Someone school me on suspension real quick
05-22-2014, 08:08 AM
#1
Someone school me on suspension real quick most of the time ive owned my WS6 any money i put in has gone straight to the engine and drivetrain. currently im doing a 347 turbo build to replace my 150k cam only engine. that being said the suspension has seen a little neglect, as in it has the stock shocks and springs with all those glorious 150k miles on them. now the question comes of what to get. i want to lower the car about an 1" to 1.5" now i know lowering springs can do that no problem but that leaves the shocks. Now say i got an adjustable shock with stock style springs, i guess would be the right wording, would i still be able to lower the car by adjusting the shock? I might be over thinking the whole thing and the answer is probably simple but theres so many lowering, adjustable, 2 way adjustables, non adjustable, and so on that it gets a little confusing to know what to get. basically i want better than stock shocks, and lower the car a little. i know this can be done with coil over kits which isnt out of the question, but im not sure how much i can mismatch parts, like getting nice rear suspension for traction and maybe slightly less performing up front. basically i have no idea what im doing haha.
05-22-2014, 09:08 AM
#2
you trying to go in straight line? Whats your budget?
My last car I had strange coilovers up front (can adjust ride height and firm/soft) with stock springs in rear on heater hose mod with strange SA rear shocks. It sat very nice on the prostars. Thats if your looking for straight line. I get all my advice and suspension parts from Eric at MWC
But as far as adjustabilty of the shocks you adjust them for firmness or softness if you want it to absorb more or less basically, not necessarily lower the car.
My last car I had strange coilovers up front (can adjust ride height and firm/soft) with stock springs in rear on heater hose mod with strange SA rear shocks. It sat very nice on the prostars. Thats if your looking for straight line. I get all my advice and suspension parts from Eric at MWC
But as far as adjustabilty of the shocks you adjust them for firmness or softness if you want it to absorb more or less basically, not necessarily lower the car.
05-22-2014, 09:47 AM
#3
gotcha. i intend to use them mostly for fun driving on the street as its my weekend car now and i would occasionally like to take it down the track. as far as my budget, just like everyone else, i want something good and still cheap but we all know those two words almost never go together. nothings out of the question really but i definitely don't need a full drag set up, nor do i need a road course car. just something better than stock i guess.
05-22-2014, 09:59 AM
#4
most of the time ive owned my WS6 any money i put in has gone straight to the engine and drivetrain. currently im doing a 347 turbo build to replace my 150k cam only engine. that being said the suspension has seen a little neglect, as in it has the stock shocks and springs with all those glorious 150k miles on them. now the question comes of what to get. i want to lower the car about an 1" to 1.5" now i know lowering springs can do that no problem but that leaves the shocks. Now say i got an adjustable shock with stock style springs, i guess would be the right wording, would i still be able to lower the car by adjusting the shock? I might be over thinking the whole thing and the answer is probably simple but theres so many lowering, adjustable, 2 way adjustables, non adjustable, and so on that it gets a little confusing to know what to get. basically i want better than stock shocks, and lower the car a little. i know this can be done with coil over kits which isnt out of the question, but im not sure how much i can mismatch parts, like getting nice rear suspension for traction and maybe slightly less performing up front. basically i have no idea what im doing haha.
Best bang for the buck is the new Viking double adjustable coil-over package. You can easily adjust your ride height(spring seat height) for the stance you want, then you can set the shock valving to go from Cadillac soft to Corvette firm with just a few clicks of the external valving *****.
The owner of Viking has a pro-touring style 1st gen Camaro and has tailored much of their business toward the street rod crowd. The Viking shocks have a very wide range of adjustment to suit your performance and ride needs. The Viking shocks also carry a industry best 2-year warranty so that in itself proves the confidence Viking has with their products.
Give us a call, we can get you setup with the right shocks and springs at a very affordable cost, as well as the best tech help available.
Last edited by ssvert99; 05-22-2014 at 01:11 PM.
05-22-2014, 10:00 AM
#5
you trying to go in straight line? Whats your budget?
My last car I had strange coilovers up front (can adjust ride height and firm/soft) with stock springs in rear on heater hose mod with strange SA rear shocks. It sat very nice on the prostars. Thats if your looking for straight line. I get all my advice and suspension parts from Eric at MWC
But as far as adjustabilty of the shocks you adjust them for firmness or softness if you want it to absorb more or less basically, not necessarily lower the car.
