I just finished installing Maximum Motorsports Strut Tower Brace of 99-04 Mustangs, and will share with you my experience. Let me start with the good things. The piece came as part of the sport grip box I purchased from MM, it was packaged very nicely with very adequate protection along with the other pieces I received along with it. Upon inspection I saw it was a very sturdy, high quality piece, good welds, thick tubing, overall good quality. The instructions were very detailed, good pictures (I recommend downloading the PDF from their website as it comes with nice color pictures and you can zoom in). All the hardware was also present and accounted for.
Now the cons. Installation was moderately difficult. There are 14 bolts to install the piece, and it is very difficult to get them all to line up when installing it. Even after checking, doublechecking, center punching, rechecking, and drilling the holes, being very careful to pay attention to alignment, it still doesn't turn out just right. You have to do a substantial amount of pulling and pushing and poking and prodding to get all the bolts to thread, but it is quite possible. The piece did have some paint scraped off on the under side of one leg which extends to the firewall, probably some guy bumped it or something at the warehouse, no big deal, doesn't effect performance, and you can't even see it when it's installed. The biggest gripe I had was on the passenger side, concerning the leg that extends from the strut tower to the firewall. The leg was about an 1/8 inch too short, and so didn't quite seat where it should have, which is right in the crevice at the pinch weld there. Easily overcome with a small stack of flat washers, effective, and not bad looking to boot. I can only speculate the reasons for this, whether it was a manufacturing defect, or perhaps my car isn't quite straight anymore, it does have 46k miles on it now, so it's a definite possibility.
Performance gains: It did improve my front end rigidity a noticeable amount, though don't expect huge results unless you're pushing your stang's handling limits. I didn't have cowl shake before, but I have heard it can help to alleviate this problem.
So there you have it. Hope this writeup helped you out. Despite its drawbacks and the install headache, I'm happy I got the piece.
Now the cons. Installation was moderately difficult. There are 14 bolts to install the piece, and it is very difficult to get them all to line up when installing it. Even after checking, doublechecking, center punching, rechecking, and drilling the holes, being very careful to pay attention to alignment, it still doesn't turn out just right. You have to do a substantial amount of pulling and pushing and poking and prodding to get all the bolts to thread, but it is quite possible. The piece did have some paint scraped off on the under side of one leg which extends to the firewall, probably some guy bumped it or something at the warehouse, no big deal, doesn't effect performance, and you can't even see it when it's installed. The biggest gripe I had was on the passenger side, concerning the leg that extends from the strut tower to the firewall. The leg was about an 1/8 inch too short, and so didn't quite seat where it should have, which is right in the crevice at the pinch weld there. Easily overcome with a small stack of flat washers, effective, and not bad looking to boot. I can only speculate the reasons for this, whether it was a manufacturing defect, or perhaps my car isn't quite straight anymore, it does have 46k miles on it now, so it's a definite possibility.
Performance gains: It did improve my front end rigidity a noticeable amount, though don't expect huge results unless you're pushing your stang's handling limits. I didn't have cowl shake before, but I have heard it can help to alleviate this problem.
So there you have it. Hope this writeup helped you out. Despite its drawbacks and the install headache, I'm happy I got the piece.
Good write up, seems to be the overall consensus with these. I do like the added look appeal to the engine tho. If you have a throttle body and plenum did the STB fit over the intake tube?
