I've been around for some time, but haven't posted much. Life changes and other things have eaten up my time, but now I am in a position to give myself a year or a bit longer to put together a plan to do some upgrades to my 2002 SOM WS6. I'm the second owner, and brought her home from a Mansfield, OH Buick dealership in 2005; drove her home to NJ in March of that year. I bought her with 14,xxx miles,and she has just over 19k on the odometer. I haven't gotten a chance to drive her since last summer, but before I take her out again, i'd like to do some upgrades. Priority over all things is to make sure all the fluids and such are up to speed. I think i'm settled on exhaust - I had a 98 C5 with the Borla Stinger system and X pipe which sounded incredible. I'm leaning towards that with the WS6 (Borla). I dont need to go too crazy with power, but a little more would be nice. My biggest hurdle is suspension. This is a T-Top WS6, so i'd want weld-in subframes,...but as far as shocks, struts/coilovers, sway bars, etc, what does everyone like? I've seen some decent kits out there for $3300+....this would mainly be a show/driving/fun/crusing car, but I'd like for it to handle like its on rails. And the stance needs to be lower. Outside of that, any performance upgrades that are worth it on these? My C5 had a Vararam intake, Borla Xpipe and exhaust, and a 2010 Z06 short throw shifter, and without a tune, was a totally different car. Some other things i'd like to do are to swap the lighting inside out to LED/HID, new wheels and upgraded braking.

Suggestions for what parts/tuning/companies to use are welcome.

 

BMR Lowering Springs, Koni sports and some good lower control arms (to control wheel hop) will change your life. Some people recommend Strano springs but they are both similar. If you're like me - not trying to build a race car, just something fun to play with on an occasional weekend here and there - you'll be very happy. This setup is pretty proven around here as I'm sure others will chime in. That's why I went with it. And even after reading all of the good stuff/hype I was literally shocked when I first drove the car after putting this stuff on. It's that different. Oh, and LCA relcoation brackets are pretty key when lowering these things. I think you'd be very pleased.

There are other things you can do, but this is a GREAT starting point. From there? Probably Strano sway bars. A watts link if you want to start squeeze everything out of the car. Aftermarket torque arm.

 

All these cars were built as if they were T-tops, Hardtop cars don't really give much added structural integrity. You do NOT need SFC's, if you want them its fine as they won't really hurt anything but they are absolutely 100% not a needed item, despite what some vendors (who are the ones selling the things) might tell you. Many people don't see a bit of difference with them, especially when they upgrade from the terrible stock shocks that are actually the reason for the car feeling so sloppy, loose, disconnected and floaty - many misinterpret this for chassis flex. I have 3pt SFC's welded in my car and they did nothing noticeable, however I fixed the real problem first - the shocks.

For suspension if you want great handling and don't want coilovers look at Koni yellow sport shocks, strano springs, strano swaybars (or other 35mm front, 22mm rear bars, don't go bigger than that in the rear), and a watts link will make a large difference as well. Those 4 parts above, (proper shocks/springs/swaybars/watts link) will make the biggest difference in handling suspension-wise you can do with these cars - the setup I recommended above will outhandle your C5 and surprise the hell out of you. You absolutely do not need aftermarket control arms, torque arm, or strut tower brace (does nothing). If you choose to add those parts then avoid poly bushings on both ends of the control arms, and get a full length adjustable torque arm, not a short chassis mounted one(can cause brake hop, and will be noisy). What ever you do, do not cheap out on shocks as they will be the foundation to a good handling and riding setup, and do not get shocks that are not gas charged like Vikings or QA1s, as they will be garbage for handling and ride quality despite how they are marketed, even if they are the "handling" versions.

If you do want coilovers you will be spending some good money to get proper ones, Penske, race bilstien, ride tech, and UMI/Strano custom afco coilovers are pretty much your choices of good coilovers that will function well for handling and ride quality. If you cheap out here expect to have poor ride quality and sketchy handling and poor reliability as well.

For brakes just get some good pads(hawk hps for example) unless you seriously want to road race the car, then you can look into upgrading the front calipers ONLY and leave the rear stock as when you add more stopping power to the rear you get axle hop and lockup.

Other good mods - LT headers, lighter clutch setup, MGW shifter, tick adjustable master cylinder, better seats. A tune will effect these cars just like the C5 since the engine is exactly the same save for the drive by wire throttle. The Fbody will sound different than a C5 because of how the exhaust is routed, even if you get true duals installed it will still sound a little different than a Corvette with the same brand exhaust.

 

I have 3 point weld in subframe connectors and a 2 point strut tower brace. They do make the car more ridged, but you're only going to notice in very extreme situations which most people will never get into. I think the connectors are worth while simply for jacking up the car which I've done more often than I'd like to admit lol

The biggest thing to focus on is the budget. You can do quite a bit without spending a ton by going through sponsors and catching deals, or you can go with something like a ridetech air setup and spend a lot.

