Coilover springs - too firm?

[thefairbanks]

Hey guys,

I bought a set of the new Viking front coilovers for GM cars and installed them this weekend. Once I lowered the car, I found the front end was sitting way too high, even after adjusting the ride height of the coilover all the way down (by high, I mean higher than stock even).

It's a '79 Cutlass with a NA Buick V6, soon to be swapped for an '87 GN 3.8. The spring rate of the coils on the coilover is 450#. I plan on using the car in autocross from time to time.

Is this too stiff of a spring for a V6? I keep getting mixed answers from the tech lines. Some say they use 450# QA1s no problem (I believe the QA1 spring is 9", as opposed to the 10" Viking, not sure if that matters). Others are saying for the V6 I should be using 350# springs.

My only guess is the spring is too stiff and that's why it sits up, but I'm open to other ideas. They are prperly seated in the perches too.

 

[novaderrik]

did you roll the car about 10feet to unbind the suspension after you set it down? you can sometimes get aver an inch of drop from just doing that..
a 450# spring isn't too stiff- IROC Camaros have a spring in the 600# range, and i had springs in my Nova that calculated out to almost 800# and it didn't ride too rough or sit too high- and the car only raised up right around inch when i took the motor and trans out, which was kind of weird because i wasn't used to that...
the car sits high because the spring is too long, not because it's too stiff.
find a shorter spring with the same rate.