Well, I was right, I had an exhaust leak, right at the passenger side manifold-to-y-pipe connection. The flange was really loose, I could move it with my hand, and that exhaust donut was sliding around. So I go tighten it... and it gets tight, then loose. Then tight, then loose. I'm thinking, wow, how far did this loosen up? Tight, then loose. Tight, then loose, and WTF? I take the nut off. The flange, from vibrating for the past few months, wore down the manifold stud! The nut had nothing to grab. So I stacked a few washers on the stud, and cranked the sucker down. The car no longer wants to stall when I come to a stop, and the idle smoothed out a lot. I also went to Sears on Saturday and got my toy; finally put it together last night, looks nice! I'm trying to hold out on completely checking the whole car out; summer is when I do my Major Tuneup, as my "reward" for making it through another college semester. Doing the tuneup now, right before finals, isn't my idea of a fun, relaxing time.

I'm also getting a "clunk" out of my driver's side wheel if I come up on a road with minor bumps (or waves) in the road. I was figuring it was the strut (last replaced over 100,000 miles ago), but one of the guys on the Tech board said it might be the upper strut mount's bearing. That sucks; expensive part. I have my original '86 one in my basement, and from what I remember, it didn't get bent in my accident; I'll have to take a look at it.

It's not that big a deal, since I was going to redo the whole front suspension with new stuff anyway this summer.

Which leads me into my tech question... how many people put lowering springs on their car and actually got it to lower in the front? I'm thinking of changing the whole look of the car this summer. As some of ya know, I've got air shocks, and huge tires in the back... I'm thinking of losing the air shocks, shrinking the tire height a few inches, and the width by maybe an inch (currently P275/60r15, 11 inches wide, 28" tall). I'd like to lower the front at maximum, only an inch! And I'd rather not cut any springs. Any good products out there?

 

Nobody's lowered the car so far, eh?

 

well... I can get V6 specific lowering springs. 1" 4 corners.

 

Man, I thought at least one V6 driver would've lowered their car by now! I might have to shoot antiVtec an email, I guess. Looks like I've got a few options..

Eibach ProKit- says they're made for performance, but a review at tirerack.com says the sportlines are better. ProKit springs have less of a drop than sportlines, about an 1" drop.

Eibach Sportlines- says they're made more for lowering, and will lower a car an inch further than the ProKit (2"). This might be the spring that will actually lower my V6 car. And the Tirerack review seemed to say the sportlines were better for cornering- odd.

InTrax- Cheap, yeah, but don't know anything about 'em.

Suspension Techniques- See "Intrax"

I'm almost leaning towards the Sportline springs. Actually, any of the above will probably improve my car's handling compared to my original stockers! One bummer tho; the Eibach web site said they advise against installing only one pair of their springs, and leaving factory springs in the other location. That's what I would've liked to do... have the lowering springs in the front, and buy new "stock" springs for the rear to clear my tires. Hm. I don't think it'll be dangerous- that's probably just a bunch of crap, but I'd hate to negate any good handling because I used stock rear springs.

 

we were talking about this in class last night.

if you replace only the fronts w/ aftermarket, the supension might not "accept" them and will give you a unbalanced car, if you do all of them, then it usually won't, because they are tuned to work together.

go with air bags.

you can drop it in front, and leave the rear in 1971.

lol.

it just don't look right unless the wheel is wider than 8" with 275's to me. it is too much for a 7" wheel.

remember tom, I used to have 275's on my maro.

I went from big to small.

now the grand prix rides on my 245/45ZR16's that were originally intended for the maro' (thanks carNdriver!)

tom, you should try 1 tire size for all the corners. boy am I a smarta$$.

 

ROFL! Haha, that's just what I needed tonight, I've been working on a f'ing program project (Prolog? Who the F' uses that anymore??) and needed a good laugh!

Oh and the P275/60r15's are on an 8" rim, wider would be nicer, but it's not a big deal to me; I like the way the sidewalls look. And yeah, I guess I'll be moving into the 80's with putting the back lower again. Plus, I want smaller tires anyway. Yeah it looks great (to me), and I did get complete traction, but hell, it'd be nice to peel out without having to do a brakestand! I'd love to put the P215/65r15's back on the rear and do a smoke show.. Plus, I'd like to dump the air shocks and run "real" shocks.. right now they're acting as shocks AND springs. The car does corner tightly, but I bet it could be so much tighter with normal shocks in the back.

Thanks for the info on the unbalanced suspension, I appreciate it! Maybe I will get the Prolines then.. but I would like to see some kind of drop in the front. Hm. I've been thinking of raising the spring perches on the rear axle... that would let me run a bit of a taller tire, and not worry 'bout scraping the thing.

