Best Front Springs for QA1 Coilover's

[NvrDun71]

Like the title says, those that are running QA1's any recommendations out there for a good spring to use with there coilover conversion?

Have heard not so great things about the OE QA1 spring w/ its less than optimal spring rate of 250-350. Have also heard horror stories of coil bind and spring collapse after being compressed and being placed under a load in a performance street application. Therefore what are my options for a QA1 spring upgrade? Someone please enlighten me......

[andrewb70]

Like the title says, those that are running QA1's any recommendations out there for a good spring to use with there coilover conversion?

Have heard not so great things about the OE QA1 spring w/ its less than optimal spring rate of 250-350. Have also heard horror stories of coil bind and spring collapse after being compressed and being placed under a load in a performance street application. Therefore what are my options for a QA1 spring upgrade? Someone please enlighten me......

The proper way to determine this is to get the car done, please it on a 4 corner scale system and see what spring will work best. My guess is that a 500 lb/in spring would be a good starting point.

Andrew

[NvrDun71]

The proper way to determine this is to get the car done, please it on a 4 corner scale system and see what spring will work best. My guess is that a 500 lb/in spring would be a good starting point.

Andrew

You lost me man, Ill claim stupidity here and ask how you can get the car DONE, without springs? What spring would you start with? Also the 4 corner scale is probably out of the question for my basic aplication. I appreciate the feedback, but possibly a more real word solution would help. The 500lb/in sounds likes a good starting point to me as you suggested, as I know GW makes a set for the coilovers at that rate however I don't know if there are other or better springs out there for the same application.

[RSX302]

I put on Griggs Racing 450lbs for the front and 250lbs rear. I'm sure they're painted Eibach'. Not factory suspension. Closer to a 1:1 ratio then factory.

At any rate...that is a wide open question. I'll touch on more of what Andrew was getting at.

Weight of the Car will determine spring rate. More weight, more spring.
Suspension used? Factory? Mounting location and Shock Angle changes rates.
What type of ride do you want? Soft Street, Med Street, Hard Street or Race?

As for coil binding..If you have 1000lbs on a 500lb corner spring, it will compress 2 inches. Easy math right. Unfortunately you won't know exactly the weight on the spring due to the Suspension geometry. Just because you have 1000lbs on the corner doesn't mean that's what the spring will see. Will be more with the factory set-up..Not sure how much..but I'm sure someone here has done the math.
You will also need to know your suspension travel and how much it will compress to ride height. This will determine the shock and spring length required. Softer springs will require more travel (coil bind prone unless you have more length) and with a 1000lb spring you will not need to worry about coil bind. You will however need to worry about the shock being able to control it and knocking your teeth out.

As you see, sometime the answer is not a simple number. You may start with 500lbs as Andrew states, but may adjust to your desire from there.

[awr68]

I'm using QA1 c/o's via the DSE conversion kit on the front and a parallel 4-bar on the rear of my '68 Camaro and have spring rates of 550# on the front and 200# on the rear. Kyle Tucker (DSE) likes to use 575# on the front of a close to stock weight car, but at the time I ordered my shocks QA1 didn't offer that rate, so I thought I would start 550#...hope this helps.

[Marcus SC&C]

NvrDun we need a little more info on the car and intended usage to make spring rate recomendations. I`ll say this though,if it`s the Nova in your sig most perfomance springs run between 600-650lbs/in for those cars. Your spring/shock motion ratios are stock so that shouldn`t be much of an issue. We have lower spring perches that allow the use of common 5"OD springs on QA1 coilovers so you`re not limited to their variable rate "beehive springs". One issue with QA1`s hybrid coilover setup is that the OE upper spring perch and the longitudinal axis of the coilover aren`t perfectly perpendicular so the higher the rate of the spring the more side loading you add to the coilover and the harder it is on the internals and seals. It isn`t a major issue but it will accelerate wear to some extent. Mark SC&C

[NvrDun71]

I greatly appreciate the input guys. Sorry about the vagueness of my question, due to my inexperience I overlooked the complexity of my intended question.

I am currently setting up my front suspension on my 71' Nova. It's a small block automatic car, but I am unsure of the exact weight I believe its somewhere around 3300 lbs. I am using stock upper and lower CA's w/ del-a-lum bushings and moog balljoints. I am running a stock drum spindle w/ Touring classics c4/c5 hybrid kit, the GMP14 Coilover conversion from QA1, and 17"s front and rear w/ 45 series rubber. The car will primarilly be street driven and in reality will probably never see a road course. Maybe a dragstrip from time to time, but I would say 75-85% street driving. I am really more concerned w/ stance and ride quality than an all out performance spring. I have heard nothing but negative things regarding the stock QA1 springs. Thereofore I am just looking for a quality alternative that provides a good ride, will give me the stance I am looking for w/out running into coil bind, and yet still provide a marketable improvement in handling over stock.

[NvrDun71]

ttt....

[TitoJones]

You want Global West PN S-501. It is a direct QA1 coil over spring replacement with a rate more suited to what you want to do with the car.

Tyler

[NvrDun71]

You want Global West PN S-501. It is a direct QA1 coil over spring replacement with a rate more suited to what you want to do with the car.

Tyler

Thanks for the reassurance and PN on the GW springs Tyler. I was looking for them on GW's site w/ no luck. More than likely these are what I will end up with. I was curious tho if these springs change rate when compressed near the lowest point on the shock body adjustment? I have heard this, but am not sure if this was bogus information or not....

I did find out today that QA1 has just released some new non-variable rate springs for their QA1 conversion kits in several new rates 350, 450, & 550. Anyone heard of, or run these? Seems like the 450 might be a good fit for my needs and might provide a somewhat softer ride than the 500-550?

Bottom line is I just want to do this once...I know in the end it really just comes down to personal preference, so i guess theres really no way to no for sure what will work 100% in my application w/out just trying one of the above.

[Marcus SC&C]

450lbs/in will give you a rate very close to a stock Monte SS or GN. Still pretty soft. I`d go with the 550 if I were you. What you set the shocks at will make much more of a difference in ride quality than the spring rate. One of our test cars runs 705lb/in springs. The old QA1s could be set at 4 clicks for a cushy ride or cranked up to 7 where the dampening rate more closely matched the spring rate for best performance. Since you haven`t made any geometry improvements you`ll want a higher spring/shock rate anyway to minimize the usual range of travel. The more it moves the worse it gets. Of course you could tweak the geometry a little too. ;) Mark SC&C

[NvrDun71]

450lbs/in will give you a rate very close to a stock Monte SS or GN. Still pretty soft. I`d go with the 550 if I were you. What you set the shocks at will make much more of a difference in ride quality than the spring rate. One of our test cars runs 705lb/in springs. The old QA1s could be set at 4 clicks for a cushy ride or cranked up to 7 where the dampening rate more closely matched the spring rate for best performance. Since you haven`t made any geometry improvements you`ll want a higher spring/shock rate anyway to minimize the usual range of travel. The more it moves the worse it gets. Of course you could tweak the geometry a little too. ;) Mark SC&C

Mark:
Thanks for the comparison on the 450lb/in springs. I was hoping to get an idea of what a 450 lb/in spring could be compared too, and that gives me a great reference. Makes sense that the shock adjustment will affect ride quality more than the sping rate as well, and am glad that is the case. So its safe to say a 550 lb/in spring is a good rate for a street apllication, and a 500 lb/in would probably be the lowest rate I should look at?

[Marcus SC&C]

Pretty much,at least IMO. Mark SC&C