John

iTrader: (17)

Step 4:
Unbolt the 14mm bolts from each of the sway bar brackets. The long 14mm socket and extension are your friend here. The bolts are quite long, and will burn many calories (therefore I suggest more beer).

John

iTrader: (17)

Step 5:
Remove endlinks from sway bar, and remove from car.

Step 6:
Remove endlinks from LCA, and then invert the endlink and install so that the short end of the endlink attaches to the LCA.

Step 7:
Like the rear bar, align the billet brackets on the sway bar to the positions of the ones on the OEM sway bar. Make sure that the allen wrench ends will face downward once the sway bar is on the car.

John

iTrader: (17)

Step 8:
Reattach the new sway bar to the endlinks, bolt the sucker on, and reattach the brackets. Also align the billet bracket and tighten.

Step 9:
When torquing down the brackets, you may encounter some difficulty. If you find a persistent bolt, loosen up the one diagonal to it, and then reattempt. After a turn or two, it'll get easier. Torque down all those 14mm bolts, and then torque down the endlinks.

John

iTrader: (17)

Step 10:
Reattach diffuser on the passenger side front sway bar bracket, and reattach belly pan. Lower car, and enjoy!

A few notes:
Use the grease supplied with the bushings. Secondly, if you have ramps, use them as I think preloading the suspension is best, but if you don't have ramps, jackstands will suffice.

Now, where's my cookie?

Vlad

Thanks a lot!

Going to try it in less than a month... What are the total installation time?

What are you front settings for sway now, and how the handling changed?

John

iTrader: (17)

Installation time will vary on a few things. If you have access to a lift and an impact wrench, it'll take you almost no time. For me it took about 2.5 hours, mainly because of the length of the front bolts and the fact I only have a ratchet and jackstands.

I initially had the sways set on med / med, which is perfect. As my driving has advanced, I have since gone full stiff front and rear. For a street car that sees a little track time, med / med is more than adequate. For a more experienced track junkie, full stiff is a better option. I suggest starting off on med, get used to the feel, and then move up to the stiffer setting over time.

Vlad

I would imagin 350evo swaybars weight more than stocks... Did you happen to weight them? I'd like to know weight difference for front one ecpecially.

John

iTrader: (17)

The front is several pounds heavier, has a little smaller diameter than stock, but definitely is stiffer.

G3po

iTrader: (8)

Since the rear bar is straight (more so than stock), does it visibly hang lower or cause any ground clearance issues?

John

iTrader: (17)

If you get on your hands and knees, you can see it goes below the exhaust piping. I have scraped the bar on a few occasions, mainly because DC roads are atrocious. Also, I scraped it when I went two wheels off coming out of Oak Tree at VIR and I was straddling the curbing. That's about it though. I've scraped my exhaust and cats more than I've scraped the sway bar. Having driven on Nor Cal roads before, you won't have any problems.

G3po

iTrader: (8)

Thanx for the info, I too am aware fo NoVa roads, I was a NoVa native. I guess the sways can handle more scrape abuse than CATs or Exhaust. I am just debateing between 350EVOs or Hotchkis. What made you pick the 350EVOs in the first place?

John

iTrader: (17)

NoVA native eh? Well, I've had no problem in NoVA, only in the District (work there, and lived there for over a year). As you might remember, DC is notorious for tearing up roads and leaving the manholes exposed...

I chose the 350Evos since they were developed on Grand Am car. This is a race-proven product that yields excellent results. The Hotchkis seem more like a tuner product to me rather than one that's marketed towards producing improved race results. That's my opinion.

Vlad

4 Zs racing 350evo bars in Grand Am series with excellent results. What else you need to know to make desicion?

G3po

iTrader: (8)

Vlad
,I noticed in you post your weight redux plan.
You should consider a lighter flywheel and clutch.
The gains seen from this reduction pay back about 20
fold in acceleration. ie for about every -1lbs of reduciton in rotational mass via the flywheel clutch combo you gain about
-20lbs in linear acceleration. Beats the hell out of the paltry
5 and -1.5 direct reductions so far.

Vlad

I have an 5AT!

I just ordered a dry-cell battery which weight less than 12lbs. It'll save me 20++ in front!. I wonder if it makes any sence to put new battery into trunk? Probably not worth the efforts...

When I'll have money (not this year for sure) I'll change to titanium exhaust and 10lbs cf seats.

cf hatch, fenders and headlights would be nice... - 10% of the car could easily be reached

G3po

iTrader: (8)

Whoops , sorry , yep not much you can do with the reciprocating mass on a 5AT.

daveh

iTrader: (9)

As usual, I'm up in the 11th hour trying to prep the car for a track day and I'm having trouble with the front evo sways. I Not only is the bolt that goes through the sway too short, but I can't slide it out of the sway because it hits the shock. BJ told me over the phone last week that I should reverse the end links. I'm in the garage right now and this doesn't do the trick. The end that connects to the control arm is even thicker than the end that connects to the sway. I thought he suggested to turn the link around and thread the screw from the inside of the swaybar but that doesn't work either. I'll try to post some pics of what I'm trying to explain here.
Has anyone else had this problem?

2004z

iTrader: (3)

What BJ told you was correct.

First off, the positioning of the bolts remains the same, ie. if it bolted from the outside with the stock sways, it will still bolt from the outside with the 350evo sways.

As you said, in the normal position, the bolt at the top of the end link is too short to fit through the sways. The bolt does not extend far enough to allow you to put the nut on the other side.

Unbolt the end link from the lower control arm. At this point, the end link is not connected to the car at all. Now take the part previously connected to the lower control arm and connect that piece to the sways.

Basically, you are just flipping the end link upside down.

daveh

iTrader: (9)

Yes I understand that part. The problem that I am having is that I can not remove the end link bolt (slide it out of the sway bar) because it hits the shock. I just got off the phone with BJ and he said with the stock shocks, you have to unbolt the bottom of the shock and move it out of the way to get enough clearance to remove the end link bolt from the swaybar. Flipping the endlink will make this problem even worse because you will have to move the bolt out even farther in the direction of the shock.
I guess I'm just suprised no one else has reported this. It makes adjusting the front sway a little more tedious. Not something I will be able to do trackside between run groups. Not a real big deal, just more of an incovenience. The sways are absolutely top notch in the handling department though. I adjusted the front to stiff last night for my day at infineon tomorrow.

2004z

iTrader: (3)

Hmm.. that's weird, I don't remember having that problem when I installed mine. I had my car on a lift, but I don't think that would make a difference.

Oh well, I'm glad you were able to make it work. Have fun at the track!

Just curious, what settings do you run for street use?