Prothane or OEM bushings?

[cjfinkle]

I am in the process of building up an 88 CRX Si for ITA competition and cannot decide on which bushings to go with. I have heard many ups and downs on kits such as the Energy Suspension nd Prothane one. The only replacements that I have so far are Mugen rear trailing arm bushings from OPM. What do ther Honda racers recommend? A complete kit, all new OEM bushings, or a combination of both?

[plank]

In general I think you want to stiffen things up. I am building a 91 and every bushing in the car I can replace with a stiff one I will. I have a full kit from OPM as well as the rear trailing arms. In addition I have a prothane engine bushing mount kit.

REP

[cjfinkle]

plank, can you tell me what kit OPM sells? I know it's a complete kit, but is it their own or is it from Prothane or Energy Suspension?

[plank]

CJ

Good question I did not bother to ask and I won't see them and start playing with them until TGIVING as I had them shipped to NJ where we are assembling the car. I have seen both manufacturers on the net, but have experience with neither in the honda, we use Mazdacomp stuff as well as material from the tri-link guy on the Mazda and I am not aware if they supply specific brands. In general, keep it stiff, just one less thing to worry about in your tuning. This is our first Honda so we are learning also.

Why not call Tom and find out what he supplies.

Dick

[Tyson]

Plank, I believe the poly engine mount inserts are illegal for IT. The Mugen hard rubber are fine, OPM does sell em too. When I asked Tom how effective they are, he didnt seem that ecstatic tho. I just replaced my front with a fresh OEM anyway. Getting to the rear mount of a CRX is impossible without taking out the rear crossmember.

[NoRaceCarYet]

Tyson, I think you may want to check the specs... I think any but solid is allowed in Engine mounts...

[cjfinkle]

Well I went ahead and ordered the Prothane kit from OPM. For those that don't know, it is an Energy Suspension kit that they sell on the site.

[Tyson]

The ES set actually doesnt replace the OEM bushings, they are in fact "inserts" and sandwich the factory rubber and fill in the gaps with poly. And i dont see anything in the "specs" that allow this.

Anyway, does anyone have anymore opinions on whether to replace with NEW OEM SUSPENSION (just to be clear) bushings or poly bushings? (i dont feel like spending for spherical progress bushings.) I remember some talk in another thread about ES poly bushings binding. can someone clarify?

[This message has been edited by Tyson (edited November 02, 2002).]

[This message has been edited by Tyson (edited December 24, 2002).]

[Tyson]

nevermind, realized i already asked this....

[This message has been edited by Tyson (edited November 02, 2002).]

[Don]

On the subject of bushings.... I ordered some medium durometer urethane bushings for my 73 ITC Civic from Australia, but got a grab bag of late model bushings instead.
92-99 upper and lower contol arms, outer sway bar.
88-91 rear piviots, rear control arm kit and another kit thats marked rear swg. T Control arm. They are not rock hard like is popular in the USA, but are similar to the Mugen offerings in hardness, so the shouldn't bind up the suspension I'm told. Any interested people can e-mail me, as I dont get to this site that often. I just dont want to send them back to OZ.

[Don]

Forgot to post the E-mail address
[email protected]

[jc836]

We are finishing the Si over the winter and it has had the bushings in back replaced on virtually every surface. I was told that one should use OEM rubber up front so as not the get the suspension too stiff. So I have only put the sway bar bushings and end link kits from ES up there. As to the rear, we replaced the large donuts on the trailing arms and the lower control arm bushings with ES parts. Then with the ADDCO sway bar-I opted for their poly bushings and end link kits. The rest of the rear is OEM. I chose to use rubber pieces for the shocks as well. The only front suspension component that I contemplate using poly on would be the radius rods.
As to the question of engine mounts-can someone point us to the rule for them. I do know from recent magazine articles that ES is now offering a "sandwich" insert that fits over the stock rubber. It is used by the drag crowd and I would wonder if it would actually be too stiff for our needs. Does anyone have experience with either rubber or poly bushings for the rack and pinion assembly?

------------------
'89 CRX Si-SCCA ITA
'96 Civic HB Just cruising daily
'99 Prelude=a sweet song in motion

[Fleetcare]

If you search on the internet for crx bushings I have seen a few stories of people who installed the ES or similar bushings and regret it and in most cases reverted back. The problem seems to be that they cannot take the abuse and start to crumble.

Just a thought.

[breaka_1_9]

i am wondering like the others if you can use the ES motor mount kit or is this an illegal mod?

thanks.

[joe i]

I don't have the GCR in front of me now but I am almost positive that engine mounts must remain stock, no poly, no modification. STOCK!

Joe
91 ITA CRX

[cjfinkle]

you are correct, they must remain stock

[breaka_1_9]

thanks for all the replies!