I've had my sways on since this spring and have been racing pretty much exclusively with both set on Medium. The car seems to handle pretty neutrally. I am considering upping both to full stiff for the next autocross event I do. At what point can you tell that both sways are too stiff? Some things to keep in mind: I have 245 tires all the way around & changing both the sways to full-stiff only changes the f/r bias ratio by about 5%. I was thinking the only way to tell was with a g meter or something. Have any of you experimented with several settings on the 350evo bars in autocross?

 

Anyone?

 

Mine are still on backorder...

 

Remember, we actually do not know the real percentage of stiffness of the 350EVO rear bar. Number's that were published for the rear bar were actually for a prototype that never made it into production. The production rear bar is actually thicker and of course stiffer.

Honestly, the answer you seek has to be the one you find on your own. And often, it is recommended that you work on driver skill before you work your on dialing in your setup. You'll need to try different setting's to find which one allow's you to set the lowest e.t.'s. Maybe that means mild understeer, or neutral, or being able to rotate the car. One thing I do recommend is to purchase one of these http://www.trackhaus.com/product-exec/product_id/307 and take tire temps recording them on a chart with outer, middle and inner tire temps after each test run. Use the tire temps to confirm that your sway bar settings are in fact working the contact patches as evenly as possible. What camber settings your running does also have a roll in what those temps will be as well. Either bar setting changes will get the temps even or you'll need to make camber changes to get them closer.

I have seen preprinted forms to use with tire temp recording, can't remember where I saw them for download, may have been in one of Koni's motorsport catalogs can't exactly remember.

 

I got some numbers from BJ on the phone several weeks back on the sways. They went like this:
Front
Stock: 1130
350Evo soft: 1010
350Evo med: 1243
350Evo stiff: 1475

Rear
Stock: 385
350Evo soft: 378
350Evo med: 490
350Evo stiff: 607

So at med/med my front is about 10% stiffer than OEM and the rear is about 27% stiffer. This adds up to a 15% bias to the rear from OEM.

Going to the stiff/stiff settings, I'll be 31% stiffer in front and 58% stiffer in the rear. This adds up to a 20% bias toward the rear from OEM.

This of course is not exact and only calculates stiffness relative to the OEM sways and not the overall suspension. I'm going to try out the stiff/stiff settings at the next event in June. Either way it is going to be fun!

I've attached a few photos showing my body roll as it stands now. These photos have sways both set to Med and all four shocks at 4.5 turns from full stiff. Not that the pics really help this conversation - they're just fun to look at

 

Hey Crazymike,
Does the 350EVO front bar have built-in collars, that prevent it from sliding latterally?

 

Hey, thanks a lot for the rear bar info. When you run into data like than, please take a moment to drop me a pm and let me know, I'd really appreciate something like that. I tried to be BJ to tell me what the current rear bar stiffness was, but he never replied. Really glad to know now, thanks.

 

anyone know the measurements of the stillen swaybars?

Ive only seen some percentage increases over stock, but no real measurements
that I know... (for instance soft for front is 7% stiffer vs stock, med for rear is
51% stiffer than stock, and so on).

 

THX723 - The 350evo bars come with MacMaster collars that you install after you install the sway bar. Basically install the front then center it between the shocks and put the collars in place against the bushing mounts. You have to be sure the collars are in a location where the sway is straight - if you have any angle to the colars they will slip. Took me a while to figure that out.

Gsedan35 - Sorry I should have posted the sway info long ago. Things have just been crazy the last few months with finishing up my Masters and moving here to Florida. I'll be sure to let you all know next time!