JKAG

The reinforcing ring on top ot the strut tower under the nuts.

Used as a spacer to raise the strut tower brace to clear the intake manifold.

Lexus part 53723-24010........$28 (dealer)

Toyota part 53723-24012........$13 (elmhurst)

Got a generic STB off ebay and it cleared the intake manifold by about 1/8". Added a set of the above for more clearance. Now I will add one more to the passenger side for more clearance over the IC piping.

LexAnt

iTrader: (2)

yea i added those to mine's as well. according to some, i was suppose to use two extra spacers on top of the stock one already there. but i found if i did that, i wouldn't have enough stud thread to tighten the nut down. so i only used one extra on each side and took off the L emblem on the V8. Fits like a charm. didn't need the extra set.

inovashn

nice job and good post. i used regular washers works great painted them black but i'll probally be picking up a couple of those also

CoOl21

so, how does this work? add 2 pieces of OEM reinforcement plates on each side so that the TRD strut bar can clear the intake manifold?

RXRodger

iTrader: (2)

So other than it looks cool, what other purpose does the strut tower brace serve on these cars?

CoOl21

To give the strut mounts more support and stiffness?

RXRodger

iTrader: (2)

These cars are not McPherson strut. Draw a free body diagram of the suspension forces, it will become evident that the forces through the strut tower are not that great as compared with a McPherson strut car. But, maybe I am missing something. I have been racing these cars on road courses for a couple of years and have yet to see a reason to install a brace like I did on the BMW.

Blkexcoupe

iTrader: (8)

I haven't heard anyone mention a free body diagram since I took physics my freshman year in college. lol

Our cars are pretty rigid, so strut tower bars don't help as much. When I was still fixing up Hondas the chassis flexed a lot more, so the strut tower bars that tied into multiple points on the chassis (firewall or UCA bolts) helped a lot.

The Carbing stb comes with a master cylinder brace. I think that's a cool feature to have.

RXRodger

iTrader: (2)

Yeah, I pulled that one from way back. Point is, the forces that would go through the strut tower of, say a Honda with MS, would go through the upper control arm into the subframe on a double wishbone suspension like the SC. The strut tower is mostly seeing a force parallel to the axis of the strut, so a brace would not see a lot of horizontal force. At least that's the way I see it.

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

It does as lots of people have said it affects the handling of the car.
As you said the force is mostly parallel to the shock, but you have to factor in that the strut towers have an angle towards each other and are not parallel with the ground, so while most of the forces would be going up and down, a small percentage of the force would be applied on the horizontal axis. Its not much but its enough to get a slight flex and the bar helps with that.

CoOl21

So, do we know how many OEM spacers one would need to make the TRD STB work for the SC400?