Competition Engineering C3117 subframe connectors

[RECHRGD]

Has anyone used these here?  They are bolt in units.  Curious as to how effective they are.  Thanks.......

[c00nhunterjoe]

For a bolt on set, they afe decent quality. Better then no frame connectors, but no comparison to a welded set. My opinion is use 2x3 box, sink it through the floor pans and fully weld it. I did this on my car and can jack the left front up and both the front and rear tires come off the ground and my door still opens and closes. We put the bolt on style on a friends b body and the door would still jam when jacked up.

[RECHRGD]

For a bolt on set, they afe decent quality. Better then no frame connectors, but no comparison to a welded set. My opinion is use 2x3 box, sink it through the floor pans and fully weld it. I did this on my car and can jack the left front up and both the front and rear tires come off the ground and my door still opens and closes. We put the bolt on style on a friends b body and the door would still jam when jacked up.

Thanks for that!  I've never been much in the welding department.  I do own an arc welder, but have never worked with it enough to be comfortable using it.  That's why I'm thinking of going the bolt in type.

[Mike DC]

              
       
   
Use a weld-in set of SCs.  Don't go thru-the-floor.  Use panel bonding adhesive if you aren't comfortable with the welding.

It's not the stiffest possible setup.  But its the lowest-hanging fruit for the stiffening gains vs difficulty and drawbacks. 

[MoParJW]

I have installed these on my Satellite last year.

They are a bit of a hassle to install, because you need to drill holes for bushings in the rear framerails, and they need to be drilled very precise or you will have trouble getting the bolts through (DAMHIK).
I do have to say that I installed mine in my driveway, so if you have a lift, it shouldn't be that hard.

Another thing I noticed is that when you torque the front bolts to spec, it will pull the front sheet metal of your torsionbar crossmember in a bit.
If I had to do it again, I think I would just get the front bolts tight, and weld the front of the connectors to the tb crossmember with a couple of beads.

As for effectiveness, the difference isn't night & day, but I'm happy with them.
I always hated how I could feel the car's body flexing going over bumps, and that has been reduced a bit.
But I really noticed the car just felt more rigid just going down the road.

I think for the price & labor involved they are worth it, but really need a couple of welds to be 100% effective (I had to retorque the front bolts 3 times so far).

[HPP]

Buy em, bolt em in, then have a local shop hit them with a couple of weld beads.

[JR]

If you're going to go through the trouble of installing subframe connectors, they may as well be the weld in type.

I installed some weld ins this year after driving the car without any for 17 years, and the difference was incredible. Immediately noticed less cowl shake over bumps, less rattles, the car feels more responsive to control inputs, and just feels much more solid overall. I can't imagine bolt ins giving anywhere near this improvement.

There are plenty of options where you don't have to cut into the floor.  I used some that drop below the floor. They hang slightly lower underneath to clear the hump in the rear floor, but I didn't have to cut my original clean floors to slot them in. Of course, the ones that weld into a slot in the floorboards are the strongest ones by far.

Bolt in connectors tend to twist around the bolt holes pretty quickly, and loose the little effectiveness they had.

At the very least,  after the bolt ins are installed, take the car to  a muffler shop with a drive on lift, and have them weld some beads on these after you have them bolted in fully. The difference is worth it.