Aftermarket Sway Bar Selection

[64nailhead]

Keep in mind with G bodies that stiffer suspensions causes the frame and body to flex more. This is why stiffening the chassis and body is important for these cars. Full set of good body mount bushings, F41 braces, GP brace, Jeff brace, rear seat brace, rear shock brace, etc.

To add to what Clone mentioned, the body mount bushings need to be better than OK. Poly, solid aluminum or hockey pucks (per banned Bruce 🙂 ). Joust and core support bars in the front help ALOT. Anything you can do to stiffen the frame will help immensely. To restate, if the body mount bushings are not good, then you can buy every aftermarket part known to exist and it will still suck. If you're not aware, these frames are flimsy, and I mean really flimsy. The body acts as the stiffener for the frame and the mounts are the attaching points.


melloelky questioned on the previous page about what tires you plan to use. And Streetbu mentioned that you can have too stiff of a bar in the rear. The tire size, front alignment, front and rear bar strength and spring rate all have to work together. Something to consider, the majority of the weight of the car is on the front wheels. If you put a big *ss bar in the rear that has more effect than the front bar, then it will handle poorly. Whatever bars you pick, they need to work together to keep the inside tire on the front AND rear planted equally.

I developed a severe handling issue on my car when I added a true ARB (TRZ) in the rear with no front bar. It really solved my issues of staying level at the drag strip, but on the street between 30-70 mph it felt awful and gave me a couple of butthole puckering moments at normal driving speeds on sweeping corners. I had removed the front bar last winter in an effort to remove weight (drag racing thing), but I street drive plenty and pull a trailer (drag and drive). I put the front bar back on (1 7/16") and the handling issue went away; I begrudgingly added the 30lbs back onto the nose in the name of safety. I have a factory front bar that I thought about trying because it's lighter, but decided against it when the handling came back with the big front bar.

I've tried a bunch of different things, some of them for the purpose of testing only. If you want to have a really weird feeling and your car makes some go, then unhook the front and rears so that there is no sway bars hooked up. In the area of 500-600whp the car will literally feel like it's going to flip over as the power comes in when going STRAIGHT 😛😛. Be sure to be on a clear road if you try that.

Best of luck - Jim

 

[pagrunt]

Since tires were brought up I'll add my two rust cents. They are a very unforgotten factor. Like the body mounts not having the right tires can also defeat the suspensuion mods. It's all about getting the ratio with the tread width side wall height. Getting the right ratio will help with the effort the sway bars & bushing have to put into the mix. Just think about those tall & narrow tires from the '60's for example, on top of the body roll you see in those old videos of the day the tire side walls are rolling too along with the tread loosing bite. Take a look at the evolution race car tires from the '60's to the '80's to see how the ratio was worked to find a balance. Our cars won't be running any high speed endurance race tracks but the work on those tracks for tire performance helped with suspension configurations. As this rabbit hole is openning up, take a few steps back & assess how the car is now to see what all that has been brought up to see what is & is not working with the handling currently to ensure the sway bar choice is going to help or just be something bolted onto the car.

 

[scoti]

A better simple theory is to use thick bars with softer springs or thinner bars with stiffer springs. For example, the police package Crown Vics use stiffer springs but thinner bars than regular Crown Vics, this is mainly for them to help haul heavy loads.

Keep in mind with G bodies that stiffer suspensions causes the frame and body to flex more. This is why stiffening the chassis and body is important for these cars. Full set of good body mount bushings, F41 braces, GP brace, Jeff brace, rear seat brace, rear shock brace, etc.

Herb Adams & Dick Gulstrand logic/battle.

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

Herb Adams & Dick Gulstrand logic/battle.

I think the main reason police cars use the stiff spring / thin bar combo is that the cops install 900lb of equipment into their patrol cars. So they need stiff springs to hold up that heavy load and prevent bottoming out. Performance cars usually don't have that much weight added.

 

[Streetbu]

Watch the guys that win with well prepared autox cars, and they have insanely high spring rates, AND massive sway bars. 1500LB rated springs in the front on coilovers is not uncommon

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

Watch the guys that win with well prepared autox cars, and they have insanely high spring rates, AND massive sway bars. 1500LB rated springs in the front on coilovers is not uncommon

Again it depends a lot on the application for the vehicle and the environment it will operate in. A nicely prepared flat track or pad vs not so flat, cheaply built, and often barely maintained public roads.

 

[ElkySS89]

Watch the guys that win with well prepared autox cars, and they have insanely high spring rates, AND massive sway bars. 1500LB rated springs in the front on coilovers is not uncommon

Yea, I'm not going that extreme. My car is a daily driver with a focus on amateur autocross

 

[ElkySS89]

Just finished installing BMR front control arms and Viking coilovers with 450lb springs. Tomorrow, I'm adding rear control arms, Viking shocks and UMI 1in springs

 

[scoti]

Just finished installing BMR front control arms and Viking coilovers with 450lb springs. Tomorrow, I'm adding rear control arms, Viking shocks and UMI 1in springs

Share your thoughts & let us know how it goes (good or bad) .

 

[Streetbu]

Yea, I'm not going that extreme. My car is a daily driver with a focus on amateur autocross

I'm running 750lb front springs on my coilovers , and wish they were stiffer. Yet it rides better than it did with cut lowering springs. Keep us updated please!