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Strut Bar That Fits Over Whipple Supercharger??


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Disclaimer - I have NO IDEA if this strut bar will fit over the Whipple superchargers...but...I just happened across this on the Agent 47 site.

 

For those that are interested, you may want to give them a call.

 

Here's the link....

 

 

http://www.agentfortyseven.com/S197/doublebarrel.html

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Disclaimer - I have NO IDEA if this strut bar will fit over the Whipple superchargers...but...I just happened across this on the Agent 47 site.

 

For those that are interested, you may want to give them a call.

 

Here's the link....

 

 

http://www.agentfortyseven.com/S197/doublebarrel.html

 

They would not commit either way when I talked to them awhile back. They wanted me to buy one and try it, then return it if it didn't work. Steeda has one that fits but not with our stock hood.

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Look's like that question is answered! I don't see how they can advertise that it fits over a supercharger like they do...maybe they are talking about a teeny weeny supercharger.....

 

 

RBK10547-2.jpg

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you can always just drop the engine .5 inch. i was actually at Blow By Racing today talking about this subject and they said what you could do is get custom motor mounts to drop it .5 inch without ay suspension problems. it will help around corners since the center of gravity will be lower.

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I'm actually meeting with a fabricator tomorrow. I've hit a stroke of luck and met a group of old (I use that term wisely) 60's era hot rodders. They bascially build up gasser and altered-wheel base cars and are chomping at the bit to help put a brace together. They're going to take clay impressions and measurements to see what's doable. I told them about the KR brace and it's fitment and they seem interested in that design. I feel pretty good about the whole thing as the guy called me back the other day and said, "Hey, i've been doing some homework and understand you guys can't find one anywhere that fits!" I sort of laughed and said, "I told you!" I guess he's got some contacts at Kenne Bell as well so this should be pretty promising. I'll post up after the visit tomorrow and let you guys know what the plan is....

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Being an old hot rodder may I suggest a bar that goes from the strut tower, on each side, back to the firewall. Then a separate bar from the front bolt of the strut tower to the radiator top support beam. It would then form a diamond shape. Four separate bars that tie the strut towers to the firewall and the front support.

 

Chip, is this what you are thinking?

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Alright, here's some info for ya'all to chomp on for awhile.....

 

I brought our stock STB and the KR STB. Neither offer much in terms of fitment. After some "dough" play under the hood it was determined that there is really maybe 1/4" clearance over the top of the Whipple. This is evidenced by the fuel crossover running over the top.

 

There really isn't much room under the hood due to three things: The throttle body, the S/C iteslf, the "snout" and the cold air intake tube. We looked all the possible "routes" for running tubes across the top and nothing really seems to work great. A 3-point or even 4-point is not very likely. I say all of this without seeing or knowing what Chip is up to and if he's able to come up with something that would be great.

 

I'll be dropping my car off next Saturday for them to keep for a few days to test fit, etc. The goal, is to have a strut tower brace WITH a Whipple on April 19th for the Fabulous Ford's Forever show. It may not be the finished product, but very likely the prototype. I told my guy that I'd like to get some feedback and input from the rest of those that will be there.....

 

So, I hope to have something for all to see by then.......

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Well, I dropped off my Shelby this morning at the shop. Today is the day they're going to spec up a brace. I'm hoping when I go back this afternoon i'll be able to "see" the actual mock-up of the STB!!! These guys are just as enthusiastic about this as I am! We're shooting for having something prototyped and on my car for the Fabulous Fords Show at Knott's so everyone can check it out. If I can snap a few teaser pics and get them up here I will....

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Well, I dropped off my Shelby this morning at the shop. Today is the day they're going to spec up a brace. I'm hoping when I go back this afternoon i'll be able to "see" the actual mock-up of the STB!!! These guys are just as enthusiastic about this as I am! We're shooting for having something prototyped and on my car for the Fabulous Fords Show at Knott's so everyone can check it out. If I can snap a few teaser pics and get them up here I will....

 

WAY TO GO !!! I KNOW THAT I WILL BE INTERESTED IN ONE.

 

LOOK FORWARD TO SEING THE RESULTS. THANKS FOR YOUR LUV OF OUR S/C SGT'S

 

SCOTTY

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Chip, is this what you are thinking?

 

Gentlemen,

 

A strut tower brace that goes back to the firewall would require drilling some holes into the firewall and I'm not sure what kind of structure or loadbearing ability that firewall possesses. Therefore I hesitate to take that approach. I do not agree with heating, bending, and pounding on the KR brace to bend it into a shape that will clear the air intake tube, the Whipple itself, and the hood bracing. Using the KR brace and Play Dough to check clearances in various areas will reveal that the KR brace needs to be relieved in four areas. Material has to be ground away which will leave four gaping holes in your now much greatly weakened KR brace. The KR brace in this condition is not suitable for use other than as a pattern for a newly manufactured brace. I intend to digitize the shape of my ground up KR brace so that I can have a stronger CAD/CAM copy made out of aircraft grade billet aluminum. I will pay to have several made and will offer them to our members just as I did my final fix hood scoop. Several unscheduled but critical projects have severely slowed my progress here but I will get it done as soon as my workload permits. All the best.

