ncfastls1

iTrader: (1)

I'm wanting to buy strano springs and I'm a big fan of doing things the "right" way which would be getting some koni yellows and calling it a day...but that's not an option now or for some time in the future due to how expensive they are. I'm tired of my car looking like a 4x4 and I realized how shitty the handling is and how much body roll it has when I couldn't keep up with my friends lifted 04 Tundra around corners. I mean seriously. This is a lifted truck on like 33's and the thing has zero body roll, he was banging left turns going like 50. I can't come close to that because my car feels like a wobbly old man. The Bilsteins are 10x better than the stock shocks though.

But anyway to my main point, what can I expect with this combination? I know ride quality will probably go to ****, but am I going to damage/blow out my shocks? I'm running C5 Z06 rims with a 54 mm offset in front (275/40/17) and 56 mm in the rear (295/35/18), and I'm running a 1/8" spacer for the rears. The rear tires rub slightly on the wheel well already when I make a hard turn, but not too much. Will this get a lot worse if I lower it? I have tried banging in the wheel well with a dead blow but that didn't really get me anywhere. Didn't seem like it wanted to budge at all. I banged away till my arms didn't want to move lol. Maybe I needed a bigger hammer?

I'd appreciate anyones input on this. Like I said I would love to do a koni/strano set up but I simply can't afford those right now, being a full time student with a part time job.

Bucksbadz

I have just the springs on my car right now and will be upgrading in the near future from the crappy stock shocks. The ride i believe is comparable to stock and is actually quite comfortable. You can probably get rid of your tire rub with an adjustable panhard bar if you dont have one and a few taps with a 5lb sledge you could probably do with out the spacers. From my understanding the strano/bilstein combo is second to only the strano/koni setup and you should be very happy with that setup.

1Psycho

iTrader: (9)

I'm running the strano/bilstein setup on my bird with 285s in the front and 315s in the rear, granted my rear fenders are rolled a little but it only rubs a little when I'm flying through a corner. Ride quality is really good with em and cornering is much much better so definately go for it. I would say just have a shop roll your fenders and be happy with it.

ncfastls1

iTrader: (1)

Ok thanks guys I'm glad to hear that.

It's not my fenders that is the problem though. It rubs on the inside of the wheel well, like the side closer to the diff.

SuperSport01

Thats why its called the BFH mod. It may also be that you need a PHB to adjust the rear axle back to center, even at stock ride height with the stock phb the rear ends in these cars are rarely centered.

z28bryan

iTrader: (7)

No offense, but Sportlines are going to ride horribly because they have almost no suspension travel. Shocks control suspension travel.. if you have none then it probably doesn't matter much what shock you put on. So most of the other people out there without sportlines may feel something completely different

cleb

iTrader: (4)

I'm on sportlines, with 315's out back, and the hammering seemed pretty easy to me. Hammer where the tire touches with the suspension loaded not when the rear end is hanging freely. That was my mistake.

ncfastls1

iTrader: (1)

Alright I guess I will try the BFH mod again, just need to get a massive dead blow hammer. Our shop at school has only small ones and carquest (where I work) doesn't have big ones either. There's visible spots where the tire rubs, it's scraped it down to bare smooth metal, instead of that black/rough finish that is on there.

01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

There is a huge difference from a dead blow hammer and a mini-sledge. You need a mini-sledge.

Empatho

iTrader: (16)

I have the strano bilstein combo as well and I love it, the only thing I regret is not doing it sooner. The car rides allot better, the handling is superb, and the rear end doesn't buck anymore when I hit a pothole. I just need to get some strano bars, but that's later down the road because I already spend allot of money on my transmission swap parts.

libertyforall1776

iTrader: (2)

I did not see that you upgraded your sway bars -- why not try that first? Personally, I would save for the adjustables if you are going to lower...

ncfastls1

iTrader: (1)

That's another suspension priority for me, after sub frame connectors. They are just out of my price range right now.

libertyforall1776

iTrader: (2)

As I understand, the life of your Bilsteins will be hastened by lowering springs. From that perspective, I would rather go for sways like Stranos, since that was a major point you mentioned -- body roll...