My last car I had strange coilovers up front (can adjust ride height and firm/soft) with stock springs in rear on heater hose mod with strange SA rear shocks. It sat very nice on the prostars. Thats if your looking for straight line. I get all my advice and suspension parts from Eric at MWC
But as far as adjustabilty of the shocks you adjust them for firmness or softness if you want it to absorb more or less basically, not necessarily lower the car.
05-22-2014, 10:39 AM
#6
Best bang for the buck is the new Viking double adjustable coil-over package. You can easily adjust your ride height(spring seat height) for the stance you want, then you can set the shock valving to go from Cadillac soft to Corvette firm with just a few clicks of the external valving *****.
The owner of Viking has a pro-touring style 1st gen Camaro and has tailored much of their business toward the street rod crowd. The Viking shocks have a very wide range of adjustment to suit your performance and ride needs. The Viking shocks also carry a industry best 2-year warranty so that in itself proves the confidence Viking has with their products.
Give us a call, we can get you setup with the right shocks and springs at a very affordable cost, as well as the bets tech help available.
The owner of Viking has a pro-touring style 1st gen Camaro and has tailored much of their business toward the street rod crowd. The Viking shocks have a very wide range of adjustment to suit your performance and ride needs. The Viking shocks also carry a industry best 2-year warranty so that in itself proves the confidence Viking has with their products.
Give us a call, we can get you setup with the right shocks and springs at a very affordable cost, as well as the bets tech help available.
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05-22-2014, 11:48 AM
#9
gotcha. i intend to use them mostly for fun driving on the street as its my weekend car now and i would occasionally like to take it down the track. as far as my budget, just like everyone else, i want something good and still cheap but we all know those two words almost never go together. nothings out of the question really but i definitely don't need a full drag set up, nor do i need a road course car. just something better than stock i guess.
This is/was my Trans Am and thats how the car sat and I drove it all the time and took trips with it. I never had full size wheels and tires on it for looks but it wasnt expensive at all and rode amazing. I took it to strip and car shows still full interior minus back seat and went 11.1s at 119 and had crazy low 60's thanks to Eric's help
05-22-2014, 12:45 PM
#10
Since you are talking about street and track, you should be calling Sam Strano http://stranoparts.com/ -- he will steer you right for handling. Koni Sport single adjustables all around, Strano lowering springs (although I chose to stay w/OEM SS springs), Strano hollow sways, Moog/1LE rear LCA bushings for a start. Forget all these drag-oriented components if you are not making a dedicated strip car -- you will likely not be happy on the street.
gotcha. i intend to use them mostly for fun driving on the street as its my weekend car now and i would occasionally like to take it down the track. as far as my budget, just like everyone else, i want something good and still cheap but we all know those two words almost never go together. nothings out of the question really but i definitely don't need a full drag set up, nor do i need a road course car. just something better than stock i guess.
05-22-2014, 01:05 PM
#11
Since you are talking about street and track, you should be calling Sam Strano http://stranoparts.com/ -- he will steer you right for handling. Koni Sport single adjustables all around, Strano lowering springs (although I chose to stay w/OEM SS springs), Strano hollow sways, Moog/1LE rear LCA bushings for a start. Forget all these drag-oriented components if you are not making a dedicated strip car -- you will likely not be happy on the street.
05-22-2014, 01:07 PM
#12
Maybe some people here need to read all posts, understand the products, and not make inaccurate accusations.
from a previous post in this thread:
"The owner of Viking has a pro-touring style 1st gen Camaro and has tailored much of their business toward the street rod crowd. The Viking shocks have a very wide range of adjustment to suit your performance and ride needs. The Viking shocks also carry a industry best 2-year warranty so that in itself proves the confidence Viking has with their products."
Drag shock is nowhere in this conversation or application. The Viking shock is gas assisted and works fine in street, drag, and cornering applications.
from a previous post in this thread:
"The owner of Viking has a pro-touring style 1st gen Camaro and has tailored much of their business toward the street rod crowd. The Viking shocks have a very wide range of adjustment to suit your performance and ride needs. The Viking shocks also carry a industry best 2-year warranty so that in itself proves the confidence Viking has with their products."
Drag shock is nowhere in this conversation or application. The Viking shock is gas assisted and works fine in street, drag, and cornering applications.