 

Chip

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After reading the post about there being 1/4 inch of clearance between the hood and the S/C I am thinking it may be a moot point... Thats not alot of material to work with...and probably would make a strut spring brace no matter what you do? What do you think Chip?

 

1/4 inch sounds like slim pickens, but as you know a tube is stronger than solid stock...so I still respectfully diagree with you and think that an ovaled tube would work better than 1/4 inch milled aluminum. But you have more experience with aircraft and my experience is with welding and fabricating...

 

I tend to agree with Bud in that I have not been able to tell the difference with it gone yet, but it does look cool...

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Chip - First, I'm in no way discounting your efforts sir, and I DO hope that you can get something together!! I have some bad news to report and after going through this process it's been very enlightening. Basically, there's NO room under the stock SGT hood! If you look at the fuel line that routes over the top of the Whipple you will see that is the room to play with. However, it doesn't stop there. The air inlet tube also provides VERY little room. Add to that the rake (slope) of the hood as it progresses toward the front of the car and the space becomes practically non-existent. Though the space is limited we did come up with a very interesting design that does in fact clear all components. It is non-tubular and actually made from steel plate. Due to the various angles required to make clearances I suspect that in NO WAY is this brace adding anything structurally to the car. At best this is likely to be another "cosmetic" application. Although, I feel that under the hood another cosmetic piece really isn't needed. At any rate, we're moving forward with getting it finished up and mounted. I'm hoping by the end of this week I can get pictures of it and posted.

 

Chip is right though... Even the KR bar (or likely any other for that matter) would be significantly weakened with all the cuts and bends it would have to take that it would be de-graded to cosmetic as well....

 

 

The only other option would be to notch-out a section of a cross beam on the underside of the hood and remove blanket. This would require re-paint of the underside of the hood. Certainly not a "bolt-on" way of doing this and likely to be costly. It would be cool if SAI offered up a "replacement" hood for this complete with scoop/stripes already in place! HINT! HINT!

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After reading the post about there being 1/4 inch of clearance between the hood and the S/C I am thinking it may be a moot point... Thats not alot of material to work with...and probably would make a strut spring brace no matter what you do? What do you think Chip?

 

1/4 inch sounds like slim pickens, but as you know a tube is stronger than solid stock...so I still respectfully diagree with you and think that an ovaled tube would work better than 1/4 inch milled aluminum. But you have more experience with aircraft and my experience is with welding and fabricating...

 

I tend to agree with Bud in that I have not been able to tell the difference with it gone yet, but it does look cool...

 

McCoy,

 

The biggest problem clearance area is not between the supercharger and the hood, it is between the throttle body air inlet tube and the hood bracing.

 

There is also more than a quarter inch of space to work with, but not enough space to use any commercially available strut tower brace. A oval tube is only stronger than solid bar stock if you are limited to a certain amount of weight. The KR brace would be vastly stronger as solid bar stock than in its current hollow tube configuration. If a solid bar stock brace had to weigh the same amount as an oval tube brace, say 5 pounds each, the solid bar stock brace would have to be so narrow to meet that weight limit that it would be easily bent. We are not under extreme weight limitations here however. It will make no practical difference in our cars if our strut tower brace weighs 5 pounds versus 9 pounds. This project is nothing more than an academic and recreational pursuit for me, just like the hood scoop was. I am fortunate to have the facilities that will enable me to stress and measured the deflection of the stock strut tower brace, and then compare that to the deflection of my new brace under the same amount of stress. While Bud is correct in his assertion that it is impossible from the driver's seat to tell the difference between a car with that brace and another without it, I'm still not interested in building a brace that is purely cosmetic. If it is not as rigid as the stock brace, I will not install it.

 

My criteria are as follows:

 

1. Any new strut tower brace must be cosmetically appealing and add to the under hood appearance of the Shelby GT.

 

2. The new brace must be functional and at least as rigid as the original.

 

3. Nothing on the Shelby GT should have to be cut, drilled, or modified in order to install the new brace. It should bolt on and off just as the original did.

 

4. It should have sufficient clearance so that the supercharger and/or any other engine components will not come into contact with it because of engine movement in our rubber motor mounts.

 

Someone else may have different criteria, but these are mine. If such a brace existed or if another member developed one, I would buy it and move on to my next project. Time is the only barrier I have two pursuing this right now, but I will get to it as quickly as I can. Cheers!

 

Chip

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Chip

+1 to your criteria!!

