I was reading some threads and it seems SFC and LCA are the way to go but im a noob in suspension so not sure what would be the best?? The best bang for ur buck

 

Well i can tell you that subframes should be your first mod when it comes to suspension bc of unibody construction on the fbody. they are cheap, will tighten your car preety noticeable, and a lot of sponsors on this site have em or u can find used. def get welded although bolt on are not terrible. when u start lowering your car (and it can get expensive to do it right) then look at springs shocks lca and panhard. but id say ur cheapest and first suspension mod should be the welded/bolt on sfc. dont buy k member or a arms unless u have time and money bc they are basically for weight reduction and some added stiffness. also another step is to get aluminum driveshaft bc it reduces rotating weight through drivetrain and those are on classifieds all the time. good luck

 

yeah aluminum ds was something i was going to do but didnt know it helped with suspension and weight, and yeah subframe connectors sounds like my best bet thanks


anyone else want to chime in

 

I assume you have bilstein shocks like your sig says.
It would also help what your ultimate goal or expectations are.

If you are just wanting a nice street car, I would get a set of 35mm/22mm sway bar set.

UMI sells a solid set and Sam sells a hollow set, depends on if you care about weight or not.

I autocross and still dont have SFC.

 

Everyone first suspension mod(funds available) should be a good set of shocks. Konis

 

It looks like you have Bilstein shocks, which are pretty good when used with stock springs. Asking about the "best bang for your buck" is a difficult question to answer unless you tell us what you do with the car. Do you road race? Are you more of a straight line guy? Just looking for a little better edge on the street?

If you're looking for improvements in cornering or driving on the street I would look into a set of sway bars to help your cornering ability. As mentioned, Sam and UMI have 35/22mm combinations that seem to work very well for these cars, and Sam makes the hollow versions that cost a bit more money but save about 20 lbs. off the car in comparison.

Beyond that, if you would like to lower your car I would look into a set of Koni's and good springs (Strano or BMR), or even with stock springs Koni's help your car feel great and will even allow you to drop your car slightly. If you do decide to lower your car I would look into an adjustable PHB.

As far as SFC's, there's a lot of people that swear by them and some that say it's not necessary. If you do have Bilsteins that are in good shape and you think the car needs extra stiffness, fine. My Koni's really made my car feel good and I don't think I'll waste the money on SFC's. Really your call, but these cars are pretty stiff from the factory, more so than 3rd gens, etc. It's generally more so poor dampening that makes these cars feel loose.

As far as LCA's, I suppose you could go for them. They make more of a difference for straight line traction by helping the car hook better and preventing wheel hop. However, they can help your car get better traction out of a corner also. The thing to remember is if you're driving your car a lot on the street or like cornering, try to avoid poly/poly bushing combinations. Poly bushings can bind and wont allow your suspension to articulate correctly, which is fine for drag racing but not for other uses IMO. You can have poly on one side and have a rod end or UMI's excellent roto-joint on the other end (allows for articulation, but is quiet and absorbs vibrations much like poly ends) for about the best street combination. BTW, LCA's aren't necessary to upgrade if you're lowering as seemed to be mentioned above. He may have meant that some people install LCA relocation brackets to correct the geometry of the LCA when the car is lowered. Forgot to mention, another thing you could look into to save some money is replacing your stock LCA bushings with Moog 1LE-type rubber bushings, which are stiffer than the ones your car came with from the factory, but still prevent noise/vibration and allow the suspension to articulate. Also, only about $40.

Anyways, give is some more info on what you want your car to be like, and hopefully I have some information you can use here already

 

^^^wow thanks for all the info, well basically i want a stree/drag car, but more of a steet car since its my dd, want to have better traction since LS1's spin a lot, someone told me for traction my best bet was LCA, not sure what they are for but i guess to have more traction on my back tires.

The bilstein shocks were already on the car when i bought it, so not sure what condition are their but definately feels a lot smoother than what my v6 firebird felt, do you think i can get somehow a refund and get another set of new shocks and struts??

so basically my ultimate goal is to have better traction and transfer all my power and torque towards the wheels

 

Definitely welded 3-pt. SFCs -- will help the car be less of a floppy fish and work more as a single unit, help you hook, corner better and feel better in lane changes and rough roads.

Strano sways, and STB (Hotchkis has the lightest weight one) will also help firm everything up.

AFAIC, weight reduction should always be a factor in heavier cars for those wanting better performance.

 

Alright. Your Bilsteins (if they're used with stock springs) will probably last a long time, especially if they're not very old. I wouldn't change anything there for now.

As far as gaining traction and maintaining street-ability, there's a few things I would do:

-LCA's. You had this part right. New lower control arms should help improve traction. I would really recommend UMI's poly/roto combination LCA's. I have a PHB with that combo and it feels better than stock without really being more noisey.

-Torque Arm. A new torque arm with a relocation bracket to get the load off of the transmission will help you transfer the weight to the rear tires and you won't have to worry about damaging your transmission. A full length torque arm is usually recommended for a street car as the tunnel mounted torque arms can transfer a lot more noise into the car (it mounts below the cabin).

I don't know a ton about drag suspension, but these 2 (or 3 really with the RB) will be a good place to start. I know adding a sway bar can help you launch better, etc., but there are many more knowledgeable people than me about this on here.

