I have e-mailed this to SPD with no response and have searched here quite a bit.

Trying to get everything sorted before I order a few LSx Swap things and one of my major holdups is deciding which route to go on the crossmember.

I am definitely going with Spohn's LSx tubular K-member, Hawks Long Tubes (our only choice right?) and Skulte Long tube crossmember but that is where my holdup is.

SPD offers it uncoated so you can have the braket welded on for the crossmember mounted torque arm a la Spohns integrated unit.

My question is, will that interfere with exhaust placement? Has anyone done that mod / can show pics?

I also have rode in a spherical ended Spohn crossmember monuted torque arm IROC and it was clunky as hell. Are the crossmember mounted styles bad for street / strip usage? Should I just buy the complete Spohn unit with x-mem?

I want to go with 3" all the way back, similiar to this photo I found, and I also want maximum ground clearance as the car will be on Sportlines / Bilstein Sports. How bad is the ground clearance on the Hawks with the SPD x-mem?

The guy in the pic(no clue who it is) looks like he has some sort of custom bracket mounted to the body to mount his torque arm.

Which brings me to another question of whether to run an aftermarket body mounted torque arm or similar?

I do know for a fact that the stock torque arm mounted to my LT1 T56 is a PITA to get to anyways.

 

Nothing custom its either a Chris Alston chassis works or a jegs brand.I have the Chris Alston one and love it. Here's the link to the Jegs one. http://www.jegs.com/i/Jegster/550/40097/10002/-1

 

So you would recommend that I body mount it like the pic?

 

Its up to you, that type has the most clearance for exhaust, it gets the load off your trans, if you need to pull the trans you never have to touch the tq arm. The only con to a body mount is pulling the seats, carpet and drilling holes in the body.

 

I've got the Jegs torque arm in the link. It wasn't that big of a hassle to pull the seats and carpet to install it. I think the pros definitely outweigh the trouble of pulling the carpet up.

 

When you mount it to the body like that, would there be any problems with the metal shearing or bolts breaking?

Does it ride different / clunk or transfer more road noise like the Spohn one?

 

There does seem to be a little more road noise than before I installed it. I don't think there's much of a chance of the bolts breaking or the metal shearing. The part that bolts to the driveshaft tunnel has 16 high grade bolts going through it. I think it launches better than a full length torque arm.

 

Hope to have pics soon:

http://www.g-forcesuspension.com/pag...og/i.php/81/55 (only seems to work with IE, not Firefox)

 

Its kinda hard trying to get SPD to answer, I put in a order about two weeks ago and still havent gotten an email order confirmation or anything.

 

I used a Drews crossmember and a Spohn adjustable TQA and made my own crossmember mount using the stock bushing. Its just as quiet as stock was and I've done some amazing short times considering my clutch is the limit and my power levels are not insanely high either. I love it heres a link with pics

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/ltx-...ighlight=drews

 

Hey Cam do you know if there were different revisions on the Drew's Xmember??? I have one as well but there are metal plates with arches for the exhaust pipe that are tached onto the frame to provide stability. I had to rework these arches to keep the exhaust from touching on hard launches, reverse, ect.

By the way I like the remote mounted TQ arm. I think I just found another project when the snow finally melts....

 

Yeah I think there was a few designs but he very rarely posted so I dont know what all happened if he makes them anymore or not or how many types he made. Mine was a bit flimsy too so I did weld more support on the sections that mount to the frame and that beefed it right up but the bottom had no gussets on the u shaped sections at all.

As for the torque arm mount? Yeah man its great you would never know it wasn't stock until you go to the track then it bites HARD so the best of both worlds really. I thought a lot of other guys would mod theres like this when i did it so I posted up those pics but it didnt really make much notice at the time. The tunnel mounted arms work great but they're just too loud cranging and banging all the time for the street.

 

Awsome to hear that you have quite a few track passes as well as logging daily driver miles. That solidifies it. I will do this before I install my heads and intake this spring!! The car has only seen a track once since I have had it and will likely see limited track time until I can upgrade from my 10 bolt with 4.10's.

