Front suspension help

[Hy82e]

The plans for the car. Mild cammed LS 6.0 iron block, daily driver I hope to be around 450rwhp. To be honest other than a couple runs during the Honeymoon period with the car, it will hardly see track time street or drag. (unless the bug bites).Still I want it to be able to perform when the opportunity comes up.

What I'm looking for is an all around performance. Jack of all trades, not a master of one.

I've talked to a few guys like UMI, and Marcus Sc&c . They all were good guys with great ideas and products to make them come together, but.... here the plot thickens. dun...dun...dun........ The budget, $600 approx. Now I'd love to hit the easy button call Marcus Sc&c and have him send me over his Stage 2 plus kit with springs and shocks on top, well lets just make it coilovers why not. The reality is if I don't find a package I can afford I'm just dreaming and not building.

Now on to the good stuff. I've come up with 3 basic plans. Please share you opinions, or ideas.

1. UB Machine tubular upper a-arms $150
Proforged tall upper ball joints $100
Proforged tall lower ball joints $100
Moog problem solver LCA bushings $40
Bilstein shocks $140
Moog 5660 springs $60
Total $590
I could step up to Howe ball joints here Xtall uppers and .5" lowers for $140 more = $730 adds up FAST

2. UB Machine tubular upper a-arms $150
Moog stock upper ball joints $32
Proforged tall lower ball joints $100
Moog problem solver LCA bushings $40
Bilstein shocks $140
Moog 5660 springs $60
Total $522
This frees up some $$ to upgrade shocks or springs.

3. Moog stock upper ball joints $32
Moog stock lower ball joints $50
Moog problem solver UCA bushings $40
Moog problem solver LCA bushings $40
Viking double adjustable coilovers $500
Total $662
I could save about $50 dollars going with single adjustable QA1 coil overs


Now I listed Moog bushings to meet the daily driving needs, prices dont change much to go with poly or something.

I'll also add that the car is being built back up from bare frame. It will also be receiving the basic frame supports MAYBE some boxing in on the frame rails. I'm going for a ballpark 2" drop and will probably live with 15" wheels for a while.

Please help a noob out let me know what ya'll think.

 

[scot w.]

In my opinion if you don't change Both the upper & lower A arms your not gaining much in terms of correcting the geometry issues with the G-body, so to me #3 on your list seems to be the best bet considering what your going to be doing with the car.

* Stay with the Moog bushings and stay away from the poly bushings...best bushings are Delrin.


You would be Very surprised what a nice low profile tire, 17" wheels, and good sway bars will do to a car to make it handle better!

 

[Hy82e]

Thanks for tuning in Scott. You are being a gentleman and not mentioning it, but you also have some awesome options on your website. I have spent a lot of time on it looking at the DSE products. I have read your complete suspension build thread multiple times, also LanceSS build up over on montecarloss.com. For the blue collar dirt under the fingernails guys that might have a hard time doing a complete DSE rebuild he has a nice approach. With a lot of before and after data. Unfortunately even his example doesn't fit into the budget.

I have considered DSE shocks as an alternative for the Bilsteins in my notes I just haven't done all my homework with compatibility with the springs I'm planning. And in my personal opinion DSE upper control arms are the purrdyest!

I'm a little surprised to see #3 as the first sudgested. Do you have an opinion between the Viking or Qa1 coilovers?

I didn't mention it but I have two sways in hand as an option. 36mm F body or the stock F41 sway. And my goals are to step up to a 17" wheel ASAP.

 

[scot w.]

Thanks for tuning in Scott. You are being a gentleman and not mentioning it, but you also have some awesome options on your website. I have spent a lot of time on it looking at the DSE products. I have read your complete suspension build thread multiple times, also LanceSS build up over on montecarloss.com. For the blue collar dirt under the fingernails guys that might have a hard time doing a complete DSE rebuild he has a nice approach. With a lot of before and after data. Unfortunately even his example doesn't fit into the budget.

I have considered DSE shocks as an alternative for the Bilsteins in my notes I just haven't done all my homework with compatibility with the springs I'm planning. And in my personal opinion DSE upper control arms are the purrdyest!

I'm a little surprised to see #3 as the first sudgested. Do you have an opinion between the Viking or Qa1 coilovers?

I didn't mention it but I have two sways in hand as an option. 36mm F body or the stock F41 sway. And my goals are to step up to a 17" wheel ASAP.

As far as my choice for #3 goes, the reason behind that is for what your basically wanting out of the car I see no need to spend money on just upper control arms when it could be spent somewhere else because you really won't benefit much from the upper A arms at that point as much as you would first starting out with good Sway bars, braces, low profile tires and some good shocks. Then if you eventually want more handling & performance out of the car then it's time to step it up and get a "Set/Pair" of upper & lower A arms and possibly coil overs to adjust ride height..

For the ride quality and handling quality along with a 2" drop it's hard to beat the DSE drop coil spring & shock combo! It takes all the guess work out of things and simply makes things nice when you can feel confident bolting everything on and having it work 100% right away.

As far as the Viking vs QA1 I have no prior experience with the Viking shocks so I can't compare the two. Many have ran the QA1's before but I have seen my share of them fail/brake as I am sure any shock can but going with a more reputable company like Ridetech they offer an unbeatable warranty of (1,000,001 mile warranty) which is also transferable.