Looking for adjustable strut and shock advice from people with a similar set up. I don't have any experience with them. My Car, 1986 Trans Am, hard top, fully optioned, drag strip 2x a month, no autocross, otherwise a cruiser. Motown 454 sbc, AFR 235 Eliminators, Howards cam-110275-12s, 1.65 roller rockers, ported Miniram 2, Hooker 2210's, Mufflex 4 inch exhaust, Probuilt 700r4, Yank 3200 converter, Strange 12 bolt 3.73. Inner and outer sfc, welded, Spohn adjustable Torque arm on crossmember, CE lca and track bar, BMR lca relocation brackets, Eibach Prokit with kyb gr2 struts and kyb gas adjust shocks. New Mickey Thompson ET streets-255/50-16.
Pinion angle at-3 degrees, lca in btm hole, ET streets at 18 psi, tires break loose even from a roll in 1st and 2nd, move the lca to the top hole and traction improves a lot, but still breaks loose at 4-5000 rpm in 1st and 2nd. With either setting, i have to roll into the throttle from a standing start, flooring it will break it loose immediately. Assuming adjustable struts and shocks are the next move, but have 0 experience with them. I have read many threads on this, with no clear answer. Koni's appear to be the favorite, with Tokico not available and KYB Agx a distant 3rd. Is a double adjustable strut needed for this application or would a single be ok? Would Kyb agx give me the weight trans for that I need? Not set on any brand, Just bang for the buck.
This was all backroad testing, test and tune at the local track was rained out last Friday. Track will be closed for the season after this weekend.
Thanks for looking!

 

I'm running a turbo LS fully built and with Koni adjustable struts and QA1 single adjustable rear shocks. I've got the struts about 1.5 turns in and the shocks at 6 clicks, LCA's at the bottom hole and my torque arm is in the second hole from bottom. Pinion angle -2*. Tires are 275/40-17 Mickey Thompson drag radial 25 psi.

With mine set up like so I can hammer it off the line and it keeps traction much better than when I was hitting the tires a bit harder with the torque arm in the 3rd or 4th hole up.

 

Hello, thanks for responding, your car sounds like a lot of fun. I have the torque arm in the 3rd hole, I'll drop that and move the LCA's back to the bottom hole and see what happens. Koni adjustables will be the next move. Noticed you have Koni's on the front and QA1 on the rear. Do you find there is an advantage to this combo, rather than Koni's all around?

 

No advantage to the 2 brands I bought the Koni struts on sale for like 45% off and the QA1 shocks were the right price and in stock. That's really the whole reason for two brands of shocks. I do really like the QA1 shocks out back they are really sensitive to the adjustments.

For the front torque arm adjustment the higher up you go the harder it's gonna hit the tires. I've got 5 holes for adjustment on mine. I only made it up to 3 before realizing any higher was not gonna be worth it

 

* Pinion angle should be adjusted for smooth operation of the driveshaft and health of the u-joints.

* It will help you tremendously if the rear shocks have adjustable compression (not just rebound).

* If car is lowered then make sure axle is not hitting the rear bump stops, that will cause tires to spin instantly. This might be a problem given your descriptions.

* Torque arm: Raising the front mount raises instant center. It doesn't have a very strong effect on it though.

* Rear control arms: Begin with 1° - 2° slope downward toward axle. Moving to a lower position on axle will raise instant center, and it has a strong effect on it. I would just leave it at these numbers while you work on other issues.

* Throttle control. Seriously. You have a 454 stroker.... it has mega throttle response. Don't snap the throttle, roll into it.

* Street driving murders 0 treadwear rubber. It maybe could be your tires are just getting more slippery too.

By the way, I suck at drag racing sooooooo.... just being transparent and honest about that.

 

Also, you want a drag car but your suspension is more autocross than it is drag. I had autocross suspension with drag radials and the car did everything poorly. Been there, done that.... best to choose one or the other and commit to suspension philosophy that goes with it.

I do have experience with that! LOL!