Here's a funny bit; I bought Daytona Racing for my computer a year or so ago... I couldn't drive worth a damn- until I figured out I could change the level of the car. I raised the back two notches, dropped the front one notch, and started driving like a champ. Go figure!

 

My fiance's RS is lowered, WAY too much. We are going to put Eibach springs in it, have it an inch and a half lower than stock rather than the four or so it is now. I still can't figure out how to attatch a pic to my signiture or you'd see how low it is.

Some prior owner cut the springs, and cut the fronts so much they have three coil srping boosters in 'em as they went too low!
The bupstops on the lower control arms are maybe an inch from the thing, so that's all you got for suspension. It rides on I believe 255/65/16's on 16" flat spokes. THe oil pan has a huge gouge in it, and the front airdam in nearly torn off. I notice on trips having to pee much more frequently than when I drive my S-10.

email me privately and I can send a pic that way or will someone please walk me through the picture postin' process?

PS- Tom, leave the airshocks and put a strieght axle out of an old van in it! The 60's gasser look comes to the third gen Camaro!

 

if you think about it, it makes sense.

if the car is "even" the weight will transfer to the rear, and the front will lift.

if the rear is slightly higher, it'll make the sprung weight rebound quicker and easier. when the front lifts, it'll put more weight to the rear sooner.

you could get new springs and keep the airshocks. though the spring does a bit with ride height, the big advantage is the lower center of gravity, and less rebound from bumps.

that gasser look, man, I can never like it.

lo pros tom, lo pros!

tom, invest some money into some bigger wheels, then I SWEAR you won't want bigger rear tires.

for my Impala, I wanted 235/60's on the front and 275/50's on the rear, but those are the 15" Original (not repros) Corvette Rally wheels.

I kept my 16" IROC wheels and put them on the Impala, and I like the 245/50's better on all four. though I'm gonna go with the current 245/45's on the fronts, just ciz I don't feel like buying two mroe tires and swpping @ this moment.

I might get 255/50's on all four corners just cuz it's got big wheel wells.

 

Hi TomP, take a look, maybe you'll find some ideas:
https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...threadid=60734
Horst

 

I like the regular look of the thridgen, I run the same size tire all around and the only lifitng I did was to level the car out.

I put new shocks with coil over springs and shock extenred studs to give it a nice level look.


I dont get into big tires or jacking it up really, it will just mess with the cars already great handling design.


in the pic you can see how my car has the same ammount of space between the fenders and wheels, the coil over springs and shock extenders help with that.


I also pre loaded the right spring to help it launch better.


I did end up with "gas " shocks but if you can find the older oil type shock, them with coil overs are the best ride you will ever have.

but oil shock can blow easier if you do lots of rough riding.

 

the only idea I had was to go wider on the rear tires but still the same.

also my steelers paint job idea.

 

oops

 

(Laughs) I dunno, I can't see myself ever putting low profile tires on my car... it looks too much like the ***** look to me. I think the P225/60's (instead of P215/65r15's) have a low enough profile! I don't even want 16" rims... I've got my eye on a set of rims that's exactly the same as I have now, the 15" AR46 5-star's, but they're aluminum (and still made by american racing). My chrome has rust spots all over the place on the rear rims. Not that there's anything wrong or ***** with low profile tires; I just like keeping the "look" of the old school racers. I just want a mild drop because I don't like how much wheelwell is showing between my front P225/60r15's and the fender.

Horst, thanks for the link! Maybe I should look into drop spindles... but I didn't want to drop a ton of cash on just closing a gap. Hm...

 

I know you said you did not want to cut springs, but just loosing 3/4 to one coil off them would close that gap without the car looking obviously lowered and it would'nt ride bad.

The springs on thirdgens are so easy to get out to do this with, and have you more time than money it's an easy thing to do.

eric

 

Here's (hopefully!) a shot of my fiance's slammed '91

 

I might consider it if I were going for stock linear rate springs, but I don't want to cut a coil of a progressive spring. Actually I'm toying with the idea of stock springs & drop spindles!

 

That'll work good too!

Why is it the pics I got on disc when I had the film developed look over exposed and the ones on paper look so good?

 

TomP I herd you cant use V8 springs on our cars because of the weight in the front not being as heavy is that true. I plan on lowering my car within the next year my springs are shot my car right now looks lowerd and its the stock springs.

 

yes the V8 springs will raise the front of a V6

 

So do they make V6 lowering springs or could we use the V6 springs for a 4th gen?

 

Yes they make V6 specific lowering springs. I think they are 200 for 1" drop.