 

Disagree about not needing lower control arms. Wheel hop - depending on your driving - can be pretty bad with these things. I went with the Founders that have a solid ball in the middle of the rear bushing. Eliminates front/back flex but allows the bars to rotate. Surprised more people dont know about these.

 

Koni's are exactly what I have been reading about and looking at. They get great reviews no matter what car forum I go to. And no, i'm absolutely not trying to build a race car - this is strictly a toy and a pleasure vehicle. I've never had in the 1/4 mile, but I did run the C5 (best of 13.5 @ 103.4) stock when I had her. Sway bars, yes, no bigger than 22mm out back from my reading; and the torque arm I agree with as well.

The reason I said SFC's was because I had a 1986 WS6 with the 5.0 TPI motor back in HS and part of college. Like my current WS6, it too was built as a TTOP car - and it leaked on my driver's side right onto my left leg where the front part of the TTOP meets the body there in the corner by the drivers window. It wasn't due to bad molding, and all the door adjustments in the world didn't solve the issue. That's why I want to make this as rigid as possible suspension/body wise.

I agree with the rest - the exhaust I feel so far from what I heard (stock otherwise) the Borla on this car is badass, Who knows after LT's, and maybe a cam or some other add ons. My car has the factor Hurst - I read instead of MGW, do a Lou's short stick with this - thoughts? Did read alot about MGW and how great they are. Not sure what you mean by adjustable master cylinder though...

Budget is whatever. I do not have $30k to set aside immediately, but, over time, I can start getting what I need between now and next summer. The goal is to get parts as she sits for the winter, and do as much as I can until I bring her out again. Starting with most likely the suspension; I plan on donig most upgrades through the sponsors on this site.

Thanks for the responses guys. I feel like I have a "virgin" to work with, and a good idea on how to start - I think my vision for this car will pan out based on all the input here and other threads i've read. One thing I do want to do - upgraded braking - cross drilled/slotted front and rear and new calipers all around (someone said leave the back stock) - so i'll have to investigate that more..

Keep the ideas coming though

 

While there are some carry over from the 3rd gen to the 4th gen, they are still two different cars. 4th gens are stiffer, and if you are having T-top leak problems and the weather stripping is still in good condition then you need to adjust the window with these cars.

I have a WS6 that came with the stock hurst shifter and it wasn't great at all. I also added the lous short stick and it was a great bang for the buck and did improve things but it doesn't hold a candle to the MGW shifter I have now. MGW is smoother, more precise, and has even shorter more positive throws. The lous SS + hurst was notchy by comparison.

The tick adjustable master cylinder is an adjustable clutch master cylinder that moves a ton more fluid than the stock one. With the stock setup you may end up having trouble shifting at high RPMs, the tick unit fixes this.

Stick with blank or slotted rotors, never drilled. Drilled rotors can crack and have to performance benefit.
As for calipers like I said above unless you are road racing the stock calipers are more than enough as you can lock up street tires with them when using good pads. You don't want to upgrade the rear calipers as the stock rears are strong enough to lockup race tires at high speeds, so adding power to them is only going to make that worse. Its not that the rear brakes are "super good", its that these are front heavy solid rear axle cars, not 50/50 weight balanced IRS cars like the Corvette. Suspension and brake setups are going to be very different.

 

For $40 it would be interesting to see the improvement personally, then upgrade to an MGW and possibly be in heaven. Like I said, I read nothing but good things about the MGW.

Awesome. I'll lump this in for when I upgrade the brakes.


Noted on the drilled - i'd still want to go slotted. Surprised about how the factory rears are so "good" and upgrading the calipers would actually hurt the braking. From as aesthetic point of view, it would look unbalanced if, say, i I went with CTSV calipers up front, painting them red, then did nothing to the rears, I guess painting those in red to match could be passable. I guess I just don't like the idea of not having matching "high performance" calipers on all four corners, even though I would "have high performance calipers on all four corners," based on your explanation. I really wanted to just rip the braking apart (lines, etc) and redo everything braided and either CTSV or Brembo/Wilwood; but for a weekend/nice weather, non-track car (minus the 1/4mile), I guess that's excessive.

 

Sam Strano is an excellent vendor and probably as good as it gets for planning upgrades that are cost effective. I would call him, explain what you want and share your budget. He will help you pick the best mod's that work together for your car.

Sam helped me sort out my TA's handling upgrades. The adjustable RLCA'S he picked were key to get the thrust angle correct. I still have some other parts like his sway bars & springs & a brake upcoming to get for my TA when the funds allow.

