As the title indicates, I am curious as to whether I need the braces that come factory on the 305 in my firebird. Will the accessory brackets warp without these braces or are they just a safety measure?

the factory put them there for a reason . you maybe able to drive for a while without them , you will have problems chewing up belt's . i'm thinking that your considering headers . what i have done on several install's is use 3/8's" in I.D. pipe to make a stand-off and use stock bolt's . stand-off are about 1&1/4" in length . good luck .

Safety measure.
I've been running without mine for 4 years and have had no ill effects.

One says yes, one says no. Any other opinions/testimonials on this topic?

My experience is w/ 2 braces: one from the AC compressor
to an exhaust bolt mount, and one from the alternator to
the (tbi) intake manifold. When functional, there is considerable
force involved in driving the AC compressor. And the simple
method above is good insurance against trashing belts &/or that
serpentine brace. An AC delete pulley could easily do without.
Alternator brace? Is it really that big a deal to keep it in place?

If you perform the calculations for harmonics, you'll discover why the braces are installed. Oddly, the factory ran a couple years without the AC brace until the brackets started to tear and fail from fatigue, and they discovered that when they finally COMPLETELY engineered the design after the failures, it was determined to be weak in that area and needed the brace to kill the harmonics.

I suspect the alternator brace has a similar function.

I made up some standoffs. 3/8" thread and flats to use a 9/16 wrench. Unfortunately I made them out of stainless, so they warped a bit from the heat. I'm thinking of making them again out of steel and just painting them.

Think there would be much of a market for these? Obviously needing different lengths for different flange thicknesses.

I'd buy a set from you. Let me know what you're asking.

I don't want to get committed to something I can't deliver on, so I'll need to get back to you in a few days with a price. I've got more compliments on them than any other part of the car I think. Mainly because as was stated, everyone ends up with pieces of pipe, which I had before I built the new engine and didn't really like the looks. Unless you want to go to a machine-shop and have some made for $60/hour plus materials.

I'll wait for you. The machine shops around here are shady at best.

Su-weet!!

And is that a re-located fuel filter I see tucked neatly in there?
I wish I'd seen that before I spent so much time trying to re-fit
(long story.. ) my fuel line from the original filter location.

Nope!

That's the line-lock for burnouts.


BTW...
I got the CAD files drawn up and am waiting on a quote for the prices in both plain and stainless. Design is changed a bit to keep costs somewhere around $20 for a set. Things are taking a bit longer with these 12 hour days at work this week.

Those are beautiful braces. Like Uncle Tom, I made mine from thick wall 3/8" pipe. 1" and 1-1/4" sounds about right for the lengths when bolted to headers with typical 3/8" thick flanges. I reused the stock double-sided studs from the stock manifolds with mine in those two locations (regular header bolts everywhere else), which was very functional and made for easy removal of the accessories when required.

My spacers were steel, so they rusted and looked crappy. Aluminum or stainless would be longer lasting from a visual beauty perspective.

I've run withotu them for a while... Nothing has exploded yet. But now I'm reconsidering....

TZFBird, put me down for a stainless set.

Thanks!
Josh

I ran without braces for about 5k miles and I sheared off two accessory bracket bolts right into the head (AC side). I have since changed the hardware and put the braces back on. If you don't want to run braces I would at the minimum replace the stock hardware with grade 8 gear.

I opted to reuse the braces with my headers on my daily driver. I dropped them on my race car until I changed accessories

My hookers came with the spacers in the hardware kit. They installed easily reusing the stock manifold bolts and Ive had zero issues with them since install.

The race car was a bit different. To cut down on bracket flex I made similar spacers to weld rods to an additional mount point. I got the 3/8 tube from Lowe's for around $3. Any Ace hardware should have grade 8 studs. Cyl heads are 3/8 on 16 thread, accessories also share the thread type

Hookers on my DD


Blower rod on the racecar

I'll take a plain set if you start pumping 'em out :]

Things are progressing a bit slower than I had expected.

Should have a few stainless sets done early next week. I'll see how this whole PayPal or whatever works and hopefully a few sets will be done by then.

Grumbles, I'll see what I can do about the steel ones for ya in a timely manner.
wildjyoung, I'll shoot you a PM as soon as I get them.

TZFBird thank you for working on this!

I think Google has a checkout system, which may be easier. I am more than willing to cover paypal fee's should you choose that path or send a money order.

Well, I'm going to try and get a pic posted tonight. After I got this first set back, I'm beginning to think this whole thing might not work out due to price. But so far I have nearly $25 in a set after paying for materials and labor. So I can get them shipped for $30 and that will leave me with no profit which I really don't have a problem with because this whole project was to help my friend start his machine-shop and get him started paying off his equipment.
Stainless would be $30 shipped and plain steel would be something like $25 only due to the difference in cost of materials.

If I can get some opinions from others if these prices are acceptable and more orders are made, prices could drop by up to $5.

Let me know what you think. If you still want them after you see the pics, just let me know.

Sorry guys, didn't get any pics up yet.

Here's some pics of the Stainless ones. All that would be required is a 5/8 wrench for the stud and a 9/16 for the nut to hold the brackets.

All that's needed is a quick once over with a buffing wheel and you're golden.

I am fine with those prices. And am willing to pay a little more. I hate for you to go through all of that trouble and make nothing. Thanks for helping us out. Let me know how much and how to pay and I will send you money for a stainless set.

Thanks Again!!!

I woould recommend hardening them with some sort of tempering. Stainless is not something you want breaking off in a cyl head

Don't worry about it, I'm mainly trying to help out a friend and help out anyone else who needs it at the lowest price possible.

Just shoot me a PM with shipping info, and send money to tzfbird@yahoo.com through PayPal, or if you want to send M.O. I can get them sent out as soon as I get it.

Just out of curiosity why would tempering be needed? 18/8 stainless steel is slightly stronger than grade 5 steel. The original bracket bolts were most likely grade 5 or lower. Not disagreeing with you just curious as to your reasoning.

Because the bolts in question go to the exhaust and factory exhaust bolts are notorious for snapping. Same strength as stock may not appeal to everyone

True. But the only ones that i've ever had snap were the ones in the downpipe. That's been due to weathering/rust. Stainless doesn't have that problem.

If helping out your machinist buddy is the primary goal,
you might touch base with Lon Salgren -- lonsal on the boards,
and proprietor of Top Down Solutions. He markets a small line
of specialty parts, and might be able to help with
marketing/distribution. He's well regarded here at TGO.

I wish these were available before I welded a bracket onto
my headers, and burned most of a small O2 tank forming
a 1/2'' rod into a custom brace.

I got the off-sets today and they look great! Now I jsut have to find someone to make stainless steel brackets!

By the way, this may be a retarded question but why are there three? I know one for each side but I am confused about the third one.

Thanks!
Josh

I hate quoting pics, but you can see the stubby one there

I went ahead and had the rest of the material used up, so by the end of next week there should be roughly 8 sets of each availible if anyone is interested. I started a new thread in the exhaust section for it if you do a search for accessory bracket studs.