of chromoly, ordered mine today, 350 shipped.

what kind of DP room do u have?

 

i just got mine today, and i gota say that im extremely happy with jims work. the bars are exactly what i expected and hes doing some custom work to mines which he was more than happy to do. I will be posting a full write up on his bars but for now i am more than happy with them and i fully back his product.

 

i ordered mine a few weeks ago and it was shipped and recieved within a few days. excellent customer service and fast shipping! i dont have my car back from the paint shop yet so it still sits in the corner of my basement for now. i cant wait to install it on the civic.

 

Fit and finish on this piece was second to NONE. It's f*cking beautiful, seriously. It weighs approximately 5-7 pounds less than the stock front crossmember and front suspension bars.

I'm actually using a 45* fitting out of the oilpan, it just looks like a 90 because it's cocked at a 45 degree angle to the pan. meaning it's pointing 45 degrees away from the pan and twisted to \ that angle. I hope that is clear enough for you guys to understand.

Clearance for the DP is the only thing I'm worried about. It looks like the DP isgoing to have to come ALMOST full circle and go UNDER the exhaust housing to go through the single bar clearanced area. Shouldn't be a problem for the guy that's building the pipe, but we'll see, and I'll get pics of the DP after that's made too to show off to you guys. My oil return will DEFINITELY need some fidgeting with after the DP is in place, to see exactly what needs to happen with that nice to keep it cool.

I probably won't DRIVE on these for a month more or so, money is still tight, but I'll definitely let you guys know once it's on the road again.

Thanks for the kind words!

Jody - SiR Kid

P.S. Keep the comments/questions coming!


Modified by SiR Kid at 7:07 AM 6/3/2003

 

Hey man great pics and great job looks nice.

 

How hard was it to install the jimfab? Any tips? I'm concerned with alignment afterwards, did you just do some measuring to pre-set the jimfab to keep your current geometry? Thanks.

 

I am eyeballing the geometry of the suspension and driving it STRAIGHT to an alignment shop ASAP. I'm making so many changes to my car currently, I'm not too worried aobut the alignment, really.

As far as fit and finish? The INSTALL took a total of 20 minutes, after getting all the old parts off. I don't have a 17mm wrench, and I couldn't get my crescent wrench on the stabilizer bars' bolt to get them off without pulling the axles, so I went ahead and did that for both sides.

In my case:
1. Pulled both axles
2. Removed bolts from lower control arms that hold the stabilizer bars
3. Dropped stock crossmember (no front mount to disconnect with my B16a)
4. Bolted up new crossmember using stock bolts (One handed affair now, YIPPEE!)
5. Adjusted Heim joints to about MID travel, and put in position. Be sure to position it before bolting anything down. I left the crossmember end attached, and had to remove the bolt from the Heim joint ot get it back past the LCA.
6. Reinstall bolts into the Stabilizer bars in factory positioning, using factory bolts.
7. Torque everything down to spec - Gutentight. That's spec enough for me.

Seriously, everything was WAY easy, and I'll let the alignment shop tell me if the caster is out of spec or not. All you have to do is drop the Heim bolt, and screw/unscrew however much is needed to correct the caster. No big deal. DEFINITELY A LOT easier to adjsut than a friggin camber kit.

 

Bump for anyone who was wondering about B Series clearances... I know there were quite a few.

 

once i save all my pennies, i'll be placing my order for one!

 

You can take off your cross member as many times as your want and you will not mess up your alignment. The only thing connected to the cross member is the radius rods and they only control wheel hop.

 

Those radius rods also locate the lower control arm front to rear, so if they are too tight (too short), they increase caster, and toe the wheels out, and if they are too loose (too long) they decrease caster, and toe in the wheels.

You absolutely need to get an alignment after putting these on. I did it by sitting the car on large blocks of wood (8 pieces of 2x10, nailed together in a sandwich x 4), one under each wheel so the car was sitting about 16" off the ground, and the suspension was carrying the weight of the car, like it was sitting on the ground. This way, the suspension was where it normally sits when the car is going down the road, and I adjusted the radius arms, so there was little or no pre-load on the links.

When the time comes, I'll be going in to the alignment shop, and have them adjust everything for more caster, and then reset everything else to the way it was.

 

damm lookin good.

 

Has anyone used a HASport mount kit w/ b18c and a moroso oil pan with -10 45 fitting? I'm worried about my fitting....doesn't look like there's much room there...

 

that **** is sweet...keep up the good work...

 

what you said about DP clearance is the reason that I always reccommend the Z10 unit for the cr-x's.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by riceboy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what you said about DP clearance is the reason that I always reccommend the Z10 unit for the cr-x's.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah I have the Z-10 unit on my CRX and I have seen the Jim Fab in person. It looks like it has way less clearence. I want to run a 3" DP and it doesn't look like that is happening with the Jim Fab. I might buy a Jim Fab for my Hatchy though it is my newly designated All-Motor car.

 

looks good man.
question: i know your runnin turbo but do you know how the clearance would be with a jdm itr 4-1?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 95VXFRANK &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">looks good man.
question: i know your runnin turbo but do you know how the clearance would be with a jdm itr 4-1?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Works on my Z10. Jim Fab??? See my above post.