Mugen Rear Tower Strut Bar

Quick update. One of my favourite cars on the itr-dc5 forum was being parted out, the 234 whp N/A beast that belonged to Monz. Monz always struck me as an owner who dished out love and attention to his Teg, so it was a no brainer to buy his Mugen rear tower strut bar off him. Perfect condition, a lot less that the list price and no shipping required from Japan.

It's currently in Tom's custody so I've nabbed a couple of generic pictures off the net.

SFS Induction Hose and ESMMs

I had heard of quite a few cases where the OEM induction hose had ripped when under pressure from quality induction kits. The solution was two fold:

• Change to a more durable performance induction hose such as Samco or SFS
• Reduce engine movement under load (this has a more important benefit described later in this post). This could be done in three ways:
• Fit an engine torque damper aka ETD 
• Upgrade to stiffer engine mounts
• Fit polyurethane engine mount inserts. The most common brand for these was Energy Suspension, their inserts commonly referred to as ESMMs (Energy Suspension Motor Mounts)

Addressing the choice of induction hose, there is little to no difference to distinguish between the quality of Samco and SFS products. Their brand reputation is just as reputable as each other so it should really come down to which one you can find cheapest. At the time, it so happened to be SFS so a purchase was made.

SFS Silicone Induction Hose

Regarding engine movement reduction; by chance I had found out who the previous owner of my car was. Apparently he was quite the Mugen whore hence why I still had Mugen parts on the car when I purchased it. Anyway I had discovered that the car already had ESMMs fitted. It all made sense now why my car appeared to be so much louder than my bro's old EP3 even though it was in stock form! I had actually been worried about uprating the mounts as it's been reported that some owners couldn't live with the vibrations and increased cabin noise after ESMMs were fitted. No wonder I was worried! An upgrade from my ESMMs would be ones with a race spec durometer value or indeed proper solid mounts that would probably cause your teeth to shake out!

Note - ESMMs have a durometer value of 70A

ESMMs

Under high performance conditions, ESMMs reduce wheel hop and torque induced movement that can damage vehicle components. This is better explained visually below.