 

Respect work on Hood Scoop and eplanation of Super Charger for the 4.6. I can wait for your solution as I have not sprung for the SC yet.

 

Great to see you name on the forum every so often.

 

Tom

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Chip...tubes are less prone to bending than solid stock reguardless of weight considerations...

 

McCoy,

 

Perhaps I am misunderstanding what you are trying to say here. So please clarify for me. We'll use a 3 foot long, one-inch diameter, solid 4130 steel rod as an example. Imagine I were to lay the two ends of that solid steel rod upon supports and then place a 200 pound load in the center of that rod after which I would measure its total deflection (bend). After taking that measurement I then removed the rod and drilled a 3/4 inch hole through it lengthwise, leaving me with a hollow tube that had a wall thickness of 1/8" all the way around. Are you contending that if I laid that hollow steel rod upon the same supports and then placed the same 200 pound load in its center that the hollow rod would deflect less than the solid rod?

 

Such an experiment is quite easy to conduct, given the right equipment. While the hollow tube will probably have a better strength to weight ratio, it is nowhere near as resistant to bending as the solid rod which is much heavier. A real world example would be the steel tubes protruding from the ground of many parking lots that function as crash barriers to keep expensive items like gasoline pumps and propane tanks from being hit by cars. After these hollow steel tubes are sunk into the ground, they are easily bent and damaged UNTIL they are filled with cement. Once filled they are a ton stronger and far more resistant to bending. Now that I'm out of the car business I build service stations for a living and utilize a lot of these crash barriers. In the aircraft building business we are concerned primarily with strength to weight ratios. Here, a triangulated hollow structure provides the best strength/weight ratio. But where outright resistance to deflection is required in a constrained space such as in the center section of an aircraft wing or in our project here, sandwiched between the tight spacing of the mustang hood and our supercharger components, a solid structure will provide us with the best rigidly though it will be heavier than a hollow structure.

 

Chip

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McCoy,

 

The biggest problem clearance area is not between the supercharger and the hood, it is between the throttle body air inlet tube and the hood bracing.

 

There is also more than a quarter inch of space to work with, but not enough space to use any commercially available strut tower brace. A oval tube is only stronger than solid bar stock if you are limited to a certain amount of weight. The KR brace would be vastly stronger as solid bar stock than in its current hollow tube configuration. If a solid bar stock brace had to weigh the same amount as an oval tube brace, say 5 pounds each, the solid bar stock brace would have to be so narrow to meet that weight limit that it would be easily bent. We are not under extreme weight limitations here however. It will make no practical difference in our cars if our strut tower brace weighs 5 pounds versus 9 pounds. This project is nothing more than an academic and recreational pursuit for me, just like the hood scoop was. I am fortunate to have the facilities that will enable me to stress and measured the deflection of the stock strut tower brace, and then compare that to the deflection of my new brace under the same amount of stress. While Bud is correct in his assertion that it is impossible from the driver's seat to tell the difference between a car with that brace and another without it, I'm still not interested in building a brace that is purely cosmetic. If it is not as rigid as the stock brace, I will not install it.

 

My criteria are as follows:

 

1. Any new strut tower brace must be cosmetically appealing and add to the under hood appearance of the Shelby GT.

 

2. The new brace must be functional and at least as rigid as the original.

 

3. Nothing on the Shelby GT should have to be cut, drilled, or modified in order to install the new brace. It should bolt on and off just as the original did.

 

4. It should have sufficient clearance so that the supercharger and/or any other engine components will not come into contact with it because of engine movement in our rubber motor mounts.

 

Someone else may have different criteria, but these are mine. If such a brace existed or if another member developed one, I would buy it and move on to my next project. Time is the only barrier I have two pursuing this right now, but I will get to it as quickly as I can. Cheers!

 

Chip

 

I don't have a supercharger and I was looking to buy the Shelby aluminum strut brace just for looks, but I needed to know for sure that the 6061 aluminum weldment was post-weld heat treated. 6061-T6 aluminum will lose it temper around the heat affected zone when welded and therefore needs to go thru the heat treat process to regain its strength. So I asked SPP and I got this response from Scott Drake:

 

"Yes after welding the part does go through a final precipitation heat treatment to regain the strength of the T6 temper of the material after welding. Not really necessary on this part, but we did it anyways for consistency. The engine bays on these cars have been tested and there is little to no deflection on the strut towers to warrant the need for this part even in extreme driving. This info was given to us By Ford Racing SVT from testing they have done on body safety structure. "

 

They say they regain the T6 temper after heat treatment but they would only know that if they took a sample around the weld area and did pull-tests on it. My guess is they got at least T4 which is good enough for this part. However, the key thing is they really don't believe a strut brace is actually of any use! Very interesting!

 

Of course, I checked and the FR500S has strut tower brace so go figure??

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