Yeah, that's the thought I had last night after reading your post and doing a bit of research on the Beaks reinforcement kit.
So after adding some thickness to the subframe by using a reinforcing plate did you cut down the spacers on the back of the whiteline mounts so that the position of the swaybar wouldn't be pushed back further by the extra thickness?
AG System, that's why I haven't installed my swaybar yet, as I need to get my mitts on some new high-tensile bolts and nuts.
no i didnt as i found that there was small gap B4 mounting it on and when i put the plate on the gap was reduced to 10th of a mm so i didnt worry to much about it.
just a thought, maby consider using regular bolts, so that they fail before the subframe does, instad of it the other way around.
Only real problem there is the bolts that Whiteline supply (WHEN they actually supply them) are crap. Usually find that they vibrate themselves apart very easily. To counter this you would have to do them up pretty damn tight thus eating into the sub frame anyhow and causing more stress.
Better off spending a few extra $$ and getting some decent bolts and washers and reducing the risk. Better to be safe than sorry.
AG System, when you bolted the whiteline swaybar onto your old Civic did you also put washers on either side of the subframe? So one washer between the spacer and subframe and one washer on the other side between the nut and subframe to prevent the nut from being pulled right through the mounting holes in the subframe?
At any rate I think I'll end up going down the path of what you suggested and what big tone did with putting a solid plate over the mounting holes. I believe this setup is much like the Beaks reinforcement kit. Mind you I was reading on another forum and have seen pictures of someone subframe that had a new one torn when the subframe failed with the Beaks kit. Apparently the guy was running Autocrosses and the failure occurred after several laps, but should be OK for spirited street driving.
Yeah had the chunky washers that was in the kit that i sold you on all bolts and on both sides of any frame attachment.
Reason for doing so was to allow minimum chance of the bolt themselves cutting into the frame.
Yeah as for the kits. Pretty much any sub frame will be in the same catagory its just that the EK series is kinda thin and its always better to be safe than sorry.
When the sub frame on my civic eventually tore through it wasn't noticeable at first. just some strange creaking noise. It wasn't until later that day that i noticed that the car would creak all the time when turning left. When i got out to check i noticed the bar just hanging there and the bolts with chunks of sub frame behind the washers.
Note that the damage was done before i fitted the HD washers as the whiteline kit that i originally got had NO washers at all in it. In reality i think that i was able to prevent the frame ripping for a while but when it did go eventually it went bigtime.
Father who was an engineer said that the basic structure of the whiteline kit was a good idea but it didn't really give any structural reinforcement where it was needed. thus suggested the plate idea.
Unfortunately for me it was too little too late. but at least i can pass that information on to others so the same doesn't happen to them.
all of these reinforcement plates are well and good at distributing the force across the subframe, but they dont address the actual problem of weakness where the subframe joints the chassis.
Only real problem there is the bolts that Whiteline supply (WHEN they actually supply them) are crap. Usually find that they vibrate themselves apart very easily. To counter this you would have to do them up pretty damn tight thus eating into the sub frame anyhow and causing more stress.
Better off spending a few extra $$ and getting some decent bolts and washers and reducing the risk. Better to be safe than sorry.
I havent heard too much of whiteline bolts actually breaking , only the subframe under circumstances. One thing i bought up with a lead enginneer at whilteline was the complete lack of proper installation instructions ( just 2 pictures and no torque settings etc etc) this has been recently rectified from what people have said.
but Only due to the tensile rating of the bolts. They are less than honda standard , and they are under more stress with a kit like this. So amongst others I do wonder why weaker bolts have been used.It is a cost effective measure using these normal bolts IMO.
Perhaps replacing the bolts with perhaps more tensile strength will help ?
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Originally Posted by muhhan
B20VTEC - since 2002 
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