Front end suspension help

Rice_slayer · May 26, 2010

Well, I graduate next month and once I start my apprenticeship in July, I will FINALLY get the suspension done on my mustang(granted expensives work my way). Thing is, after a winter of sitting without an engine, my bushings up front now are squeaking like crazy. I was wondering if I could put tubular A-arms on a stock K-member, as I am going to be running QA1 coilovers with an 250lb spring up front, MM LCAs in the back and bilstein shocks in the back too. Another question, I am going to try and drop the front about 1.5" with the coilovers and roughly an inch with the rear springs, but what rear spring can I get that will drop and inch but give me good weight transfer for drag racing? Hoping Replica chimes in :thumbsup:

Edit: Another coilover I am looking at is the 70/30 lakewood struts with a UPR coilover kit, how would this ride compared to the QA1 coilovers?

Lee12609 · May 26, 2010

cut rear coils for drag....

QA1s over the lakewood anyday.... (adjustables vs non adjustables no brainer)

tubulars on stock K YES......

i'd do rear upper control arms before i do lowers..... pretty much any adjustable upper will be plenty just need a good bushing (unless you dont care about noise) and adjustability. lowers dont do nearly as much as the uppers will.

Rice_slayer · May 26, 2010

Lee12609 said:
cut rear coils for drag....

QA1s over the lakewood anyday.... (adjustables vs non adjustables no brainer)

tubulars on stock K YES......

i'd do rear upper control arms before i do lowers..... pretty much any adjustable upper will be plenty just need a good bushing (unless you dont care about noise) and adjustability. lowers dont do nearly as much as the uppers will.

Thanks! As for the Lowers, I hear having LCA do WONDERS for our cars, especially for wheel hop and eliminating those stupid quad shocks. Either way, the bushings in my stock LCA are completely toast and have been for awhile, but I wanted more power first

. I heard FRPP UCAs are the way to go from everyone. This car is my DD and sees strip duty a bit too.

Lee12609 · May 26, 2010

dont know who you're getting info from but there are tons of people pulling 1.60 short times on stock lower control arms.

i'd do the uppers first, get to the track then see if the lowers are even needed, most likely wont be.

what kind of tires are you going to run?

and FRPP suspension stuff is a WASTE, its stock stuff with stiffer bushings. i'd spend less and get better pretty much anywhere else.

i wouldnt run a MM part on my car either, they know road racing, but there are alot better options for drag inspired suspension parts.

Rice_slayer · May 26, 2010

I will be running Mickey thompson ET street radials, launching at 3-3.5k(trying to be easy on the diffy until I can upgrade axles). From EVERYONE I have talked to, MM makes great stuff, so I will take the majority opinion, but thanks!

Lee12609 · May 27, 2010

yes I never said MM didn't, there products are excellent quality, what I said is there are much better options for someone interested in drag racing.

Look into team z suspension or metco...

With that soft of a launch you probably wont even notice a gain from your suspension mods though. Bone stock suspension is plenty capable of handling 3500 rpm launches.

JDwhite98gt · May 28, 2010

His car is a daily driver that will see some strip duty, there is no way he will want to put any kind of aftermarket upper control arms on the rear. All they do is control lateral motion of the rear....a good sway bar or panhard bar will help and not induce "binding" of the rear durring everyday driving. Rice-slayer, I know you have been on this site for a while now and have seen these discussions multiple times, and you know how everyone raves about MM stuff just as much as everyone has already weighed the pros and cons of upper control arms. For a track only car, Yes they are an important part of a 4 link set-up, but not for a car that is used primarily for the street. If you are more serious about drag racing then go with a weight-jacker type of LCA, it relocates the position of the LCA. Really what I am trying to say here is look at what is already done and what WORKS and coppy that. Either replace bushings in your uppers or go FRPP, then use some quality LCA's geared for drag racing.

Lee12609 · May 28, 2010

I disagree with pretty much everything you just said.

Weight jackets do not relocate the mounting location either, the term weight jacket implies exactly what they do, bolt in like stock and allow height/weight adjustment.

Also anyone considering a Lakewood strut setup I automatically figure is more into drag than anything.

Also lower control arms do next to nothing for drag performance besides using stiffer bushing, unless they relocate the mounting point to help the instant center of the car. When you launch a car (with any descent force) the ring gear tries to "climb" the pinion, this is the main cause of wheel hop in our cars.

