Looking for input / suggested alignment specs on my setup

BuickMike

Money pit
Joined
Jun 7, 2001
I figure I'll get some good responses here. I built my suspension a few years back when there were few options and I was on a very tight budget, so I got creative. I'm going to lay out my setup and was hoping to get:

1. Alignment spec recommendations for a street car that will eventually get to auto x here and there.

2. Thoughts on anything I can do to improve my current setup.

3. Ideas for future upgrades that will make a big difference.

My wheels are GTA rears with my rears widened to 8.5". The fronts are Kumho 245/50's (I know I need to eventually ditch those) and the rears are Toyo Proxes DR's (275/45's).

I have the Energy suspension body bushings...all of them.

Cutlass joust bars and GP front frame brace
Rear seat X brace

The suspension is:

Stock front swaybar. I have a 34mm IROC bar laying around. Should I put it on?
SPC springs
Bilstein HD shocks
stock lower front control arms with 1/2" taller ball joints and 1LE bushings.
UB Machine custom upper front control arms with 1/2" taller ball joints. (A grass roots motorsports guy had these custom designed to have a similar geometry to the SC&C, but adjustable with shims like stock.)
2nd gen S10 front spindles with dual piston calipers and 11" rotors
Stock rear lower control arms boxed with HR Parts bushings.
Baseline Suspensions rear upper control arms.
2nd gen S10 rear swaybar. I connected the endlinks to the existing braces that connect the frame siderails to the rear cross member over the axle. Not sure if that spot is too weak. My endlinks are also real long. Should I shorten them?
Rear brakes are just aluminum drums with S10 wheel cylinders.

I plan on making some upper front fender to rad support braces and rear frame brace.

So there you have it. Thoughts?
 
First thing I'd suggest is to get rid of the aluminum drums Mike. While they do dissipate heat better than cast they also can break under heavy braking conditions. Second would be to install the F body bar you've got but before you put the links in have the car on the ground and measure the distance between the arm and the bar. Bar should be level or very slightly pointed downwards. Do the same with the bar on the back and that will reduce some of the deflection of the end links.

Next would be to scale the car with you in it so you know where the weight sits. You can adjust this to some degree with weights. Scot W. can give you an idea of how much just minor changes can change the weight bias.;) His wife was used as "ballast" when he scaled his car initially but don't even think about asking how much the "ballast" weighed.:eek: There are quite a few more things that you can do to help the chassis handle better and most of them are not only simple but inexpensive.:D
 
Thanks Charlie. I'll check out the swaybars and endlinks.

What are your thoughts on alignment? Since it is more of a street car I was thinking -1.5 for camber, 4.5 for caster, and slight toe in (3/32?).

Also, I forgot to ask specifically if my spring / shock combo is ok. I have no idea what the rate is on the spc springs, but I think they may be a little high for my shocks because the car is a tad bouncy on big bumps. Otherwise it rides like a nice touring car. I would compare it to a BMW 3 series.
 
Toe should always be 1/16" or .12-.14 Mike. As far as the camber, the more negative the camber is the better the car will go around corners but you may suffer from edge wear on the tires. Same goes with the caster. If the tires are wide enough it may not be an issue but in most cases it will wear the inner and outer edges of the tires. I'll still stick with the post I made in the G body alignment thread though.;) It's in the suspension and brake sticky if you want to read through it.
 
Toe should always be 1/16" or .12-.14 Mike. As far as the camber, the more negative the camber is the better the car will go around corners but you may suffer from edge wear on the tires. Same goes with the caster. If the tires are wide enough it may not be an issue but in most cases it will wear the inner and outer edges of the tires. I'll still stick with the post I made in the G body alignment thread though.;) It's in the suspension and brake sticky if you want to read through it.

I believe I did read that and it was a topic about drac car alignment. You said to go with 4.5 degrees of caster, and I don't remember the camber. Something like -.5?

Here is what I found for recommended specs that came from SC&C with their stage 2 kit:

Looks like Marcus us a big fan of lots of caster and less negative camber. What are your thoughts on this?

street/show
camber: 0 to -1/4
caster: +4 to +4.5
toe in: 1/8" total

street performance
camber: -1/2
caster: +5 to +5.5
toe in: 1/16" total

Mild Competition (not recomended for street use)
camber:-1 to -1.5
caster: +5 to +6
toe: 0 to 1/16" toe out (autocross)
 
If this is a street car then you want 3 to 3.5 degrees of caster but more than this can give you some tire wear on the edges when you go around a corner. This is because of the way the tire tilts as you turn. It's part of the included angle of the front suspension. I prefer 0 to .2 negative camber unless you're going to use it strictly as a track car, then use more.
 
Ridetech recommends:
camber: -0.5 to -1.5 degree (within 0.3 from side to side)
caster: 4 to 7 degrees positive
toe: 1/16" to 1/8" toe in (others have suggested going toe out to improve turning response)

Also told to purchase a camber shim pack from Detroit Speed so you can add max camber at the track and remove it before you leave at the end of the day. You will want longer than standard thru-bolts on upper control arms to accommodate the thicker shims.

Shoot me an e-mail if you need a link to DSE's shim pack.

Conrad
conrad0320@gmail.com



















9
 
I ended up getting -.5 camber, +4.9 caster, and 1/16" toe in. The car handles fantastic. I'll keep an eye on tire wear, however I don't think I'll have much of an issue since there are no too many twisties around here. I still need to swap out the IROC front bar, set the rear bar how Charlie told me to, and make my rear frame brace. Hoping to work on those items in a few weeks.
 
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