I am thinking of designing my own strut tower brace. My main question is how to measure the distance between the towers. Would I do this when the car is on a level surface? I have a SOHC and was wondering if anyone knows why the Edelbrock strut brace doesn't fit. If anyone knows how much compression force could be created by the towers that would also be greatly appreciated (just ballpark). Also does a strut tower make that much of a difference in handling. I don't have aftermarket sway bars or anything yet, so is it even really worth the effort? Thanks for the help, and any ideas/suugestions would also be appreciated.

 

The Edelbrock won't fit the 1995 SOHC because of the coilpack location. On all other Neons, it should fit fine by tucking up under the cowl just fine.

Strut tower bars are great on many cars. Ope the hood of most V6's and V8's and you'll see that the strut towers are often a good 2 feet from the firewall/cowl. The Neon's strut towers are what, 6 inches? There's plenty of stiffness up top. Very few pro/semi-pro road racers/autocrossers use them, and then only for that final bit of support after going to monster sway bars, urethane or solid bushings, etc. Same goes for the rear. For those that do use them, Edelbrock is definitely the preferred brand.

For all the effort you'd go through making your own, you could get them for under $20 a pair on ebay. If you really want to use the Edelbrocks up front on a '95 SOHC, you could swith to a newer year SOHC valve cover(any '96-2005), which drops the coilpack down (no seperate bracket). That would mean rerouting a bit for the PCV system, and I think some of the valve cover screws were different sizes. And the oil fill hole is on the opposite side. Pretty strightforward swap though.

Best of luck!