I was looking and thinking about a tubular K-Member and uper and lower control arms. I have good luck with BMR stuff and was wanting your guys opinion. Car isnt I guess you can say a daily driver or nothing like that. All opinion greatly appeciated.

 

I run the BMR k-member with stock control arms. About 3,000 miles and no problems. However, I wanted the Spohn k-member, but it wasn't out at the time. His quality and work is great.

 

I run BMR kmember on the street all the time.. but i have stock a-arms. They don't really recommend the a-arms for street driving i thought?

 

They don't, but some still do it.

 

What's the advantage of getting a tube k-member. Weight savings and more room? Also What is involved in installing them......Don't want to steal this thread, but I have been thinking about buying a k-member

 

Weight savings and more room.

To install.. Motor is supsended, headers removed( makes it easier , but not necessary.

Removing steering rack, a-arms, wheels, brakes, swaybar, kmember, shocks.

Basically a 2 day install. 1 day to get it all out, the other to put it back in. I have done a kmember install in a night though.

 

I just got the UMI K member,it's a work of art. I have their lower A arms on order. If you look on their web site you'll see that the cross member is 2 tubes welded together, much stronger IMO than a single tube. Also I jack up my front end from the K member so I think the extra support is helpful. You can also see that the motor mount brackets are supported by twin tubes instead of just one. I think BYUNSPEED ======> has a special going on.

 

Is it worth the money and weight savings?

 

would the crossmember on the aftermarket k member work with a th350? also why would you not be able to dd a car with a arms?

 

I plan on getting the UMI performance K-member. I think it is the best on the market right now. Great customer service too.

 

Hello,

The K-Member will have nothing to with a TH350 transmission and any K-Member will work when changing transmissions. If you are changing to a TH350 you will need a new transmission crossmember.

On the A-Arms, we advertise ours for a Daily driver, Street car, Drag car and Autocross. We have never had a failure to date on them.

If you have any questions please ask. Thanks!
Ryan

 

so the umi upper and lower A-arms would work for a dd, as well as the k- member? would the handling/ride quality be affected in any way?

 

Yes, you will have no issues with either item. If the vehicle is a strict road race vehicle we have a road race/AutoX K-Member available, it is not on our site yet but some pictures can be seen below. This item features additional bracing and is designed for the road race type vehicle. If you would like anymore information please contact me by phone, e-mail or PM. These are for sale and available, just haven't had the site updated with them yet. Thanks! Ryan

 

I will tell you what I tell anyone who calls me asks me this question. In my opinion on a daily driver unless the k-member is a must for clearance(example turbo piping)or it's a max effort car I don't recommend them. The weight loss performance gains are not significant enough for a DAILY DRIVER car to warrant the extra money spent on them. I say this because what happens is you get someone with a pure street car buying competition parts that have no business being on there and are not being used for there designed application. That's an honest opinion...not a sales pitch

Lee Spicher
lee@bmrfabrication.com
(813)986-9302

 

Maybe 10Kmiles now on my BRM K-member and no
trouble so far. The UMI looks much more forgiving
of abuse. The stocker though is the only one that
looks failure-proof to me (which you would expect
from GM's exposure to recalls & lawsuits). If I were
buying today I'd go for the "road race" version
unless they made one specifically for curbs and
chuck-holes.

I did find the K lightened up steering effort and
made a noticeable difference in nose-rise on
acceleration. Not that you could tell from my
60' times, on street rubber. But weight off the
nose is generally good, although $/lb is a bit on
the high side in this case.

Clearance gains are not a given. I had to ditch
a Random Tech stock-logs, high-flow catted Y
because it interfered with the rear mount boxes
on the new K although it cleared the stocker.
Headers, yeah, need the room. But not every
point gains positive clearance.

From what I've read there is little weight savings in
going to aftermarket A-arms. Performance changes,
I doubt.

 

If you just have to have an aftermarket k-member id go with the UMI road race version for a street car.

 

I agree and IIRC from Ryan's comments the UMI road race K-member only weighs about 2-3lbs more than their standard K-member, but the additional bracing makes it well worth that small sacrifice. Its by far the best design that I've seen and is the only aftermarket F-body K-member that I would run on a street or autox/RR car.

 

[QUOTE=jimmyblue]Maybe 10Kmiles now on my BRM K-member and no
trouble so far. The UMI looks much more forgiving
of abuse. The stocker though is the only one that
looks failure-proof to me (which you would expect
from GM's exposure to recalls & lawsuits). If I were
buying today I'd go for the "road race" version
unless they made one specifically for curbs and
chuck-holes.
QUOTE]


chuck-holes

you mean pot-holes

 

I have the profab k member right now and it is great, I was going to ge the UMI unit but it was not available back then, oh well I now have a reason to trade up to the umi piece