I was wondering if replacing my stock panhard rod and rear control arms with Factory 1LE parts is worth the money? Would it be cheaper and/or easier to replace the bushings in my stock components?

There's probably no difference between your stock parts and the 1LE parts.

there is a difference in the sway bars and front brakes. im guessin the rear is a 3.XX (dont remember) ratio 9-bolt..but im not sure on that.. Alum driveshaft but an LS1 ds is better.

Yeah the rear end is a 3:27 and I'm not interested in changing the brakes around. I'm either going to replace the stock bushings with Poly's or purchase the 1LE parts that already have them in there.

If I remember correctly, and I think I do, 1LE parts don't use poly bushings; they just use harder durometer rubber bushings. You are better off just buying an aftermarket panhard bar and rear control arms for 2 reasons. The first being that the 1LE ones still have problems with flexing and aftermarket will help to eliminate that. The second reason is that aftermarket ones will come with poly bushings, which sounds like what you want. That is just my $.02 though.

Spend the money once.....and spend it wisely. 1LE stuff is great, but there is better stuff out there, either new and on sale or in the classified section of your favorite parts trader paper. Look around, and value shop.

BTW, duh I almost forgot Ebay

I think you should consider what type ride you prefer--don't get caught up in the hype. That said, note my sig. While the ride isn't harsh, it is certainly firm. Since my car is essentially a road-trip car, I wish I had simply gone stock for a more comfortably ride. If you're a spirted driver, by all means go poly.

The 36 mm hollow front sway bar is GM part # 14094344, the solid 24 mm rear 10035033. By the way, before 36 mm poly bushings were made, I bought GM's higher durometer 1LE bushings (front 14094344 and rear 10037104) as well as the 1LE poly end links (10221779). I much prefer the latter as they have a 'head' that fits better into the end link hole in the a-arm--this hole has a tendency to oval because of direct contact with the end link itself. Concerning the LCA's, the instructions for the HO 350 conversion lists the following:

"The rear-control arms included with the HO 350 conversion kit have high-durometer (50K) bushings. These harder bushings reduce wheel hop under hard acceleration. (For comparison, production bushings are 11K).

"These heavy-duty rear control arms are direct replacements for the original control arms." GM part # 10164151.

JamesC

Thanks guys that pretty much answers my questions.