1BadRS

My car is a 92 but I'm sure it would pertain to all models. Anyway I have a 36mm hollow sway bar that came off a WS6 car, and I just picked up a set of Koni sway bars. The Koni bars are solid, and the front bar is defenitly a smaller diameter than the hollow bar, not sure on exact measurment. Which bar would be more rigid, solid or hollow? If its the soild I guess the benefit of the hollow bar is the weight savings?

Z28Nut

The hollow WS6 sway bar (if stock) is a compromise between handling and comfortable ride. Though the WS6 package does lean more towards the handling side. The Koni sway bars is aftermarket design (I just thought they made shocks) and would IMO be much less of a compromise between handling and comfy ride. The fact that the Koni's are a set (frnt+rear) lead me to believe you will get better handling because the sway bars are designed to work together to balance the car out on corners (frnt to rear body roll). I don't think they'll make a big difference on ride quality since they mostly prevent body roll in corners and don't really affect shock/spring performance.

EDIT: Duh, to answer your question -- Without part #s, I would guess that the Koni aftermarket sway bar would be stiffer than the factory WS6 sway bar.

ZaneO

A larger bar will always be more effective whether it's solid or hollow. The rigidity comes from the outer diameter.

I'm not sure about a 36mm bar...could you mean 35mm?? If it came off a WS6, it would have to be aftermarket to be that big.

1BadRS

Thanks for the replies.

First this is for a 3rd gen so the WS6 cars got a 36mm front sway bar factory.

Koni made sway bars for 3rd gens up until 1987 I think. Since I am running Koni shocks/struts I figured why not try the sway bars. I realize that a tuned set will work much better than mismatched parts. I was just curious as to if both bars are the same size which would be more rigid. If a solid bar is more rigid maybe thats why they stuck with only a 32mm bar or so.

trackbird

A 36mm hollow bar will be stiffer than a 32mm solid bar, actually, it will be a good bit stiffer. I'd run the 36mm hollow bar for most performance handling applications.

Z28Nut

Will the 36mm hollow front sway bar be too stiff for the Koni rear bar? Just curious 'cause I got matching Hotchkiss sway bars on mine and they work very well together. If 1BadRS runs the WS6 front and Koni rear, won't it upset the balance of the car?

ZaneO

We are talking about 2 different cars here. Yours is a 4th gen. 4th gens tend to like much more front bar than rear. I can't speak too much for 3rd gens.

P.S. You have Hotchkis products, not Hotchkiss.

Z28Nut

I was talking about 1BadRS's 3rd gen, not mine. I like my Hotchkis (corrected spelling, thank you ) sway bars.

Corrected my sig, too.

ZaneO

1BadRS

Ok I have the 36mm hollow front and I have the matching 24mm solid rear.

I also have the Koni setup as well which are both solid and both smaller in diameter than the factory bars I listed above. So I'm trying to figure out which ones I should go with. I have almost every suspension part you can think of for this car so now I'm stuck with which bars to run.

Z28Nut

I'd see if I could borrow somebody's G-tech and test the lateral G's with each setup. Shouldn't take long to swap them out, assuming your end links are in good shape. Even without a G-tech, you can decide seat-of-pants which setup you like better. Just my .02

1BadRS

Yeah I'm with you. That is really the only true way to tell. As a matter of fact I have a G tech so I might just try that out and see what happens.

Thanks

ZaneO

IMO, you current setup is most likely better.

trackbird

Due to the strut type front suspension, the 3rd gen will lose more camber per degree of body roll than a 4th gen. So, they do actually prefer larger front bars than the 4th gens do. It is due to a difference in the front suspension design. That causes us to have to limit body roll with a large front bar to keep the front tires "flat" on the ground during hard cornering. I'd start with the 36/19 combo (or similar) and add rear bar if you think it's needed.

Sam Strano

Koni doesn't make swaybars, or at least not that I've seen and have been a Koni dealer for a while..... But that's really secondary to your question. The answer is a solid bar is a touch stiffer than a hollow one. But the difference varies a lot depending on bar size (OD) and the thickness of the tubing used in the hollow bar.

This thread seems a bit all over the place, so I'm not sure I can help much given the info that isn't here. But the 3rd gen likes a big front bar, and the stock 36mm is an awesome part (also solid and hollow 34's, aftermarket solid 35's among others).. The rear, that depends on a lot of things. But I've found that with good shocks a 35 or 36 is well complimented with 21-24mm bars, but each case has to be looked at as a whole. I will not, and cannot, say that you MUST have X bar on the car. Too many variables.

Suffice to say that a larger bar is stiffer, pretty much regardless of it's being hollow or solid.