Hey guys bought a set of Viking coilovers (warrior valving ) off a guy with only a few passes and he was using the 110 springs I believe. What spring would y'all recommend that's used on a car about 50/50 Street and drag?? Car has no rear seats but has a battery, meth tank and pump and trans cooler mounted in the back. Thanks for the input guys, have fun!

 

For a drag car you would mostly want something kinda soft. Softer than stock generally, which is like 165 lbs/in or some such. I'd think almost anything in the low 100s would largely pass the smell test, depending on how hard your car hits at the line, and its hookup, and its weight distribution. Lots of room for tuning there. Like, not even necessarily the same on both sides, probably softer on the left, if it leaves hard.

 

Ended up reaching out to Viking and they got back to me almost right away. Gave them some deets and they recommended the 12" long 150 springs as a "in the middle" spring rate. So put in an order for 2 150's. That was almost too easy

 

If you are fairly light and on a radial that you can leave hard on, may want stiffer. I run 275 front spring on my heavy bbc car. Works good. Less spring requires you to use the strut more to control things. I have the crusader valving and its pretty tight on the control. Warrior is probably alittle softer but should work. 150-175 will be ok, id lean more 175-200 in front for street.

 

Good to know. I guess I'll just have to see how this goes and adjust from there. Thanks for the input, appreciate it

 

My coilover setup is on very old Lakewood 90/10's and it has 12" 150lb springs, SBC dedicated bracket car. My springs setup has a plate that fits in the bottom of the factory strut caster camber plate so the top of the spring is even with the inner fenderwell. Ran all of last year with these springs, worked OK.

 

So I got the raer coilovers installed a couple days ago. Everything went in without a hitch and I was kinda surprised how easy ride height is to set. I did find while setting ride height tho is that you'll want to loosen the control arms and sway bar end links to get things just right then tighten it all down again. To those that are running rear coilovers, my ride height is 25.75" Driver side and 25.687" Passenger side would you guys try and split that atom and go after that small difference?? When you look at the car you would never tell it's off by 1/16" unless you're friends with that guy that always carries a tape measure with them. What do y'all think go after it or leave it??

 

Measured where?

Kinda sounds like fender lips?

If so, that's the TRIM. Not the CAR. Using that to set ride height is about like adjusting your house's foundations according to how far off the floor the curtains hang.

THE CAR is most easily measured at the control arm bolts in front, and at the "box" feature where the LCAs bolt up or the bolts themselves, in the rear.

Then the fenders will just be hangin wherever they happen to be; which since they're just TRIM, tin foil draped around REAL stuff more or less, could be just about anywhere.

 

Of course the fender lips. Like pretty much everyone else on the planet.

 

So, this brings up a good point. Seeing how the cars were built to such exact tolerances, where do you all measure for suspension adjustments? I use a combination of fender lip height and distance between bump stops and the surface they come in contact with.

thoughts? Suggestions?

 

The rest of the real world measures from the exact same spots and gets the same measurements. I'm not even sure where to start with other bros measurements from here, there, and everywhere else. His logic makes no sense

 

Here's an example. I have weight jacks on all 4 corners and adjust them so my wheel arch lips are all the same distance from the ground. W the car in the same spot you measure the bump stop distances side to side and they're not even, let's say 1/2 inch off. What measurement is correct. There are so many variables in these cars as far as body alignment. Especially up front when body guys use body shims. We all are quick to use fender lips but it's only so accurate.

 

It's all here say to a point. Every single car will be different. Every. Single. One.

 

yeah, so the rest of the world doesn't use fender lips only. In fact some say it's not a good way to go about it and to use more solid points of the chassis. So sofas point of bolt height was interesting to me. I was curious what other people's thoughts were. To your point, Every, Single. One. will be different. That's obvious. The question was more when on an individual car, what do you do with variation.

 

LoooooLLLL unless you got a car right off the assembly line good luck with those measurements.

 

Damn dude, forget it. Way to be stuck in a box.

 

Lol okay bud. I'd hardly call that being "stuck in a box" when questioning something you don't agree with

 

Have you ever taken apart the body work around the quarter panels and LOOKED AT how crude it is?

I don't give a rat's flying hindquarters what "The rest of the real world measures from". I DO know however, that on my car, I could grab a rear wheel well and yank it up, and it would move a good ½ " wrt the "frame". Then after driving for awhile, with some bumps and bends and twists and whatnot, it would settle back into about the same spot; not always "the same" spot, just, close. Just TAKE APART A CAR and you'll see why.

Fronts are even worse. The fender is a BOLT ON. Not even part of the car at all. It has gigantic bolt holes and all sorts of tolerance to how it attaches (I use the word loosely) to the car. As anyone who has worked around car bodies knows, you adjust the doors to fit to the quarter panels (rear of the doors) and the rocker panels (bottom of the doors) as best as they can, then adjust (shim, bend, etc.) the fenders to match the front of the doors, then adjust (warp yank shim etc.) the hood to match those and the bumper which might also take any random amount of warp shim yank heat-gun or whatever else to sit right. Front fenders are ABSOLUTELY in no manner way shape form or fashion ANY kind of "standard" for alignment. They are one of the LAST things to get aligned to match THE CAR. (to the extent they can even do that, if the doors aren't perfect)

And then don't get started on how much a minor bump to the corner of the bumper, like bumping into one of those concrete cylinders that holds up the light poles in a parking lot (ask me how I know this), bulges out the fender and makes the lip sit higher and further out. P***ed me right off when I had to buy a new fender once because I did that, along with the inner liner, because it broke out all the holes that fit the little clippy things that hold it "together".

In short, the fender lips are TRIM, not THE CAR. Adjusting your suspension to make those equal is EXACTLY the same thing as jacking on your house's foundation to make a picture sit ... somehow, or make the drapes hang ... somehow. The 4 suspension points I described are the ABSOLUTE FOUNDATION to the car's ride height; they're how far THE CAR, the structural load-bearing parts, sit above the ground. If anything, you should bend your fender lips to have equal gaps, AFTER you get THE CAR (the parts I talked about) to sit right. Those other things are just fluff randomly stuck onto THE CAR somewhere out in space.

I'm not into car shows or some such, where all that matters is "looks". Yeah if you're doing THAT, then sure, level the car to the fender lips, and to hell with whether it drives straight or not. I'm more interested in REALITY, in terms of the car's behavior.

 

I honestly used fender lips to. And with coil overs i count threads. Doesnt guarantee its even. Cars dont have equal weight distribution on all 4 corners. And a drag car may need some rear antiroll bar preload which screws up measurements. Factor in driver weight too, it can be difficult to really know what everything should be adjusted to for heights. I never was sure of it. I have a dirt track buddy who 4 corner scales the car and sets some suspension stuff to balance weights how he wants. I guess all that matters is does car go straight and do the tires wear evenly lol

 

Absolutely true. Butt RIDE HEIGHT is a matter of its own. That's all about how far THE CAR is from the ground, not THE TRIM.

For drag racing, and the 4-corner approach that's required, can't do that with fender lips. Imagine trying to do that with a fiberglass body. Gotta know where THE CAR is, regardless of where the tin-foil or plastic sheeting is hanging. Might well be why SOME people seem to be able to dial their cars in more reliably than others.

If you want to know if your car sits level, "fender lips" aren't the way to get there. Unless you're one of those people that jacks his foundation to get his curtains to hang the way he thinks they should.