J's Racing / Mr. Alex front strut bar clearance

[vtecDave]

This may have been covered before on the late 'hatch, but I can't find anything from 2004...



How much clearance is there between the top of the deck and the bottom of the strut bar? This one seems to extend forward more than others over the top of the head. So someone who has this bar please post the clearance for me (I do not own the bar yet, image from SSR). My down the road goal is to build a k24block/k20head hybrid, and knowing the k24 block is taller (19.7mm ), I wanted to be sure I could still use the strut bar when I get to the swap.

[dcmpbl]

I would say it is about an inch and a quarter. It is a nice piece, although it totally kills the stock position for the fuse box. If you leave the fuse box where it is from the factory, you need to completely take off the part of the strut bar that is attached to the body/strut to get the cover off. Kind of sucks, although I haven't been caught in a bad place with a blown fuse, if it does happen I'm screwed without a wrench/sockets. It also reaches close to the oil cap...definately need a funnel---no straight from the bottle action. If needed though, you can take one of the bolts out of the bar portion, loosen the other side and pivot the bar out of the way (spark plugs, valve cover removal, dealer visits{they will lose your shiny chrome bolts--trust me}). Any way......

[vtecDave]

Very detailed and complete info. Some things I did not think about. Thank you very much!

[J-PRO]

is the cusco front strut bar constructed the same way? will it cover the fuse box also?

[SilverStar]

Cusco front strut bar raises above a couple of inches over the valve cover unlike Alex's.

[Windchaser]

we don't need a strut bar on our cars.

[SilverStar]

we don't need a strut bar on our cars.

yeah we do. for the look.

[vtecDave]

we don't need a strut bar on our cars.

reason?

[bigo711]

reason?

we want a bit more oversteer for our FF car.
adding front strut bar stiffens up the front, making our car more prone to understeer.

however, it's more often used for looks than actual uses.

[SiR R8TD]

My buddy's EP has a strut bar which attaches the same way as the Mr. Alex but it goes along the cowl instead of over the v/c & fuse box. I forgot the name right now. He found it on ebay though.

[vtecDave]

we want a bit more oversteer for our FF car.
adding front strut bar stiffens up the front, making our car more prone to understeer.

however, it's more often used for looks than actual uses.

Ok, I'll buy that. Makes since... understeer FTL.