I'm putting in a new 383 motor in my car backed with a t-56. My car is a 91 Gta trans am I know its got the ws6 style suspension and as far as I know has had no suspension upgrades done to it and I was wandering if it'll hold up to the new power for long? I'm definetly going to put in subframe connectors but after that I don't know what else I'm going to need to get the car to hook up if I'm going to need anything else. So any advice on this subject would be a great help.

 

OK, you're off to the right start - subframe connectors are a definite must, especially with the torque you'll be laying down.

But the FIRST thing you'll want to do is to crawl under the car & see if there are any worn parts that need attention. It probably wouldn't be much fun to find a weak link at 70+ mph...

To plant the tires, you'll also probably want LCA relocation brackets that allow you to lower the rear mounting point for the LCAs. This link does a pretty decent job of explaining it. (Personally, I am planning on just making my own brackets, it doesn't make sense to me to pay $50-60 for two small pieces of metal bent into a C-shape & then drilled.) You may want LCAs as well, but it may be sufficient to just box the ones you have.

Once you have that taken care of, it might be worthwhile for you to look into a pair of decent tires - most of the rest of the suspension does a decent (even if not outstanding) job.

Of course, you haven't actually said what you're looking for either - whether your car's going to be a dragstrip demon or a corner-carver, so more info would help us to give better answers.

Good luck!

 

Well I want it to be able to get some grip off the line if I launch it right. It's going to be a street car but I only go fast in a straight line cause I don't want to get in a wreck trying to do something stupid like taking a corner at like 100mph. But I don't want the car to roll real bad when I go around a corner. So I guess I want the car to act similar to what it did stock but I don't think it'll do that with the amount of Hp and Tq I'm going to be pushing on stock suspension parts. So I guess from what your telling me If I wanted to go that route with my car I should go ahead and get new high performance replacement parts for the suspension polyurathane bushings and maybe tweak the suspension alittle so it still transfers most weight to the rear for a good launch and can still take a coner fairly well right?

 

Well, not exactly:

I guess that if you boil what I'm trying to say down to one idea, it would be to learn about how it all works (which I'm still trying to do), and then spend your money in a targeted & intelligent manner.

Like a lot of us here, I've been guilty of buying parts because I thought that they'd help the car to perform better, & then when I learned that a 'mod' is not the same thing as a 'magic wand', I realized that you have to

1. Set a clearly-defined goal; & then
2. Learn what parts and/or tuning is required to make forward progress toward that goal. (And unfortunately, sometimes our goals can contradict themselves, in which case you have to either change the tune for one or the other when you do them, or decide which one you want most, & go all-out towards it.)

It sounds like you're like the rest of us in that you'd like your car to do everything well - and we've got a pretty decent platform to start with. But as you increase the car's capabilities, the tuning & the knowledge become more important. It's (relatively) easy to "throw parts" at the car, but the farther you go, the less-important that becomes. Putting together a good, intelligent combination is where the last "few tenths" are.

From all the reading I've done, I'm pretty well convinced now that LCA brackets will help (provided you know -and pay attention to!- the potential adverse effects <such as roll oversteer> that they may also introduce), and that's why I've suggested them.

I've also read (& proven for myself) that good tires are generally a really good investment. In my case, the wet traction capabilities of my SZ50 Firehawks saved me from wrinkled sheetmetal not once, but twice - which pretty much makes the costs for the tires totally worthwhile in my book.

Beyond that, you're in the same position I'm in - I'm just hoping that I can help someone to make good decisions before spending their money! (Unlike what I've done sometimes...)

On the off-chance that you haven't seen it yet, there appears to be some good info in this thread.

Hope this helps.