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Suspension and upgrade suggestions! Please.

Old 02-09-2014, 10:36 PM
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Suspension and upgrade suggestions! Please.

Hi I have a 95 z28 and im looking to purchase some suspension mods. I want to replace the shocks. I currently have stock front shocks and coils. Rear i have Bilstein HD shocks and Eibach pro kit. I didnt put the front coils on yet because im waiting for the shock up grade. But im a little in the air here looking for suggestions. I was looking at koni yellows on car adjs on strano but 1020$$ is alot and front bilsteins need extra parts to install? also i was looking at some bolt on sub frame connectors and non adj rear LCA and not adjust panhard bar from UMI. and possibly a strano or UMI rear sway bar. I have a bigger sway bar on the front From an SS i think its 30mm. Im basically looking to get a nice little combo for the suspension put togther along with a set of headers and y pipe , egr delete and computer tune. i recently did drilled rotors and Hawk HPS bads and am getting stainless brake hoses along with the suspension upgrades. any suggestions will be appreciated and any vendors or websites also. I basically had the car for a year bought it off my father and now i can actually do stuff to it and im ready also i like it to run as more of a road course car or auto cross then a drag car. mostly drive it on back roads and stuff with lots of turns. Thanks
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Old 02-10-2014, 03:47 PM
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Re: Suspension and upgrade suggestions! Please.

Not sure what you mean by the Bilstein HDs requiring extra parts to install. The parts Sam lists are existing parts on your car that you need to transfer.

-spring perch
-spring isolator
-dust-boot
-bumpstop

I had to reuse "all of the above" when I installed QA1's.

Appears you are lowering it (and have already lowered the back end) with the Pro-Kit. But you indicate you want a non-adjustable panhard rod. While it's possible that when you dropped it with the rear spring install, the chassis did not shift sideways over the rear axle assembly enough to require recentering, have you verified that?
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Old 02-10-2014, 05:28 PM
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Re: Suspension and upgrade suggestions! Please.

I guess i should have wrote that question about the front bilsteins shocks better. I was not sure if you just used your existing parts or if i would have to purchase new stuff. Also with the rear Springs it did lower the car made it pretty much level due to me not having the springs on the front. The Rear LCA's and pan hard bar are stock and from the looks of it everything looks to be in line. I didnt measure it or anything. I didnt even install those parts but it rides fine and handles good. I have heard loweing the car you should use adjs pan hard bar but i wasn't sure if i wanted to get into all the hassle of adjusting it and what not and adjustable things just seem weaker to me or easier to fail in the long haul do too the way they are. Just had bad experience with adj control arms and track bars i use on my lifted jeeps.

Also ive been looking at some headers ran across pacesetter ceramic LTs with y-pipe for 610$ says they have the EGR hook ups and come with extended 02 sensor wires but alot of other LT headers ive looked at didnt have EGR hook ups and i was told id have to re-tune the computer delete the EGR system and cat system. I do not want the cat but if i can not go throu the whole ERG delete stuff that be great any suggestions there?
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Old 02-11-2014, 09:57 AM
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Re: Suspension and upgrade suggestions! Please.

It's worth checking the rear body alignment. I used the Pro-Kit and got a 1" drop in the back. I used my Spohn adjustable panhard rod to center the body over the rear axle. The change is small (works out to about 1/10th of an inch for a 1" drop) but that means the rear of the car is no longer directly behind the front of the car. Start with a car that wasn't exactly aligned from the factory, and it can cause problems. When I ditched the lowering springs, and returned the car to normal ride height, I had to recenter again, to keep the fender lip from rubbing on the 315/35-17 rear tires.

There is nothing inherently weaker in "adjustable" parts, at least not in quality-made US parts. I have Spohn adjustable panhard rod, lower control arms and chassis mounted torque arm, and they are 12-14years old with no problems. And that's sitting behing an 800HP/800lb-ft engine.

You might want to check Spohn Performance out... his shop is in central PA.

With regard to the headers, do you have emissions inspections where you live in PA? That will determine whether you are required to maintain the EGR and the cat. If you do delete the cat, there is no code set on your OBD-1 1995 LT1. After-cat O2 sensors were not added until 1996 as part of OBD-2. EGR will set a code for the missing EGR vacuum solenoid. That can be eliminated with a resistor in the wiring harness. Whether you will get a code for no EGR flow is sort of hit-or-miss in OBD-1, since the diagnostic is not very sensitive. There is no perofrmance gain from deleting the EGR system. In fact, it can help minimize detonation when the engine is being lugged at low RPM in the wrong gear.
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Old 02-11-2014, 11:37 AM
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Re: Suspension and upgrade suggestions! Please.

alright well Ill take the adjustable pan-hard rod into consideration. Maybe look at a on-car-adjustable one to make it easier.

As far as headers go. We do have emissions here but my cars exempted due to it drives less then 5,000 miles a year. I more just want to get rid of the cat for sound i dont know exactly if there is any gain in performance by removing it but i wouldnt mind keeping the EGR system. I stumbled upon MAC headers? claim to gain 27.1 hp gains but there mid tube and the come with a y-pipe and the run into the cat and they have EGR. I was doing some reading on LT headers and ppl were having problems with them hitting the ground and stuff do to road conditions. Are roads in PA are **** so now that front of the car is going to be lower im worried this will be a problem. I did talk to the guys at TPIS which claim they dont have clearance problems with there LT's and Y-pipe but they require me to send my computer to them to re-tune it after the set-up is on because there set-up does not use the cat or EGR at least thats what they told me. I really do want LT's but not if there going to cause more probs then there worth. I just want a nice set of headers for performance gain and to complement my corsa cat back system

And i want to thank you "Injuneer" for replying to me and helping me. Thought more ppl would have reached out to help a first time F-body owner but i guess not.

Last edited by Z28amustangklr; 02-11-2014 at 11:40 AM.
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Old 02-11-2014, 02:53 PM
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Re: Suspension and upgrade suggestions! Please.

For headers, consider the AS&M mid-lengths, if you can find a used set. I have them (althought the collectors are modified for true duals) and they are dyno proven to produce good gains. A buddy of mine had them on a S/C'd 383ci LT1 and he didn''t upgrade them until he reached 900HP. That's when I picked them up from him for $175. Unfortunately, AS&M doesn't make them any more. RKSport sold a copy, but they don't have them any more, either.

Traffic has fallen off quite a bit. We're trying to rebuild, and get the membership back. Of all the forums, I think the LT1 Based Engine Tech forum is still good, with some knowledgeable people. In the future, post just about any question there, because it has the most traffic.

Last edited by Injuneer; 02-11-2014 at 02:55 PM.
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