Hi guys,

I'm on KW coilovers on my X-Type and it obviously handles much better than stock, but there's still some noticeable roll. I realize no one makes aftermarket sway bars/strut bars, but is there any other way to strengthen the chassis or stiffen everything up?

I saw someone had some custom sway bars made for his X-Type a while back but they costed like $600, which is a excessive IMHO.

Also, I saw these on eBay and was wondering if they would work for an X-Type. Probably not though since they are for a Mondeo from years 1993-2000.
OMP FRONT UPPER STRUT BRACE FORD MONDEO MK1 2.5 V6 ST24 | eBay

 

Well the xtype chassis is already factory stiffened and is much stiffer than the mondeo chassis by nature. To me, I think you should contact the manufacturer of the strut brace and figure out if it would fit!

 

Thanks disguay, any other suggestions/ideas out there? I have a friend with a 2006 Honda Civic on stiffer springs and thicker sway bars and it seems his car handles as well or better than mine on KW coilovers.

 

Got me thinking there for a minute. Looks like the Mondeo strut brace will hit the throttle body and the overflow bottle.

 

Jaguar sells a lower front subframe brace thats stock under the last one or 2 yrs of production
im sure you could pick it up out of a salvage yard

 

interesting Brutal.... I'll have to look into that. Does it just bolt right on?

 

A mk1 mondeo is not going to fit. A mk3 might be possible

 

If someone is interested in a strut tower brace, I might be able to help them out. I have some pneumatics and have some stuff for welding and whatnot. If someone wants to be a guinea pig for this, let me know. I am sure we can find something of interest that will work. I would need to look at my car and make sure that there is enough room to do what we are thinking. Then we can get some feedback on how this works. The big issue I see atleast for the moment is the bar would need to be removed if you ever had to do any intake work. Atleast at the moment, removing it would be fairly straight forward. But, reality may be a different story.

 

>If someone is interested in a strut tower brace, I might be able to help them out.

And a new small business is formed...
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Jaguar - it's not an automobile, it's a Motorcar

 

I'm definitely interested Thermo. I have the custom intake that exexpat has though. That won't cause any clearance issues though right?

 

ez, let me do some looking at what needs to be done and we will take it from there. There will be a few obstacles to get past. So, lets handle 1 thing at a time and go from there.

 

That sounds like an great idea Thermo. If these were ever up for sale I would buy it asap!

 

I would buy one, too.

 

hey thermo, had any spare time to check out the possibilities for the strut brace?

 

ez53436, been a little busy lately. My work has suddenly needed me a lot. Let me take a look this weekend and see what I can come up with.

 

Well, I took a look and I have some good news and I have some bad news.

As for the good news, installing the bar will be easy (see below). I am envisioning expanding what jaguar has already done with the plates that run from the fenders to the strut tops. What I am envisioning is a single piece that would run from fender to strut top (around the whole top of the strut) to the top-center of the firewall to the top of the other strut to the fender. With this setup, that will be about the maximum amount of stiffness that can be added. This would also make installing the bar pretty easy too since all you would end up doing is undoing a few bolts, drilling 2 (or 4) holes in the firewall) and in the bar would go.

Now, for the problems. The first is easy to overcome. I see that there are two plugs to the center of the car from the brake booster. These would end up getting remounted to 2 bolts that I would add to the bar. It would raise them up an inch and off of the firewall. Easy.

Now, for the bigger issue. Relocating the overflow tank. Yes, that would have to be done. Unfortuantely, this is creating more problems than I think some would be willing to deal with. What I envision at the moment is having to come up with a custom overflow tank that would sit about 5 inches forward of where the stock one sits. The mounts I don't think will be all that hard as I can see using a bolt from the engine mount and there is a stud on the side of the strut tower that could be used along with an opening on the metal plate that currently is used by the stock overflow bottle. Then it would be a matter of moving some lines around to make it all work. The trick is getting that tank. This is where some of you may come in handy. Lets see what we can find and go from there. Keep in mind that by moving the overflow tank forward, this is also going to make removing the cover of the battery box difficult. But, I figure we can overcome that by simply removing the vertical tabs to the battery box so you don't have to roll it backwards to undo the tabs. You would simply undo the front clip, lift the battery box top slightly and then slide it forward to get beyond the hooks in the back.

If I do this tank, I am envisioning having to create some custom tabs to mount the tank with and then also welding on some fittings to put the connections where they will not be in the way. I just need a tank to start with that has the radiator cap top to it.