 

It won't hurt, but if you have the money just go MGW.

Like I said its not the rear brakes are great or anything, its that with a solid axle front heavy car when you brake and all the weight transfers to the front and the rear axle gets unloaded and the brakes can easily lock the tires up then.

If you want an upgraded front caliper just paint the rear calipers the same color, it really won't be that noticeable. I wouldn't upgrade the rear calipers even as a cruiser car because if you ever have to panic stop then you will be in for a ride of a life time as the rear locks up and the car may just swap ends. If you really plan to never track the car then its a total waste of money, again good brake pads will have you damn near flying out the front window from a hard stop at speed, your tires will be the limiting factor for braking power (keeping traction), not the brakes.

 

ill echo JD AMG on the shocks/struts being nongas charged. I ditched my qa1 setup about 2 years ago for exactly what he is describing.
Borla......on an ls1 that isnt true dualed is a no no (my opinion entirly) but I have heard that bolt on catback setup of theirs several times and it just sounds off to me. When I heard my gto had borla on it when I went to look at it I had already wrote them off due to my experience with their Fbody system. I was pleasantly surpised how awesome it sounds with longtubes and an X-pipe. So id take that into account considering that system for your Trans-Am.

my other advice regardless of parts you chose, dont go to far to fast. When I did my build I did my motor swap and suspension all at the same time and because of that I missed how terrible my qa1's were. There were so many changes to the car as a whole that I spent so much time trying to adjust to them that I missed a few things that could have been resolved quicker had I done them in phases.

 

I've seen his products and have read good things - he's someone I plan on contacting regarding my upgrades.

Thoughts on Hinson vs MGW? Or is Hinson more of a strictly race shifter? (didn't do my research yet)



Based on what you have said, 99% sure I'll just end up painting the rears. I don't want to be flying off the road into a tree next to some squirrels if i have to brake hard suddenly.


Thank you. Borla sounded good (to me) on a youttube video on a WS6 with supposedly no other mods: ....I realize everyone's taste is different; i just think that sounds amazing.

 

^that doesnt sound or look like borla sounds more like a corsa setup. Maybe its those odd squared tips that made it sound so off to me?

 

The creator of the video says about the plates within the exhaust - Borla has the removable plates for various sound differences.

Unless he changed out the tips and is just a liar.....

 

I have no direct experience with the Hinson but have heard nothing but good things, its a win/win which ever you go with IMO.

That would be a good idea.

Borla sounds awesome IMO. One of the biggest benefits IMO is the fact you can put an electric cutout in place of the "adjustable" plate and then have the exhaust sound and volume change with the flip of a switch. If you go with borla I highly highly recommend doing this, an e-cutout is so much fun.

Other catbacks to look at are Texas speed (great bang for the buck, good quality, great looking tips and comes with a cutout), Hooker (best bang for the buck IMO, great sound without cats while still being quiet enough its not annoying), and Corsa - sounds the best IMO but also ridiculously expensive and on the loud side, super high quality though.

Corsa (dat crackle)

Hooker

TSP catback

 

cant find a good video but Ill throw B&B Tri flow into the ring, has a simialr tone to corsa but not the high range crackle.

 

Excellent - my choices just became harder!!

 

Back to this thread, now that I'm putting new tires on her this weekend - everyone is mentioning Strano, which is great, and KONI shocks....but, what about this kit he has put together?


http://www.stranoparts.com/partdetai...D=90&ModelID=7


Thoughts on these parts? I'd still need the sway bars and other components, but this seems to take the guesswork out of most of it.

 

I suggest that you talk to Sam Strano about sway bars, and how you intend to drive, before you spend your money. When I first contacted Sam, I had a heavy 12 bolt rear in my '99 Firehawk with the stock springs and shocks. The Firehawk already comes with an upsized 32mm front sway bar. The car was actually dangerously out of control when driving on bumpy roads. Sam sold me KW adjustable coilovers and told me to wait and see how I liked the ride before buying larger sway bars. I can tell you that the new springs and shocks totally transformed the car into a modern handling sports car. The ride is certainly stiffer than stock, but not too harsh. After the suspension upgrade, I did the Tail of the Dragon, Back of the Dragon, and The Carolina Snake with a bunch of Camaro guys. The Camaros were late model RS, SS, and ZR1, and I kept up with all of them in the curves. So now I don't have any interest in changing the sway bars. BTW, I also swapped out some old greasy Kumho tires for new sticky Pilot Sports.
John

 

F-body cars without SFC's rattle like hell when the miles start adding up. You can have over 100k on the odometer with SFC's and it won't rattle at all. You can't tell me SFC's don't do anything or aren't worth it. Even the bolt-in kind help immensely.