What is your clearance with the stock strut bar? For the life of me I cannot get this dang thing on correctly. As you can see my stock strut bar is BARELY touching the plenum which in turn is causing noises to come from the engine bay. How did you guys get yours to clear. I used the spacers on both sides and I still can't figure it out. I'm so frustrated I'm about to just buy an aftermarket strut bar and call it a day.

 

just buy another washer and put on the strut. That would give it a tiny bit more clearance. I don't have problem with it before though.

 

It's a balancing act between adding washers to raise the strut bar and setting the tension on the strut bar to cause it to "bow up".

I have the AAM tapered spacer (1/2" at front of engine) plus the Motordyne Isothermal gasket so I have very minimal space. In fact, my strut bar is raised up on two washers then adjusted so it just barely makes contact with the hood. The strut bar was rubbing the hood in two places so I got some rubber pads and stuck them to the top of the hood to keep the noise and rubbing to a minimum.

Even with the two washers, when I first install the strut bar it touches the top of the plenum. Once I tension it, it bows up enough so that it doesn't touch. I figure I have maybe 1/8" clearance between the plenum and the strut bar.

 

that will do the trick.

 

Do you have the 4 extra washers supplied with the kit?
They were included just for that occasion.

Most don't need it but a few will.