Anyone braced an XD/E/F type across shock towers? - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

tonyk · 06-14-2002, 21:24

I was reading an article about the handling changes that came about when a strut tower brace was installed on a unibodied mustang.
As most modern cars are unibodied here too I was wondering if anyone had done it to an XD up model Ford and what if anything was the changes to handling???

thumpr · 06-14-2002, 23:07

heres a 460 xe with a brace

not my car though - i think it was built by gregaust from the fordmuscle.com forums so you might want to ask him about handling etc

thumpr · 06-14-2002, 23:08

..

gregaust · 06-15-2002, 02:36

The brace is not so much to help the handling in that case but on some of the other bigblock cars i've done you can see some flex in the joints around the front towers from probably the extra weight and the torque of the bigblocks.That brace is very similar to what the mustangs use anyway and would have to help stiffen the front up a bit.

tonyk · 06-15-2002, 20:40

You would have read the article too then on FM??
It sounded like a real benefit but perhaps our falc's are not so soft up front?

Not sure how I would do it at the moment as my gas carbs are laying flat towards the firewall so are in the space where a typical mustang brace would run. I was just thinking across the shocks like the Commodore kits

RAPTOR · 06-16-2002, 16:43

I think local Falcons are considerable beefed up over their US cousins. Remember the first falcons (XK/XL?) got a poor reputation for reliability in Oz because they just about fell apart. Strengthening has been occuring since XP onwards so I would reckon on XD/E/F should be OK. From what I can gather the earliest Mustangs didn't even have an under engine crossmember to link both sides together (but I could be wrong).

tonyk, I just caught sight of your signature. 460 cubes yeah!
Maybe it would be a good idea. It's not so much chassis loadings from the suspension you are concerned with its engine mass/torque.

gregaust · 06-17-2002, 03:21

Raptor,you are correct.A lot of the early mustangs did not have any crossmember between the lower control arm points.Also a lot of mustangs suffer from cracks in the suspension tower areas which i have never seen in an aussie falcon so i would say they are a lot stronger.

tonyk · 06-19-2002, 04:08

My engineer said I did not need to make changes to the car chassis or body as torsional rigidity was sufficient IHO.
I just thought there may be a handling improvement return for little "cost"

06-19-2002, 04:43

tonyx> strut braces weren't put in to improve handling as such.

They are used to add torsional rigidity to the front load bearing areas (top of spring towers) and distribute the loads into the firewall, which is relatively strong in the vertical plane, when extremely stiff springs were fitted eg for racing and also when heavy motors like big block 460s etc. were dumped in.

06-19-2002, 04:44

tonyk> sorry maye the dislexia kicked in there for a minute - sorry 'bout the spelling ... LOL