 

Thanks for the responses and advice guys. I understand the difficulty in trying to set up a dual purpose car. I'm the original owner, and a lot of the mods were done as the factory parts wore out, without a clear goal in mind. I've had several different engines in it over the years, and as power levels increase, traction becomes more difficult to obtain. Each swap is a learning experience. I'm going to try to crutch a less than ideal suspension set up with adjustable struts and shocks to make acceptable passes at the local track, which is open 2 weekends a month during the season. The track runs under NHRA rules, so if the car runs under 11.5's, I'll need a roll bar, which I don't have now. That will open another can of worms. Very few Third Gens come out, so its nice to put up a good effort. Thanks for looking.

 

Somehow I missed this thread!
My setup is a street-trim cross of dragstrip and autocross. It works for me, but I also plan on doing some changes.
Moser 12 bolt is mounted to a S&W racecars torque arm which is shorter than stock and has its own crossmember as a mounting point with a delrin bushing and is adjustable. I set my driveline angle at an overall 1.8 degrees. I have UMI adjustable lower control arms and they are pointed downward towards the back of the car at a -2.2 degree angle. I have the Koni Yellow adjustable shocks which I use for both dragstrip and autocross. I still have some fairly new but seldom used Lakewood 50/50 rear shocks, but I have found a better launch using the Konis and set at my 1/5 or 2/5 settings. I also run a Moog coil spring which I have cut down in height several times over the years, so I don't know how much shorter it is than stock. Inside the coil springs, I have two Air-Lift Drag-bags that I inflate when hauling a trunk full of gear to/from the track. On the dragstrip I do about 8psi in the drivers side bag, and 20 psi in the passenger side bag. I plan on going to about 25psi pass side int he coming weeks. I currently have the stock oem 19 mm swaybar, kinda mostly because I wanted to see how far I could take the car using it, but this upcoming winter I will be doing a swaybar suited for street/strip/autocross. I run a 200 treadwear tire on the street and autocross and it is a Falken 660. For the dragstrip I have a 15" jegs wheel with a beefy 275/65/15 Mickey Thompson ET Street SS Drag Radial. The car does have a 6-point roll bar and I'm 10000% glad that I did that. Not only for safety and some serious seat harnesses, but instead of the oem shoulder belt allowing my body to flail-around on autocross corners, I was ablet to tighten myself down int eh seat and focus on my steering input instead of bracing myself against the doorpanel.

It sounds liek you have a stout setup on your ride, but with thte 454 you are certainly makign some tire frying torque.

 

Hello IROCZman15, are you using Koni yellow adjustable front struts also?

 

I have two pair of front struts that I switch between.
Koni yellow adjustable
lakewood 90/10 non adjustable

if I know I’m going autocross racing or on a long spirited drive I’ll put the Konis on and put them right in the middle.

if I plan on drag racing for a few weekends at a time I’ll put on the Lakewoods. I also then remove the front sway bar also. It’s an oem 23 mm sway bar also but one day will get an upgrade.

the 90/10 Lakewood struts aren’t sketchy on the road like some people have claimed. Since I did not get to any autocross events this year, I’ve had the lakewoods on all year and the front sway bar removed. The car does just fine but I’m aware to not be leaning on it hard in corners

 

Have you ever tried the Koni struts at the drag strip, set on full soft?

 

yes, definitely. Thats how I started back at the track when i put this motor in back in February of 2020. I then put the Lakewoods in back in May of 2021. They reacted quicker on the launch than the Konis ever had. The sixty foot times were about comparable but the car wanted to "leap" better. I then began adjusting other parts of the car's setup, like swapping from an Edge Racing 3400 converter to a Yank 3800 converter. A taller rear tire, various tuning and electrical gremlins, the nitrous, and so forth. But yea, I did try the front konis in every setting possible on at total of 62 passes according to the notes in my summit Drag Racing Logbook. If you want more info, you can probably dig through my build thread and scroll to the dragstrip re-caps that I typed up between February 2020-may 2021. https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...g-install.html If you read after that date period, you will see the use of the lakewoods.