[Blackout]

So ive decided on the engine setup for around 380 to 420 hp. I want something that can take curves pretty good but will still do decent on the strip. But im not really good with suspension or handling stuff if you guys would give any info id appreciate it.

[Rich11]

PM Jazzer The Cat, he can help you tons!

[wheelsjz]

The Official Suspension Guide

[4.6DreameR]

Drop it, full length subframe connectors, caster/camber plates, bump steer, better LCA's.
Thats what I've done and it seems to handle pretty good. You could add sway bars, pan-hard bar and a torque arm set up to really handle corners.
Just wait you'll get some experts in here pretty quick.
cue Jazzers reply....

[Blackout]

Originally Posted by 4.6DreameR Drop it, full length subframe connectors, caster/camber plates, bump steer, better LCA's. Thats what I've done and it seems to handle pretty good. You could add sway bars, pan-hard bar and a torque arm set up to really handle corners. Just wait you'll get some experts in here pretty quick. cue Jazzers reply....

should subframes be the first mod and should i get bolt ons or weld?
what does the bump steer thing do?

[TaintedStang]

Originally Posted by Blackout should subframes be the first mod and should i get bolt ons or weld? what does the bump steer thing do?

Subframe connectors should be one of your first mods and get the weld in ones.

[Novanutcase]

Get....

Weld in SFC's - I like MM's because they are extra long and have a tang that bolts to the seat mounts which helps in increasing stiffness throughout the chassis.

Lowering springs and Tokico D-Spec struts and shocks

Rear lower control arms


If you drop the car more than 1 1/2" then:

MM CC plates

MM or Steeda Bumpsteer kit

What is Bumpsteer? Bumpsteer is where the front toe changes as the suspension moves up and down. When the toe changes more than a very small amount it causes the car to change direction, making the car unstable and unpredictable. The bumpsteer kit will re-align the tie rods so that you have the least amount of toe change throughout bump and droop.


Those parts should make the car handle better but if you want to go the extra mile and really see what she can do:

MM K member and front tubular lower control arms - The K will lighten the front end along with moving the axle line up an inch or so extending the wheel base giving you a more stable platform. The control arms are also positioned in a way to better the geometry of the car. The lighter you can make the front end the more responsive the car will be along with helping the inherent understeer our cars have from the factory.

Solid steering shaft - This will clean up most of the slop from the rag joint in the stock steering unless you have a bad rack.

Steering Rack relocators - This will help in aligning the tie rods so that they are parallel with the LCA's

Panhard bar - PHB will keep your rear end from shifting around. When you're rear end moves around going around a corner it makes the car unstable and unpredictable.

Torque arm - TA will increase rear grip, improve you launches at the track, make the car more predictable and help you in wet weather handling.

Rear adjustable sway bar - I had one and it was great in helping tune the car for over/understeer.

Coil Over kit

JMO

John

[Eagle2000GT]

You are asking a lot from your suspension. For corners you typically want no body roll. For the dragstrip you want the weight to transfer to your rear wheels. Many of the things that you do to to improve your cornering will inhibit weight transfer.

Full length subframe connectors should be your first mod. A good set of lower control arms is also a good mod to start with. After that you have to start making decisions. You need a good set of sticky rear tires. You want stiff sidewalls for cornering and soft sidewalls for dragracing. A compromise is a drag radials but they shock the drive train more during hard launching.

Stiffer lowering springs and different sway bars help cornering. But they are probably the last thing you want for the dragstrip. To hook up, some people are putting in 4-cylinder springs on the front. A lot of people take the front sway bar off.

Adjustable upper control arms help you set the pinion angle for greater traction at the dragstrip. Upper control arms with hiem joints and spherical bushings tighten up the rear end so that you get less shifting in corners. A panhard bar keeps the rearend from shifting while cornering. But, you cannot run a panhard bar with aftermarket upper control arms. If you want a panhard bar and want to adjust the pinion you need to go one step further and get a torque arm.

The panhard bar/torque arm combo changes the dynamics of your suspension. When I was talking to the MM techs, they told me that you have to change your springs to make it work right. You actually need softer springs on the back compared to your front springs. So if you plan on going this route buy your springs when you buy the torque arm.

Coil over front suspension also changes things. With coil overs you don't need super stiff springs on the front.