 

I have a drews xmember with a jegs torque arm and really like that setup.. especially for the ability to not mess with the arm during tranny work, but mainly for the fact it takes the stress off the tranny and xmember.. the only downside to the jegs arm thus far is it transmits a slight amount of rear end noise into the cabin.

 

At this point I am still up in the air about which setup I am going to run with.

Where can I find this "Drew's" setup?

That's an interesting setup five7kid, are there any reviews on that 4 link setup in a thirdgen?

 

Drews was the name of a board member who made these cross members like the one in my link there. Not sure if hes still around or what.

Those G-force units are to eliminate the torque arm altogether based on petes z bars iirc. Work great for draggin but not so much for cornering.. not good for cornering at all in fact should be looked at as a drag only deal.

As for which tqa to run? It dont matter much so long as its adjustable they are all good.

 

double post? dunno wha hapned thar

 

Not that I've seen. A bunch of opinions, but nobody that has installed one to the best of my knowledge. When I ordered it, he said he wasn't sure it would fit, but so far it looks like it will as long as you don't have early rear disk brakes.

That's not what they say. Guess we'll find out.

 

I didnt know you had bought this set up already. The first time I saw these they were known as Petes Z bars. From what I recall they worked great on the drag strip but were not the best for corner carving. Obviously I never personally used them so I'd like to know how they work please post up what you think when you get the car out. Heres a couple links for some older reading about them

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...-traction.html

http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/suspen...-pictures.html

 

as mentioned he was/is a member on the board here, I don't think he makes them anymore but skulte makes one that looks like a higher quality unit.

 

I've been on Andris' sales page and see nothing offered suspension wise, in fact I am still waiting on his e-mail back to me on his long tube x-member

I do love corner carving and this car is like 75% street so...

I am thinking about just ordering the SPD long tube crossmember powdercoated and keeping the stock tq arm location but buying the Spohn adjustable one.

I still wonder whether the factory length torque arm on the tailshaft will interfere with 3" true duals tucked under there like I want, that's the big question.

 

skulte doesn't offer any torque arm stuff.. my suggestion is to use his long tube crossmember (essentially a better drews xmember) and go with a jegs torque (floorpan mounted) torque arm..

Other folks have different ideas this one has worked well for me.. just an 02.

The plan you mention above would work also.

 

I could fit 3" duals passed my torque arm and cross member set up with ease thats not the tight spot. Look at my sig pic thats with dual 2.5" y-pipe into a single 3" ( with a HUGE 4"x14" cat before the rear axle too ) and my clearance is way better than a stock exhaust. I did spend serious time fitting everything and tucking up as tightly as I could. I'm running a full poly car all engine/trans/suspension mounts so I have the pipe literlly less than 1/4" away from some of the floor and trans c-member spots with no rubbing. I'm sure I could drop the whole thing 1/2" without losing much in tems of ground clearance. The main issues with true duals is getting a place for two mufflers and getting the two pipes over the rear axle is a pita too. If you need that kind of flow a dual 3" into a single 4" will flow every bit as well and be a heck of a lot easier to fit in there. Loud though. Very loud with 3" duals or a single 4" and I have enough hassles with the "farce" breathing down my neck up here so I need as quiet as possible.

As for suspension set ups? I'm no expert on design on what performs the best I have only run derivatives of stock meaning I've upgraded components but never switched to a completely new set up like five7kid is doing. Sam Strano and his posse are big time road racers so if theres an optimum set up he will know so google him and give him a ring he may be able to shed more light on the latest greatest.

That said my car rails pretty damn ferociously and theres no car I've had any issues with in the corners unless its bumpy and then the live rear axle starts to show its weakness but on smooth asphalt my ride is downright scary to try and find the limits of grip around corners

 

i dont see the pictures sorry

 

You probably have to go into your user CP ( see link above between home and faq ) and in there go to options and select show signatures and you'll see my sig pic. Its little but you can see it has great ground clearance. Eibach Sportlines too

 

Ay pictures of this mocked up yet

 

Just to muddy the waters a little bit more, I've gotten a really good deal on a used BMR Trak-Pak torque arm, which I'm probably going to be customizing a bit in an attempt to make it a bit less noisy/more street-friendly...

IIRC, there are a couple of pics in my L92 swap build thread...