tube K-member?

it has ben a while but i remember hearing about someone making a tube front k-member for our marks? does anyone know who makes them and if they are still making them? I was thinking about looking into getting one for the weight savings and the extra room for "intake piping".

I think it was ponyfreak, but I also think he did his own frabricating. Not to sell, just for himself.

I believe it as AJE or something like that. You also had to use their custom lower control arms which had some strength issues. It was discussed that it probably wasn't something for a daily driver because of strength issues.

I know there were all kinds of issues with them as supplied. Fit and function were the items. You were left on your own to fiqure it out as the factory was of no help, as there were no real demands from Mark Vlll users.

i sent AJE a e-mail asking them about the k-member and this is what i got back.

"The k-member and a-arms need to be run together! K-member is $489 and the a-arms are $449."

has anyone here used one or seen one installed? with the poor fit deal i can make that work but what were the function issues? did they just break or did they have to much flex to support the car or what? do the pros of the weight savings and the extra room for the pluming out weigh the cons of the fit and function? do you think that with a few more tubes welded in the right places would help the strength issues?

the other way i see doing it would be to take a stock k-member and build a "mold" of it out of tube and plate. like if i were to strip the stock peice of everything and bolt plates of metal to all the used bolt holes and connect them with what ever i can find. then use that as a mold to build my own tube k member from that jig. i understand that this would take some time and a very skilled welder to get it right and strong enough to take the abuse of a street/strip car. If i do it this way i could fix some if not all of the front end issues with the lower arm placement. what do yal think about doing it this way?

It's possible but you it really needs to be very strong to take the abuse of a 4000 lb car being driven over bumps and potholes. Nevermind if you are putting out some serious power. There are a lot of other places I would look for weight savings first, then if those didn't get you where you wanted start looking at the tubular subframe. I don't know if you would be able to shave any mroe than 25-35 lbs from the subframe by making it tubular. Just putting in a small gel cel battery and relocating it to the trunk would loose you a good amount of weight up front.

So don't get me wrong I not saying don't do it or attempt it, but if it were me I would do some other easier weight saving methods first then tackle the hard stuff.

The problem was the front end would not maintain any kind of alignment for long on the street. There were also problems with fasteners loosening as well. Part of the alure for this setup was to gain additional space for a very custom style exhaust (TT). I know Poney Freak was working on this and he is probably the one who has the most hands on experience, but I haven't seen any imput lately from him.

I thought it was Eli who did it, but I don't remember.

EDIT: Here's a link, don't know if this will help: http://mark8.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=1654

He did as well.