All of this will increase the noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) of your ride on the street. Whether it is too much are not is very subjective. If you like a comfortable ride then be careful how far you take things.

[Jazzer The Cat]

I would add that a specific design be used on the LCA's and would include at LEAST ONE spherical end on it You can go wth FLSFC's, LCA's and shocks/struts/springs and get a pretty good handling ride for around $1k or so. If you want to really carve corners.... you are gonna need to spend a WHOLE lot more

Blackout.... what is your ULTIMATE goal here?

Jazzer

[Novanutcase]

Originally Posted by Jazzer The Cat I would add that a specific design be used on the LCA's and would include at LEAST ONE spherical end on it You can go wth FLSFC's, LCA's and shocks/struts/springs and get a pretty good handling ride for around $1k or so. If you want to really carve corners.... you are gonna need to spend a WHOLE lot more Blackout.... what is your ULTIMATE goal here? Jazzer

Yup! Expensive as it may be to tighten up your front end it's the rear end that ends up sucking most of the dough out of your wallet. Problem with setting up your car for corner carving is you can't just do the front without doing the rear. You could, I guess, but the moment you do do the rear you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner!! You'll realize that as much as the front suspension changeout bettered the cornering capabilities of your car doing the rear end right will unlock the full potential of all the upgrades you did to the front.

Once you start getting into PHB's and TA's you're talking about setting up a world class suspension and that costs $$$ but the car will hang with AWD's and M3's with no problem although most of that comes from the driver mod more than anything else.

Also, as Eagle said, if you want a REAL suspension the tradeoff will be more NVH. Spherical/Heim/Johnny joints are solid joints with no bushings to cushion the NVH so it's gonna get..."clanky"! One thing a lot of newbs forget is that when you're upgrading your suspension like this you're installing a race suspension. Race suspensions are noisy but in a race car situation your concern is performance over comfort.

It really depends on your goals as far as what you want the car to do and the environment that the car will see most!

John

[86er]

twisties and track go together like a plugged in radio and a bath tub.

You are looking at two totally different set ups that are on the two furthest ends of each other. One allows the front to be soft and come up and the back to drop and stay down, where twisties you want the body to stay stiff/firm and allow for little body movement.

as stated earlier, pick the one you will do more of and go that route. You can make it work on both, but you better be ready for 5k if not more in a total suspension build

[CW5billwade]

I tossed the idea of replacing the K member with Coil Overs around a lot. I decided to do a complete rebuild of the stock suspension. I Put Maximum Motorsports LCAs, UCAs (FRPP), UCA bushings, Pinion Snubber, and Poly spring isolators on my Eibach pro springs and Bilstein Shocks in the rear and their Front Grip Package which consists of (CC plates, Steering Shaft, MM steering rack bushings, Front control arm bushings, sway bar bushings and end links) along with my Eibach springs, Poly spring isolators, and the Bilstein Struts. All I can say is *Damn* this is how the car should have handled in the first place. Now it is very stiff and you get some road noise/vibration but man what a difference on a 2002 GT with 80K miles. This was by no means the cheapest route but my Hooker headers have no problem with the stock K member. Now I did shop for better prices and the Bilsteins and LCAs from American Muscle with the forum discount. If you do not have long tubes you will not need the steering shaft so you could probably get the CC plates and other bushings there as well.

Eibach Pro-Kit, 1994-04 V8 Convertible w/ Solid Axle [3530.140] : Maximum Motorsports, the Latemodel Mustang Performance Suspension Leader!
1987-04 Bilstein HD series Damper Package, solid-axle Mustang [BIL-7] : Maximum Motorsports, the Latemodel Mustang Performance Suspension Leader!
HD Rear Lower Control Arms, 1999-04, with perch, swaybar [MMRLCA-5] : Maximum Motorsports, the Latemodel Mustang Performance Suspension Leader!
Ford Mustang Rear Upper Control Arms, solid axle, 1979-04 [M-5500-A] : Maximum Motorsports, the Latemodel Mustang Performance Suspension Leader!
Pinion Snubber, Urethane, 1979-2004 solid axle [MMPS] : Maximum Motorsports, the Latemodel Mustang Performance Suspension Leader!
Mustang Rear Upper Control Arm Bushings, Differential Side, pair [E4SZ-5A] : Maximum Motorsports, the Latemodel Mustang Performance Suspension Leader!
Urethane rear spring isolators, 1979-04 Mustang [6-1701-BL] : Maximum Motorsports, the Latemodel Mustang Performance Suspension Leader!