Also, read up on the STB's, there was a huge thread on here before and many experienced road racers said that all it is is a waste of money and added weight. The 4th gen's are a lot stiffer than many give them credit for.

 

Your best mod for traction is going to be the combo of LCA's and getting rid of the garbage stock torque arm, like these other guys said. Its flimsy stamped steel that you can literally bend by hand. A good set of tires as well.

 

^^^ THIS ^^^

I have heard more people talk about how much of an improvement a torque arm relocation kit made than anything else. Every thing that was said here I agree with but everyone seems to like the torque arm relocation the most. I have one and yes its louder in the car but not too bad and it helped my traction out A LOT...

 

The torque arm relocation kit just moves the torque arm off of the tail shaft of the transmission to the new bracket, it's just to help avoid breaking your tail shaft (not good).

If you mean using the shorter length torque arm, that's different. It will help transfer weight quicker, but the stock length TA will be quieter and more streetable. Also, I've heard that the short TA actually hurts braking performance.

 

Either one will help him out. That is fact.

Where did you hear that the short TA hurts braking performance? That is a first for me. I have one on my car and it stops just fine. All the TA does is as you stated take the pressure off the trans and also provides a different IC for the car so you can transfer weight better and it allows you to adjust the pinion angle for better traction. I dont see how it would affect how the car breaks......... Could you explain how it affects braking?

 

I'm not an expert, I believe it can cause wheel hop upon braking.

 

I have never heard of that..... I wonder how that could be caused by the torque arm......

 

If u really want to feel a difference, go for a set of good shocks, front and rear swaybars, and streetable sticky wheels. Ive also heard a torque arm makes a noticable difference.
Not sure if theyre the best bang for your buck, but you will definately feel a difference.

 

SFC... so you can have something to jack your car up on from the side.

 

Wow too many opinions lol i think ill get some lca and sfc and some drag radials, but i need some good tires i can dd, since this car is my dd

Ill wait on the torque arm after reading on its seems its better with more power than stock, im stock so ill get it when i really mod

 

The shorter torque arm drastically alters the instant center, it improves anti-squat but reduces anti-lift so what you are gaining in acceleration traction you lose under braking. The best thing to do if you encounter both acceleration and braking in your form of racing (ie everything except drag racing) is to either use a stock length torque arm or a decoupled torque arm if you want to add some suspension complexity and try to get the best of both worlds.

If the OP didn't have shocks already that would have been one of the best mods per dollar. Taking that into account if you are talking about handling I would say something like this:

-Best handling mod is probably tires. Cost somewhat a concern, but improvement all over the envelope. If you don't want to call it suspension then skip down to read the next item, but don't forget to upgrade them.
-Shocks go here, ignore since you have them
-Good brake pads and fluid
-Next is sway bars. Low cost versus good benefit
-1LE style LCA bushings are high benefit per dollar as they have low cost and pretty nice benefit.
-Springs (need Koni shocks for just about any aftermarket spring rate though...)
-Full length non adjustable torque arm
-Watts (cost somewhat bumps this down even though it is useful and I have one)
-Aftermarket LCA's would be next. Need to be rod end or maybe the rotojoint. Not poly ended.
-TA relocation crossmember (durability more than performance)
-Aftermarket front arms
-SFC's are pretty far down on the list in my opinion as they are a marginal gain, cost money, and add weight.
-STB

A nice readily available higher bias differential would be above SFCs, as would light wheels... Neither are suspension though.

This isn't quite how I would order the list if money is no object, but it is pretty close actually with only a couple of exceptions, but they aren't a big deal and would only swap a few of the things about one place. I think benefit per dollar makes some of the ranks even more arguable than if this was a straight "what order should I do the mods" or "what are the rank in terms of importance" kind of discussion.

A lot of people like to swear by SFCs, partly I think because the buy in isn't too outrageous. The problem as I see it is that the chassis stiffening is not as drastic as people believe, and if you skipped all the parts on the list above them, you still haven't addressed more fundamentally flawed pieces of the platform as a whole. Which means that if you skip to SFC's and leave out one of the more crucial pieces of the puzzle your car will be slower than one that fixed something else that is more wrong with the car. STB is also an example of this as it adds rigidity in a place that only dubiously needs it in the first place, and adds a little weight up front which doesn't help the weight distribution and slightly hurts the overall weight. Every little bit adds up though. At very best it is a wash, but any money for no benefit is bad.

If you go down the list only 4 or 5 spots then the car is going to be so much better than stock it is actually sad how bad the car is from the factory compared to its potential with a few well placed mods. There are also some more specialized things that I omitted (and probably some I forgot) but their relevance is probably questionable for a street car. And in fact some of the stuff I listed is questionable for a street car

You're entitled to your own opinion about these things obviously, but I stand by mine. If someone with a boatload of experience chimes in and tells me I am crazy maybe I will listen, heh.

 

Your good to go with your current plans......SFC's and LCA's are a good start for our cars, next could be adj. panhard bar if the car is lowered, then a torque arm. Shocks are needed based upon time and usage intended. Look into Lakewood control arms, best bang for the buck out there.