Swaybar recommendations?

[TurboD]

Hi y'all,

Thinking about making some suspension setup tweaks and was hoping to get some thoughts.

I have an '87 non-M030 Turbo. It sits on KW V3s and I love it. Recently, I took the car for an extended drive through some very technical roads and I'm thinking it's time to upgrade the sway bars. The car has some body roll, and you can feel the 1/2 second of body roll before the suspension settles and starts to really turn in. In other words, you turn in and the car starts to change direction, all while the body roll starts happening, once the body has finished rolling and the car settles into the turn, it turns a little harder with no additional input from me. KW V3s are in the factory stock recommended setting. My car currently has a 25mm front bar and an 18mm rear bar.

Do folks generally go to the 30mm front and 19mm 968 M030 sway bar setup? LR has a kit with a 5 way adjustable rear bar.

Also, looking to use some PowerFlex street-hardness poly bushings throughout. Anyone have experiences to report on them? Finally, Porsche doesn't provide a size for the diameter of the bushing that fits on the outer end of the 30mm sway bar — powerflex doesn't give any additional clarity on this either. Part number for the factory 968 M030 outer bushing is 951-343-793-31. If any of you with the 968 M030 would be so kind as to measure the size of the bar where it mounts to the control arm, I'd greatly appreciate it.

The handling balance right now is pretty darn good and I don't want to mess it up — just trying to sharpen the turn in response and direction changes.

[michaelmount123]

Start by reading up on shock adjustments and their effect.

You may not need bigger sways if you stiffen the rebound on your shocks. This will slow the body roll. You may also have to stiffen the compression a bit which will contribute to slowing the initial roll. This is a trial and error thing to find the sweet spot. If the balance goes away, but the roll is improved, you can address balance with the shocks, but usually adjustable sways make it easier. Keep in mind that you may end up with a compromise on shock stiffness to keep it comfortable on the street.

[cda951]

How low is your ride height? Too low and the suspension geometry/roll center are affected and body roll actually increases, despite the lowered center of gravity (roll center and center of gravity are too far apart). A crude rule of thumb is if you look under your car from the front and the front control arms are at a significant upward angle from the inner mounting points to the ball joints, it is too low. I have custom drop spindles on my 951 to address this.

To expand on what @michaelmount123 says, sway bars should not be the primary means of controlling body roll, but adjustable bars can be used to fine-tune handling balance.

In my experience the 30mm 968 M030 front bar induced too much understeer. The sweet spot with stock-type bars is the 26.8mm front bar and the 19mm 3-hole adjustable 968 M030 rear bar. Too much rear bar will lift the inside rear wheel too much and affect traction out of tight corners. LSD transaxle helps to mitigate this to a large extent.

[Tom]

I put the 968 sway bars on my car because someone tossed them into a parts trade. I was pretty surprised how much they improved the feel of the stock '86 turbo suspension. I'd never go back now.

[walfreyydo]

I can report that the Powerflex bushings are a worthwhile upgrade. I have a full set on my S2 - including the rear spring plate bushings, torsion bar carrier, front/rear control arm, caster blocks and swaybar/steering rack. They are a mix of the black (race) and the purple (street), opting for black wherever possible/available.

I opted for poly over oem or monoballs because I wanted something stiffer than the stock rubber but didnt want to sacrifice the added NVH that monoballs have. I was worried that the poly bushings would be squeeky over time, but so far after 4 years they have been fine. Powerflex bushings have additional sipes on the bushing to hold the grease in and keep the noise down. Its a very good product

One tip - do your rear suspension bushings when you do a rear suspension upgrade. I did mine when I did the TB delete coilover conversion, but you could also do it as part of a torsion bar upgrade - since it will require lowering/removing the entire rear suspension, just as if you were doing a torsion bar re-index or upgrade, its definitely something you want to try to do only once if possible.

Sway bars - still using stock S2 (26.8mm front, 16mm rear) but running Koni Yellows (full stiff rebound) and 400#/600# springs F/R coilovers (about #360/340 effective). The springs and shocks alone significantly reduced body roll due to the added stiffness (would also apply to thicker torsion bar as well). My next plan is to upgrade the rear bar to a larger adjustable bar (maybe a 19mm or LR 22mm) so I can tune oversteer. I have no plans to upgrade the front bar (stiffer front = more understeer and I want less)

[Latitude48]

Do folks generally go to the 30mm front and 19mm 968 M030 sway bar setup? LR has a kit with a 5 way adjustable rear bar.

I've been running the 968 M030 hollow 30mm front and solid, adjustable 19mm rear bars on my S2 for 25 years. Years ago, I drove it in 4-5 HPDE events and the handling was very good as it was (still is) fitted with Koni double adjustable struts with a 2.5" spring diameter conversion from Racer's Edge. The rear has Koni 3012 coilovers.

The front 969 M030 bar, 944 343 706 30, was discontinued a few years ago and replaced with 944 343 706 31, which is a solid 28.6 bar, apparently made by H&R. I have a new one (plus the rear bar and Racer's Edge Delrin bushings) in my stash of parts that will eventually go on the 951 unless I decide to sell the 951, which I may do... as I have too many cars and have become addicted to the 400 HP and 375 ft-lb of torque my Golf R currently has, ha, ha.