Cascade Crew

[aaron_sK]

I have around a thousand bucks set aside for the Camaro, and I figure new tires are probably going to take a good (~$550) chunk out of that, but the rest I'd like to drop into the suspension. The car is mostly a street cruise/race setup. Not a dedicated track car, but will see a few passes.

Springs: The car has blue springs stamped Eibach (I'm assuming they're Pro-Kit springs) on all except the front right which has what appears to be a cut factory spring. That lovely bit of former-owner BS has done a pretty good job of ruining the front tires, but at least it explains why my car pulls on launch.

The back springs seem fine, so I'd rather just replace both the fronts. I could get a set of Hotchkis springs like these:

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=HSS%2D1902F

Anyone used those before?

I could also go with WS6 springs since this is a Tacoma driven car, and it's pothole city out there. For you guys that have used both, how much of a performance difference (cornering, and E/T) would I see going from Eibach's to WS6?

Shocks: It has Blistien shocks on it now, IIRC they're HD's, but I'm not sure. Should I automaticaly replace them when I do the springs, or leave them as long as they're not worn?

I"ll probably also pick up a bushing kit like this

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=ENS-3-18131R

when I've got everything torn apart, which should take the rest of my cash.

Any ideas, suggestions, anything I'm missing here? It would be much appreciated, guys.

[83Z28BlackBetty]

how are your tierods or ball joints. these are wear parts that tend to be overlooked.

I have the ws6 package and kyb shocks. I think it is awesome, but then again it replaced all worn stock stuff so yeah.

~JAKE

[iansane]

I can get energy stuff fairly cheap if you want to wait on ordering and you'll save on shipping. It'd probably easier to piece together the bushings/etc you need.

That hotchkis pair is 3/4 of a full set of eibachs. I think I payed $190 or so awhile ago and I think they're not too much more nowadays. Does bilstein have any sort of warranty? I thought I remember koni having lifetime, would be worth seeing if bilstein is the same way. And yeah, I'd do struts if you're doing springs. You don't have any idea how many miles are on them, right?

Aside from shocks/struts, do what jake says and take care of all the wearables like ball joins/tierods/endlinks/etc. If you want to do the work you can try out my old set of ws6's for awhile and see if you like them, but doing that much work just to see seems like a waste.

[chevymad]

I only paid $220-30 for my full set of hotchkis too.

[Dewey316]

Bilstein should have a warenty, just send them in, and they should fix them. I don't know what the turn around time is, might be worth a call to Bilstein of NA.

[aaron_sK]

Jake, dunno about the tie rods or ball joints. I'm going to have to pull both fronts again and check everything out.

Ian, Pro-Kit for that car is $260+shipping off Summit, or new of eBay for $235 shipped, which isn't too bad.

Dewey, Blistein has a lifetime warranty against defects, but proof of purchase is required. I doubt there's anything mechanicaly wrong with them, I'm just worried they might be shot from having two different springs installed.

[Schultzy89GTA]

tirerack.com

pro-kit = $209 + shipping
sportline = $217 + shipping

that is all.

-Schultzy

[91RSVert]

The strut with the cut spring may be a bit more worn then the other side. But IMO, unless its bad, leave it.

Look at ball joints. Mine "seemed" ok, but alignment shop said they were bad. After replacing, ohhh so much better. And if your that far, might as well do the control arm bushings.

Most of the rest is stuff that you can nickle dime when needed.

[Al Hasse]

Looking forward to getting mine all done up there. Struts and springs made a big difference. I have Brandon's old WS6 springs and they are quite stiff, but I upped the sway bar diameters at the same time.

I have all the steering components to put in yet, mechanic said the idler was wearing a bit so I got the whole lot - ball joints, center link, rod ends and adjuster. Since I don't have the resources, I'll probably have a shop press in the new poly bushings and the ball joints while they're at it.

[aaron_sK]