Since you have a Z28, you'd be going from:
30mm front, 18mm rear
to:
35mm front, 22mm rear

Save those pennies.

ncfastls1

iTrader: (1)

I have one more question, did not want to make another topic.

I will be getting UMI bolt in relocation brackets along with the springs so the suspension is set up correctly. I was just wondering, should I get tubular LCA's too? I'm looking at the UMI poly/roto-joint set. Would these make much of a difference compared to the stock control arms?

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

SFC's are not bad things, but they are chassis parts and not suspension parts. Where bars control roll, SFC's do not. A stiff chassis is never bad, but it's not going to go anything for roll, response rate, etc. FWIW, my Camaro does not have SFC's on it (they are legal for me to run, and I might now that the car is more a track car than a competition car). All those championships, the street miles (and it's been wrapped around a pole too by someone else to the tune of about $9k worth of damage), and I don't have 'em.

Edited to add: You also don't NEED LCA's or brackets. Again, things my car doesn't have. There are times and reasons for them, and you might have a specific need--but it's a falsehood that a car won't work without those things.

ncfastls1

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for your reply... It was my understanding that lowering the car (and I'm sure the rim size difference from stock doesn't help much either) changes the angle of the control arms and it needs to be corrected with LCA brackets. I already get some pretty bad wheel hop sometimes, especially when I slam it into 2nd. Edit: Now that I think about it, I only started to get wheel hop when I changed from a 275/40/18 to a 295/35/18. Once the tread started to wear down on the new tires, it started hopping. Never did that with the other tires even with no tread. I'm assuming the smaller sidewall played a part in changing the angle?

I'm sure you'll be able to explain things to me better when I call you to order the parts. You were very helpful when I ordered my shocks from you two years ago

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

No the tires didn't change your control arm angle. You changed the tire's grip, you probably added unsprung weight (which the compression damping of the shock controls) and the shocks have continued to accrue miles in that time, never getting better.

The fact you tend to get more hop when shifting is indicative of it being a shock problem because bushing windup isn't as common then as when you are launching the car hard.

And yes, I know you hear all the time you *NEED* to do things like LCA's and brackets. That's not *always* true. If after you change shocks you still have a hop issue or you get into pretty serious drag racing then we can explore those things.

BIG_MIKE2005

iTrader: (116)

I'm glad this got brought up b/c I too was in the line of thinking that once you lower the car the LCA's & brackets were needed to correct the suspension geometery and a adjustable torque arm was also suggested to correct pinion angle.

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

Correct is a word that would indicate that something is "wrong" and that the car will be a mess to drive, etc, etc... That's not the case. Again my car has stock LCA's (I do have 1LE type bushings in the arms) and no brackets. I do have an adjustable TA, but not because I had a wheelhop issue on acceleration but on braking.

Another car you guys might remember is the one I did for GMHTP back in 2007... that went ultimately almost 7 seconds a lap quicker on a road course with my springs, bars, and Koni's, and a UMI PHB and some tires (3.4 on the baseline tires, another 3.5 seconds quicker on stickier tires)--that's all. No brackets, no LCA's, etc.

BIG_MIKE2005

iTrader: (116)

I see. So would one be correct to assume that boxing a set of stock control arms with fresh bushings would be ok instead of buying aftermarket ones? I know BMR used to sell a boxed set of non-adjustable LCA's and UMI also has non-adjustable LCA's. So I'm assuming a boxed stock set would be basically equal in performance?

Granted you wouldnt have the articulation of a rod ended piece or the adjustment ability of the adj. LCA sets, but are those adjustment abilities really even needed for the non-serious racer?

I'm starting to double think alot of things I originally read about suspension now. Maybe I misunderstood things over the years. I know if I'm gonna listen to someone about suspension & how it works it'll be you though Sam.