05-22-2014, 02:21 PM
#15
The shock manufactures make their packages to bolt-in stock location which suits the largest portion of the market.
On cars not originally equipped with the spring over the shock(coil-over) there is always the desire to convert that setup to a coil-over to gain the greater range of spring rates available and adjustable ride height. The f-body car had a "coil-over" design in the front, but not the rear, nor adjustable heights for that matter.
To suffice the needs of the performance crowd the shock manufacturers make their products adaptable for vendors to make what the market wants.
On cars not originally equipped with the spring over the shock(coil-over) there is always the desire to convert that setup to a coil-over to gain the greater range of spring rates available and adjustable ride height. The f-body car had a "coil-over" design in the front, but not the rear, nor adjustable heights for that matter.
To suffice the needs of the performance crowd the shock manufacturers make their products adaptable for vendors to make what the market wants.
05-22-2014, 03:10 PM
#18
The OP said track and street, not straight-line -- which is what SCott5 says he is setup for, and what MWC seems to specialize in -- every photo and reference on their site is dragstrip oriented.
As for Vikings, where are they used in professional racing, super cars, etc.? I have not heard much about their success.
Why get a two year warranty on largely unknown Vikings when you can get a lifetime warranty with Koni or Bilstein?!
https://ls1tech.com/forums/17714751-post4.html
"To be honest with my Koni STR.T experience on other cars I have little doubt I'll be moving over to those as the cost effective kit over the Bilstein's (better value, more rebound damping, lifetime warranty too).
Koni is the standard. Koni puts shocks on F1 cars, Sports cars, FIA GT3 cars etc. You don't find QA1 and Viking, etc in those kind of places. You do see Bilstein's on a lot of performance cars, but the thing here is the Bilstein valving is not the valving that Bilstein itself originally had, and it is not a Sport valving. The front is kind of a hybrid HD/Sport valving the rear isn't. They are good value for someone who cruises mostly and rarely hustles a car hard. If you autox or track the car much, or drive a lot of miles I can't say the Bilstein's are you *best* long term option."
and this:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/17568149-post24.html
"Viking is nothing special, the guy running the place is from QA1, and you know all the products sure look familiar. Same "adjsutment" at the bottom of the shock, meaning it's not got any effect on what the piston is doing, you are simple changing how much oil is forced from the inner chamber to the outer instead of changing how the oil flows through the piston itself. The two methods result in very different damping results."
As for Vikings, where are they used in professional racing, super cars, etc.? I have not heard much about their success.
Why get a two year warranty on largely unknown Vikings when you can get a lifetime warranty with Koni or Bilstein?!
https://ls1tech.com/forums/17714751-post4.html
"To be honest with my Koni STR.T experience on other cars I have little doubt I'll be moving over to those as the cost effective kit over the Bilstein's (better value, more rebound damping, lifetime warranty too).
Koni is the standard. Koni puts shocks on F1 cars, Sports cars, FIA GT3 cars etc. You don't find QA1 and Viking, etc in those kind of places. You do see Bilstein's on a lot of performance cars, but the thing here is the Bilstein valving is not the valving that Bilstein itself originally had, and it is not a Sport valving. The front is kind of a hybrid HD/Sport valving the rear isn't. They are good value for someone who cruises mostly and rarely hustles a car hard. If you autox or track the car much, or drive a lot of miles I can't say the Bilstein's are you *best* long term option."
and this:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/17568149-post24.html
"Viking is nothing special, the guy running the place is from QA1, and you know all the products sure look familiar. Same "adjsutment" at the bottom of the shock, meaning it's not got any effect on what the piston is doing, you are simple changing how much oil is forced from the inner chamber to the outer instead of changing how the oil flows through the piston itself. The two methods result in very different damping results."
Last edited by libertyforall1776; 05-22-2014 at 03:25 PM.
05-22-2014, 06:41 PM
#19
To quote one person and not the hundred others who have had nothing but great things to say about Vikings isn't fair. That would be like me telling him not to go to the setups you mentioned because two people I know took there's off because they rode too stiff on the road and ended up going with strange on one car and Vikings on the other car. I said that mine was setup for straight line but not because of the coil overs but from the rest of the suspension and wheels and tire.
05-23-2014, 06:57 AM
#20
does not come with rear springs. rear shocks are not coil overs. so what do i do with the springs in the back?