im looking into replacing my oem wonderbar for a umi brand one
would that be a good upgrade?

i am also looking into the umi stb. and SFCs

i thought theyre good quality and affordable

any suggestions?

 

im not really sure if there is much benefit in a aftermarket wonder bar to replace a stock one, they both work just fine. Unless you go with a adjustable one for some preload on the front end.

As much as i like UMI products, im not in love with their STB at all. Im sure it works, but it can be better, and i dont like how it mounts.

 

im guessing the aftermarket wonder bars are a bit thicker. oems are .75"

reasonable enough. i noticed how they mount on top of the strut mounts..
i saw someone re do the mounting plates on there.

 

i just dont like the idea of having to remove the bar for alignments. Yeah, you dont do them every day, but it just irritates me.

also, the strut mount bolts are rather small, and to put lateral load on them like this, to me, seems to be a bad idea. What if they shear the bolts? that will make a mess quick

 

2 things about the UMI STB....

The mounts are slotted just like the 6 strut mount bolts, so I don't see why the STB would need to be removed .

And the UMI STB uses 4 (2 on each side) of the strut mounts, so if they are strong enough for the strut, why would they be too weak for the STB? And 2 more bolts can be added, if someone wanted to, since there is an extra hole in the STB mount for them to be added.

 

what i we are referring to
original

vs
new and improved.


got these off another thread.
the second design would be alot easier to work with

 

you are correct with the slotted holes, was thinking about it wrong. i assume they are slotted side to side? right?

you can add the extra 2 bolts, but when you change the alignment, you are left with holes in the strut tower and have to drill more.

Just my personal opinion of it, i dont like it. I feel the stb should be rigid mounted, and mounted independent of the strut mount. as for the bolts shearing, i dont know that its likely, but i would rather not take the chance. Maybe im paranoid,

 

i like that better

 

Not really.....Now you hafta drill holes to mount the STB. Mine was on FAST and requires only removing 2 existing nuts, Went on WAY faster than the Edelbrock I replaced, where I had to drill 6 holes to mount it.

That new tiny mount pic looks pretty useless. Not much footing or surface area to spread the load out. Looks like it could easily flex the strut tower sheetmetal, since the load isn't spread out very much.


Yes, they are slotted just like the strut mounts, as seen in the pic that TPI TERR posted.

You wouldn't hafta drill new holes after an alignment.....The STB mounts will stay exactly were they were. Loosen the 2 nuts of the strut mounts like normal for an alignment change & the strut mounts would slide back or forth under them. Tighten the strut mount nuts back up & your done. No need to ever touch the 2 bolts in the extra holes of the STB mount or drill new holes for the 2 extra bolts. I actually have never bothered to put those in. I'm just using the strut mounts nuts to hold mine on.

 

if the strut mounts have to move front or backwards, caster adjustment, the stb would have to move with it since the holes in it are not slotted in that direction.

 

valid point, btu i feel that since its mounted on the edge of the tower, if the entire tower is trying to move, it will slop it. but if the center of the tower is trying to bulge upwards, then no, it wont work as well.

when i made mine, i tried to keep the mounts as large as possible without interfering with the strut mount. Its shape mirrors the contours of the mount, so it fits snugly together when at the max adjustments

 

Does the strut mount move forward & backwards, for alignment changes? If it does, how do the strut mounts handle that, since they only have slotted holes for left/right movement?

 

besides umi stb what else is there? i think the design will be much better if the stb had individual mounting bolts.

ex. taking off my intake i wouldn't want to risk any possibility to move my alignment because i had to remove the 4 bolts. there might be few times where i will have to remove the stb. an independent mounting bracket would be much easier imo .

umi sfc look pretty good as well . bolt on to the rear lca location and welded on in the front section.

 

To pull the UMI STB out of the way, for the engine to come out...You'd only hafta pull the 2 mount bolts for the cross bar to the mounts. You would touch the 4 mount nuts on the strut mounts, so it would have zero way to affect the alignment.

 

got you i havent seen one my self. i know the bmr is a one piece and doens look as good as the umi design.
when alignment tweakin comes around. is it easy to move the strut mounts around?

 

the sheetmetal of the towers are slotted front to back

you can kinda see it in this pic

 

I haven't ever gotten my GTA re-aligned after putting the UMI piece on, so I don't really know. But I wouldn't expect it to be. The strut mounts would slide around under the STB mounts.

Of course, you don't pull the nuts completely off to do an alignment. You just loosen them, then use a soft mallet to tap them to where you need to, to adjust the alignment.


Ah.....Never seen the strut mounts off & seen the mount holes (or slots apparently).

 

When we designed the STB our goal was a bolt on item since some customers aren't keen on drilling holes in there car. Now we do include an optional bolt which we recommend to install but it requires drilling, it helps hold the brace in place better. As for drilling the hole, the mounts feature slots so you shouldn't have to drill any more holes once the two are drilled. Everyone is going to have a different option on an item like this and we understand this, we have had good luck with this design so far

As for the wonder bar, yes ours is much larger than the factory one. It is built from 1.250" DOM tubing with 3/16" machined mounting points.

If I can help anymore please ask. Thank you!
Ryan

 

I run UMI sfc's, lca's, wonderbar and adj. panahard rod. Real quality product and great service.

Oh yea...your car is my screen saver....one day....one day.

Ryan - When you gonna make a stb that clears the FIRST intake?

 

lol thanks. any pictures of the sfc? and wonderbar installed on the car. im wondering how it will clear my exhaust routing.

 

My car is tied up for a while with a motor and tranny swap being done.

As my car has dual cats, I had to move the cats over about 1.5" to clear the sfc. Not a big deal. On a single cat car it's not an issue. I run a 3" Flowmaster exhaust.

 

Hello
Thanks for your interest in UMI Performance. Below is a link to show you what our products look like while installed on the vehicle.

Here is a link of our SFC's
http://www.umiperformance.com/catalo...jbdcp9mpi7bhq4

And as far as our Wonder Bar I don't have any pics of the installation at this moment. Sorry for any inconvenience. What type of fan combination are you running? There is a possibility of trimming the fan shroud and some duel fans will have a clearance issue. If you can leave me know I can just reassure you that you will not have any issues.
Thanks
Brad