Basically if they don't change suspension geometry or pinion angle rear control arms upper or lower wont make much if any noticeable difference on the launch.

Keep reading generic mustang forums for info and taking it to heart and you will end up wasting a lot of money......

Rice_slayer · May 28, 2010

This car isn't a strip warrior, I drive it every day to school and work, it will never be a true drag car, I just want coilovers for adjustability more than anything since my streets are terrible here. As long as I can cut 1.8/1.7 60 foot times I will be a happy person lol.

duff daddy · May 28, 2010

Lower control arms if you want some good ones run the FRPP (who are made by HPM) Mega Bite JR's Ive told several people to get these, they have and LOVE THEM. If you ant to drop the front dropped down, use an adjustable shock, and stick some 4cyl fox springs up front and youll get my front stance.... (my rear coils were cut 1 full coil)

As far as shocks, I had tokico's they worked well, and now have Lakewood 90/10's with my front coil overs and strange 10 ways out back.

The coil over set up and a arms is 100% up to you, alot of people on here LOVE upr, im not thirlled with their quality, but alot of people talk bad about qa1 (its what i have, but mine is from 03, when they were made in the us). I told Travis (venom351R) to get a Team Z k-member, and he loves it, and its a great product.

I think that answers most of your questions.... lemme know... oh and i Cut a 1.62 short on 4cyl fron springs, stock rear springs, and stock upper contorl arms with my HPM/Frpp rear lca's

Lee12609 · May 29, 2010

1.7 60' is doable on stock rear suspension. Good tires and weight transfer make it possible.

duff daddy · May 29, 2010

for sure, just need Hook!!!

Rice_slayer · May 30, 2010

How does your car ride with the Fox springs up front duffy? As I said, it's a daily driver do I don't want to scrape too much or bounce around alot lol. As for cutting springs, where should I get it done? I always hear horror stories of cutting springs and the car rides very bad afterwords. What coilover set-up do you have with your lakewoods duff?

JDwhite98gt · May 31, 2010

ok oops got one term wrong sorry mr guru, anyway im talking about the lca's that mount to the axle tube, im guessing the FRPP ones. Rice-Slayer, like I said before this has been discussed several times and sometimes its a good idea to go with what is Tried and PROVEN so listen to Duff or someone who has been on the site for more than 3 months

Lee12609 · May 31, 2010

you must not realize that duff just totally agreed with what I said. The megabite lowers relocate the arm, which changes the suspension geometry and pinion angle.

Bullitt5339 · May 31, 2010

I have Megabite SRs and they were an awesome upgrade for straight line performance. The problem is that HPM is out of business now, so you can't get new Megabites anymore, and FRPP can't buy them from HPM anymore.

I put mine up for sale last week and they sold within 10 minutes, that's how many people are looking for them still. I'm swapping them out with Maximum Motorsports arms this week, since I'm doing autocross now, I figured someone else could benefit from them, since the relocation brackets aren't useful for Autocross, or at least that's what MM told me.

Lee12609 · May 31, 2010

That is right about the brackets.

Bullitt5339 · May 31, 2010

I've read the entire thread, and agree and disagree at the same time, if that's possible.

The main problem with the stock lower control arms are the wimpy rubber bushings, that's for sure. So replacing those bushings would be the main reason to buy lower control arms. Replacing the uppers........eh, that depends on what you want to do with the car. For drag racing and daily duty, they're a good upgrade, but unless you go to the extremes that I did, stock rubber bushings are the way to go for Autocross. The rear suspension setup on the Mustangs in stock form is just a horrible design for anything performance in the turns to begin with.

duff daddy · May 31, 2010

Rice_slayer said:
How does your car ride with the Fox springs up front duffy? As I said, it's a daily driver do I don't want to scrape too much or bounce around alot lol. As for cutting springs, where should I get it done? I always hear horror stories of cutting springs and the car rides very bad afterwords. What coilover set-up do you have with your lakewoods duff?

Rides fine up front, The front struts being on 1 oesnt change the dampening ratio, it only changes the rebound. It will come off the line real easy and give a little bounce when it comes back down but its not bad at all.

Cutting springs is eas, just et a hack saw and go to town, measure and cut again on the other side DO NOT USE HEAT!!

The cc plates are maximum motorsports, springs are aftco and the coil over kit i dont know the brand, id only think they are upr's .... i got the stuff used