Front Grip Package, 1994-04 [FGP-2] : Maximum Motorsports, the Latemodel Mustang Performance Suspension Leader!
Urethane front spring isolators, 1984-04 Mustang [6-1703-BL] : Maximum Motorsports, the Latemodel Mustang Performance Suspension Leader!

[Jazzer The Cat]

Originally Posted by Novanutcase "... Also, as Eagle said, if you want a REAL suspension the tradeoff will be more NVH. Spherical/Heim/Johnny joints are solid joints with no bushings to cushion the NVH so it's gonna get..."clanky"! One thing a lot of newbs forget is that when you're upgrading your suspension like this you're installing a race suspension. Race suspensions are noisy but in a race car situation your concern is performance over comfort... " John

Yup

My car has exactly 3, yes.... THREE bushings that are NOT made of steel on steel construction. One on each axle end of LCA's and one on the axle end of PHB.... that's IT! All the sway bar links on both ends of my ride and up through the twin-control arms up front. Run my ride over one of those rain-pitted sections of asphalt and the fillings fall out of your mouth.

BUT.... take a turn of the wheel into a nice set of twisties, such as those seen below:


Heaven does not BEGIN to describe the rush of rippin' this bitch at 50 MPH without touching a fraction of paint on the road surface *runs to bathroom for a second time today for *cough*... relief*

[Eagle2000GT]

Originally Posted by 86er twisties and track go together like a plugged in radio and a bath tub.

That's a great saying. I too was on a quest for the universal budget suspension. After a couple of years of research, I finally learned that there is no such thing for our cars. I finally scaled back my goals to improving cornering a little, increasing rear wheel traction a lot, and minimizing the increase in NVH. I think I succeeded and the mods were not that expensive.

[Jazzer The Cat]

^ that is EXACTLY what one must do, to meet a goals that are oposing do some degree

Jazzer.... proud of his pepes

[MATT02GT]

Ive been really happy with my Steeda setup. Handles great on the street, does pretty good in autocross and launches hard at the strip. Id say I have somewhere around $1,500 in my suspension build and would reccomend it to anyone on a decent budget.

Strut tower Brace
Steeda Alum. Upper & Lower Control Arms
Steeda Competition Springs
Steeda Front Sway bar
Steeda Adjustable Rear Sway Bar
Steeda Full Length Subframe Connectors
Tokico 5 Way adjustable Shocks
Steeda 3bolt Caster/Camber plates

[Blackout]

Originally Posted by Jazzer The Cat I would add that a specific design be used on the LCA's and would include at LEAST ONE spherical end on it You can go wth FLSFC's, LCA's and shocks/struts/springs and get a pretty good handling ride for around $1k or so. If you want to really carve corners.... you are gonna need to spend a WHOLE lot more Blackout.... what is your ULTIMATE goal here? Jazzer

Ultimate goal is to be able to stick corners really good, but i would like to have good striaght line acceleration

[Eagle2000GT]

Originally Posted by Blackout Ultimate goal is to be able to stick corners really good, but i would like to have good striaght line acceleration

Understand he not, a single word we've said.

With these goals then I recommend you build your suspension for the twisties and take what you get for straight line acceleration. With good sticky tires on back it shouldn't be too bad.

[Blackout]

Originally Posted by Eagle2000GT Understand he not, a single word we've said. With these goals then I recommend you build your suspension for the twisties and take what you get for straight line acceleration. With good sticky tires on back it shouldn't be too bad.

sorry im not too great on this suspension stuff i get confused easily.

[Jazzer The Cat]

Originally Posted by Eagle2000GT Understand he not, a single word we've said. With these goals then I recommend you build your suspension for the twisties and take what you get for straight line acceleration. With good sticky tires on back it shouldn't be too bad.

not necessarily

A WL or PHB with TA set-up will give WONDERFUL straight line grip, just not worth it for one who ONLY wants the launch-pad action I am just not up to knowledge on how to compare this set-up to a modified 4 link one for the 1/4 mile. I know Griggs has set up 8 second rides on their HD TA and believe it is a better way to go.

I just don't have any first hand knowledge and leave christmas tree lane to others who are better versed

Jazzer