I'm in the process of rebuilding my 88 IROC. It's going to be basically a fun weekend car to drive around a little harder and faster than my daily driver and enjoy some performance. I'm not going to be doing any AutoX or anything like that. Just a little fun street racing/cruising and maybe an occasional drag race at the strip. I came into a great deal on rear Koni Red shocks (thanks QwkTrip!) this past weekend that are valved for Koni Yellow fronts. I don't have the money for new Koni Yellows at the moment, but I also don't want to skimp and cause myself handling problems either. I also need to figure out what springs to put on the car front and rear. I don't want to lower it too far as Chicago potholes are known to swallow semi trucks without the trucks touching either side! lol. I'm just looking for improved handling over stock and a nice stance over all. I have stock 16" IROC wheels on it with 245/55R16 tires on it at the moment and probably wouldn't put any really low profile tires on it for fear the roads would destroy them quickly. Any advice is appreciated!!

 

Save your money and buy Konis.

 

I've had Bilstein and Koni on my car. The Koni have a better ride and offer adjustable rebound settings. Currently have the Koni yellow on front and no plans to change.

Bilstein are made for stock ride height and run out of travel with a lowered car. But they are very stout, rebuildable, and highly customizable if you're willing to spend the money.

 

Bilstein dropped the thirdgen struts from their product line. When I was shopping for shocks and struts, the Bilsteins were more expensive anyway.

 

My vote, for the OP's application, goes to the Koni Yellows.
Has their annual spring sale come and gone already?
As for the tires and wheels, the handling crowd seems to have a genuine like for the OEM rims on all four corners. Apparently they're relatively light too. Keep the 245/50/16's.
A 1-2" drop is manageable. I can't comment on a specific spring although there's a boatload of information here at thirdgen in that regard.
I'm running Intrax lowering springs but a search on the web turns up nothing for a thirdgen anymore.
Drop the car, add an extended front ball joint and from what I understand (and almost enjoy) is 3/4 of the way to a well balanced and fun to drive car. The last 1/4 is a lowered panhard bar mount. The ball joints and panhard mount bring the roll centres more towards where they work best.

 

Thanks guys! Koni is giving a $70 or $75 rebate right now for their shocks. Just a hard amount to swallow for just shocks, but obviously they're worth it from what i'm reading. Anybody know what springs work with them? I haven't done any other suspension upgrades as of yet other than Lakewood LCAs in the rear. I know there are a bunch of other things that should be done when lowering these cars and I was definitely considering an adjustable panhard bar.

 

I put Advance Auto Monroe’s on mine.

Rubber bushings on the control arms.

Did the alignment with a tape measure, yardstick, and carpenters level in the driveway.

Tracks smooth and straight as an arrow at WOT in 5th gear on the highway.

Goes over neighborhood speed bumps without dragging the air dam.

It’s not a race car, and I’m not gonna needlessly spend money, or install specialized parts, trying to make it be anything other than what it is.

 

I really like my KYB AGX. They are adjustable and perform and ride fantastic. In fact setting 4 is to stiff IMHO for the type of driving you are looking at doing. I too was on a budget and these performed in that category also.

 

Very timely.

 

I suppose that depends on what it is because with little outlay of funds (relatively speaking) they can be pretty good.

 

I have driven my car for the past 5 summers(92Z convert). I want to bring it back to stock ride height and have taken out the front Eibach lowering springs and put back in the stock ones. I recently removed the rear Eibach springs and compared them to the stock ones. Sitting straight up on the floor they are the same height. And when I lean down on them with my body weight the stock ones do seem stiffer, this seems very strange, thoughts anyone? Also after my car is raised will I need to adjust my panhard bar?

 

5662 Moog Springs for the front- $52/set
5665 Moog Springs for the rear - $54/set

Works well with the Konis

 

 

​​​​​​Glad to hear you like the Agx . Planning on putting those on mine .Seem like a good option without breaking the bank.

 

This weekend I'll have my car back on the road. I might have a set of one inch lowering Eibach springs for sale. I got to drive around a little to see what I like yet.

 

Ya. Just let me know if they're for sale or not. I'm getting my car back from the shop this weekend and there's more stuff I need to do on it besides suspension.

 

Will do.

 

Don't be too surprised if the front sits up HIGHER THAN the rear.

"Lower" is a RELATIVE term, not ABSOLUTE. The whole notion of "lower" hides the question of "lower than what?" It's not like you buy a box of "lower", open it up, slather it liberally all over the car, and the car just magically jumps down x.xx" from wherever it sits now to that much closer to the ground.

The numbers quoted on most "lowering" springs are, COMPARED TO NEW. So if you put 1" "lowering" springs on the front, but your rears have already sagged 2", then you have effectively RAISED the front higher than the rear.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/hist...od-1986-a.html

Here are a few photos of what "lowering" springs compare themselves to. If your car doesn't look like these, you're going to get a real SHOCK (of a different kind) when you do what you're about to do.

 

What I'd like to know (and could probably find out with a little more enthusiastic searching) is what the fender heights were originally.
Then I could compare them to these 2 inch "lowering" springs I have from Intrax.





And from comparisons with the archived photos and other restored third gens, it definitely is lower. By how much, I can't say.

 

I wouldn't over think it. Used springs are easy to buy and sell. If you don't like what you get then sell and try something different.