85 monte carlo suspension

[willschevy]

what would be a good starting point to upgrade the stock suspension on and 85 monte carlo ss i want to make it a better road handling car and everyonce in awhile go to an autox is there bracing i can do to the frame that would help stiffen it up any advice would be great im new to suspension upgrades so be gentle lol thanks for any and all help


will

[ProdigyCustoms]

Check out Hotchkis and throw in some tall ball joints to correct the camber curve.

We did Michael's Monte Carlo this way and it handles great.

And BTW, we have a big Hotchkis sale right now.

[Samckitt]

Frank if you are having a big Hotchkis sale right now, how much are the rear braces that go between the upper & lower control arm bolts?

PN 1401

[ProdigyCustoms]

20% off

[Hotchkis]

Our setup does work really well on the G-Body. If you swap out the spindle for a B-body or F-Body spindle and use the spindle swap specific tubular arms, that also makes a huge difference, and now the new Extreme Sway Bars are out and they work awesome.

Our rear suspension package helps a lot with wheel hop and traction, especially the double adjustable trailing arms, and the premium steering rebuild kit uses machined tie rod sleeves that are really bitchin compared to the factory stuff.



A few years ago Hot Rod did a build up using our bars and arms (the extreme bars and double adjustable upper arms weren't out yet), and Jeff Smith really liked the setup. I'm sure Prodigy can help you out, or let me know if you have other tech questions.

[Norm Peterson]

A few years ago Hot Rod did a build up using our bars and arms (the extreme bars and double adjustable upper arms weren't out yet), and Jeff Smith really liked the setup. I'm sure Prodigy can help you out, or let me know if you have other tech questions.

Do you happen to know the issue for the follow-on article (where the results of the quickie testing appeared), or have a link?


Norm

[Samckitt]

20% off

Frank, I emailed you/Lisa for exact price.

Thanks

[willschevy]

any thing else besides that as far as bracing or a phb and should i use poly bushings or will moog problem solver bushings be ok its mainly going to be a street car and maybe see a autox once or twice a month only reason i ask is because i heard poly could be harsh as far as ride and if it is how harsh would it be

[Norm Peterson]

any thing else besides that as far as bracing or a phb and should i use poly bushings or will moog problem solver bushings be ok its mainly going to be a street car and maybe see a autox once or twice a month only reason i ask is because i heard poly could be harsh as far as ride and if it is how harsh would it be

How you modify your car will affect how it gets classified at auto-X (and what you'll be competing directly against). For example, most structural modifications will put you into C Prepared. That's not a bad place for larger cars to play in, though you could end up running against all-out race cars on road-race slicks. Even that's not a big thing if you're in it primarily to have fun.

General chassis stiffness is probably best addressed by using poly or perhaps solid body mount bushings so that the frame and the body act as a single unit of greater overall stiffness than the sum of the stiffnesses of those two items taken separately. Nonmetallic body bushings may pass muster in ESP, but metal ones = CP. Other things such as a roll bar/cage are not entirely street-friendly for at least a couple of reasons.

Marcus at www.scandc.com has a few braces which can be added and which reinforce certain areas.

I've found that springs on the same order of stiffness as the Hotchkis offerings (mine are supposedly 640 lb/in front / 165 lb/in rear) are entirely useable on a daily basis, as are poly-bushed front sta-bar endlinks. I have Bilstein shocks, but if Konis are available they may be better. KYB G-A-J's will work reasonably well with these moderately stiffer than OE springs but tend to ride relatively harsher than the Bilsteins and may not last as long.

Poly bushings elsewhere are kind of a mixed bag, with poly being much better suited as replacements for the front control arm bushings than for the rear. They're much more popular in rear applications mainly due to the much heavier influence of drag racing on this sort of product development. Poly in the rear arms can be done, though doing so with the intention of using the car at auto-X begs for a softer rear suspension setup at least initially (the stiffness that's good for eliminating wheel hop tends to bind the rear suspension in the corners - it acts like a too-large rear sta-bar when the car is cornered at auto-X intensity and the rear is more inclined to come "unstuck" if you get sloppy).

You'll want wider wheels than the 7" that is OE for the Monte and better tires than anything currently available in 15" sizes adequate to your car's weight, and unless you've got huge HP you'll want the same size all around if at all possible. I ran 15 x 8.5 on my '79 Malibu, which required a little creative clearancing, but if that car ever comes back out of retirement I'll be looking for 17's x wider still.

Oh yeah - you don't have to do this all at once.

One last thought for now . . .



Norm