84imsa

Hi,

Does anyone sell high performance/lowering coil springs for V6 cars?

If not, can V8 coil springs be cut to achieve the correct ride height and still fit properly in the stock spring seats?

TIA for your replies.

Mike in Manila, Philippines
84 SE 2.8 V6
71 Formula 400
70 Formuloid 350

AlkyIROC

Coil springs are based on their spring rate. You can have 5 different V8 third gen models and they'll all have similar but different spring rates.

A V6 car normally has a lighter spring rate because of the reduced weight on the front of the car but a fully loaded V6 car may have the same weight on the front as a bare bones V8 car.

Spring rate is now much a spring compresses with a specific weight upon it. If the spring rate is similar but the spring is too tall for a proper ride height, the spring can be cut.

When cutting coil springs, only cut 1/2 coil at a time and don't use a torch to cut the springs.

84imsa

The 84 SE 2.8 V6 I've got had a few bucks thrown at its suspension system by one of the previous owners. The stabilizer bars are 1.25" up front and 1" out back. I suspect the coil springs are also upgraded but have no way of checking right now. I do know the rear springs are a lot stiffer than the ones on my 86 Trans Am.

It is reasonable to assume that V8 springs would cause a V6 car to ride higher up front than desirable. The car came with IMSA-style fiberglass fenders and I want to set up the suspension correspondingly, i.e. lowered for road racing. When the car arrived at home, the nose was too high in the air which makes me think that V8 springs are installed. I do have a couple of SBC engines lying around but I'm not about to lower the front by installing a heavier engine at this point. That is a definite possibility at a later date.

So... there is a V8 Camaro donor car waiting to shed its springs for the SE. Cutting down these springs should give two desirable benefits. First, the font end would be lowered. Second, the spring rate would be increased.

Stephen mentioned there are 5 different spring rates for 3rd gen front springs. Is there a way to determine the rate of a set of springs visually? I.e., did the General put dabs of paint somewhere on the springs to differentiate them? I can do it the hard way with math but if there's an easier way I'd like to know it.

Spring math for everybody:

spring rate = (11,250,000 X wire diameter^4)/(8 X active turns X mean diameter^3)

Active turns are the number of turns not including anything that touches anything else like spring perches or insulators. Cutting coils off, which is the only way we can modify a spring at home, reduces the number of active turns and the divisor of the fomula, resulting in a greater quotient and spring rate.

The mean diameter is the inside diameter of the spring plus the diameter of the wire or the outside diameter minus the diameter of the wire.

That's mostly paraphrased from the Eaton Springs website. It's not difficult math but, boy, it would be nice to say, "Green paint dab, must be a 550 lb. spring!"