I have decided on saving the money on rack and pinion steering for a set of coilovers. I am going with the viking double adjustable setup with some tubular control arms. The car will be driven on the street mostly, but will see the dragstrip a bit. Its a 67 firebird, and with the tall deck BBC and fiberglass hood, I am guessing it won't be any heavier than the 400 and steel hood. I understand the stored energy thing, and would lean me towards a 350# spring, but they suggest for street driving a 550# spring. Seems like it would be very stiff. Thoughts?
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many coilover manufacturers will trade out springs - doubly so if you follow their recommendation and you don't like it.
With that said, I agree with their recommendation - especially if you lower the car at all.
Springs set ride height, valving sets what most people perceive as stiffness. Too soft a spring and you'll get to coil bind - then it will ride rough.
and finally, my C3 Corvette's target weight is 2800# - and I'm running 650# springs.....Doing it all wrong since 1966
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I am still trying to figure out coilovers for the back of the 67 camaro. While I was looking they suggested 450 pound with a small block so they are probably right. I know I like the front end higher and usually buy coils rated for factory air cars just to get more spring.Last edited by anotheridiot; July 29, 2019, 09:28 AM.
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"normally" a front spring between 500lb on the low side (light car, smallblock, etc)
and 700lbs on the high end ( heavier car, rat motor...) is what we shoot for in
'daily driver' material. drag cars use lighter (more "boing" on launch) so we commonly
used a factory 6cyl spring with a big block.
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I have been hesitant to respond. MY experience with coil-over front suspension is with MKII designs. With these the shocks are fairly short which even when cantilever has a somewhat limited amount of front suspension travel. To me, this requires a stiffer spring to manage the suspension travel over the shorter distance the shock travels.
In my application with the engine sitting directly over the crossmember it required a stiffer spring than most recommended.Last edited by cstmwgn; July 31, 2019, 04:01 AM.
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Originally posted by Saz View PostMy biggest fear is getting the front end too stiff. But with a quality double adjustable shock it should mitigate the harshness, yeah?
better too stiff than not stiff enough...
(hey, thats what SHE said!)
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Originally posted by fatguyzinc View Post
hereby proving both doink and dork are warranted in my case--
better too stiff than not stiff enough...
(hey, thats what SHE said!)Doing it all wrong since 1966
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In my opinion - it would be best to scale the car so that you can be sure the weight distribution is correct. Regardless of what method you use to determine the weight on each wheel, you still need to do some math to get to the correct spring.
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