I am looking to put coil overs on my '98 and take of the mono leaf in the front and rear. My question is... Is it that easy? Do I need to do anything other then take off the leaf and put on the coil overs? How is the handling going to be affected?

Thanks for any and all help guys...

 

Set the ride height in all four corners.
Get an alignment.
Enjoy.......

 

My question is why?

Generally coil overs are for road racing, and some are very stiff and are a very harsh ride. I'd choose them carefully to make sure you don't get a set that makes the Vette not fun to drive. If your getting them to lower your Vette, look for ones that are for the street only.

If you road race a lot then they can be a good idea. But, its not a magic bullet. They allow some additional adjustments but not really better handling. The idea with them is that you could tweek them for different tracks, the reality is that most do not adjust them once they have the ride height where they want it.

To be honest I miss my stock springs, if I weren't on the path to a track only car I would put them back on. With the C6 Z06 shocks it felt great and road very nice.

If your looking for better handling, list what you have and what you want, there are a lot of choices.

 

They are fairly easy to install, the biggest thing is getting all of them even so the car sits leve.

As far as handling and ride comfort, it REALLY helps keep the car level and you can tell a difference in handling, but better tires really help.

An alignment is a good idea after the install.

I would either go w/ PFADT or LG's. I have LG's on my car for about 4 years and they are holding up awesome.

 

All of the above is correct. I went with the Phadt set up on my 98. I all ready had the heavy Hotchkiss sway bars and deeply invloved autocrossing. I am happy with the system I have. Suspension mods are like eating potato chips, you can't stop at one. I started out with the Z06 sway bars, the went to the Hotchkiss bars, then I lowered the car to the max on the stock bolts. A set of Hoosier autocross compound tires improved the track performance a great deal. On street tires performance was also improved and ride was not affected that much. The car had the F45 suspension and even on the performance setting were too soft for the track but were adaquate for autocross at the time. The one thing I noticed is with the changes I had I made at this point she picked up a bump steer condition which is not uncommon with the big sway bars and lowered suspension geometry. Soooo On went front and rear bump steer kits! Alignment now becomes a real issue. previous to adding the bump steer kit I had the car aligned with each mod including the lowering. With the bump steer kit the alignment now becomes a big issue as the time to align properly and get the car dialed in takes a lot of time and many alignment mechanics will look at you like you came from the moon when you tell them what they need to do. I was happy running this set up for a few years, finally the F45 shocks started to give up. Looking at the price of a new set of F45s, I decided that for performance the coil overs were the way to go. By this time there were lots of reviews on them, and quite a few product choices. Soooo on went the Phadts largely because they are fully adjustable. I then went with wider rims all around and 315 Mich PSs on the rear and 295s on the front. Back to the alignment table we go. By this time I was able to search out an alignment shop that really knew what they were doing. We then rebalanced the car weight on the suspension, then a full bump steer alignment. We acutally raised the car slightly from where it was with the lowered stock spring set up.

Today the ride quality is stiff, but not bad (wife does not complaign on long trips, ) I have the shocks set at their mid point.

I don't track the car as much as I once did, so it is largely a street machine. But a street machine that will pull some corner Gs that will give you Vertigo!

I am very happy with the current set up and tire combo. This write up is a sketch of evolution over a number of years. Is it better than stock? absolutely. Is the ride better? depends on what you expect, if you don't want to feel the road, than put on a pair of worn used shocks and forget about handling. It is firm and slightly firmer than stock at the mid point settings, I could soften it up but I don't want to give up the fantastic cornering ability. I love those 360 degree highway ramps, I can enter them and 65 MPH and accelerate all the way around and never squeek a tire and the car stays totally flat!

Opps, almost forgot, when I went with the coil overs I replaced all the rubber bushings with the Neo bushings. Make sure if you use these they are well lubricated as they will creek! also I finaly went with the thicker tunnel plate, soo We can say that I pretty much changed out the entire suspension short of the stock A-arms.

It's a lot of work! If you start, Enjoy your potatoe chips!

 

Will do and thank you for the write up!!

 

Love my PFADTS. Can set the ride from soft to stiff and any ride height.
Easy install

 

I installed the Pfadt coils & sways, I think their package maybe a bit more street friendly than the others. Very adjustable!

My car was an F45, I did not like the dive & squat & side stepping.

The ride is very different, road compliant but not harsh or bone crashing.

I believe the coil over package is better everywhere, handling & ride.

My C6 is a Z51 which I really like, it also demostrates side stepping. I installed the Pfadt adjustable shocks which I'm told will correct that, have not tested that yet.

 

You also need to remove the shocks. Coilovers incorporate both the spring and the dampener (shock). It's the dampeners that are adjustable not the springs.

The ride will probably be firmer and you will have less body movement when you brake, accelerate, or turn.

Suggest you also upgrade your sway bars when you make the change. Be sure to use metal end links. You have plastic end links right now which have a lot of flex. If you want to keep costs down you could pick up some used C5 Z06 sways. Should help a lot.

Also, the coliovers will allow you to lower the car. This will help limit weight transfer, which will improve your car's handling all the way around.

Just make sure to get a good alignment.

 

Take a look at our instructions page. There is a good write up of the install on our G2 Coil Overs.

LG INSTRUCTIONS

As far as ride it is completely up to you on what you want. With our G2's they are all built to order for the customer and his or her car. With the GT2 units, you have the ability to change the shock adjustment to one of 12 different settings to meet a number of conditions that you like.

We have always been a company that prefers a softer spring and bigger sway bar as you don't want the car upset and bouncing through the air, that doesn't give you much grip if the tire isn't on the ground.

Here is a look at our GT2's in action from a local customer



I am always happy to answer any and all questions about any one of our setups.

 

I'm going to be getting the Pfadt coilovers for my Z06 in the spring. The diving, squatting and side-stepping are my primary concerns right now. My car is lowered on stock bolts and while it rides decent in a straight line, the roads here in Wisconsin aren't always smooth and I'm sick of the side-stepping around turns (kinda scary too). I have a great shop to do the install and alignment, their techs are also road racers and have compared stock suspensions all the way up to Pfadts and they highly recommend them as they provide great track mannerisms but are very streetable as well. I can't wait!

 

The real key to the whole thing is the fact that it all must be set up correctly and by someone who really knows independent suspension systems. I can't stress this part enough. You can put a fortune into a suspension system and if not aligned right it will never work to your satisfaction. There are a lot of guys out there doing alignments. Even if you have a guy from a stealership saying he went to school on Corvettes, he may be good but all he knows is stock setups, You start talking bump steer, coil overs, heavy sway bars, corner weight etc. with them and they fall apart very quickly. Weigh the amount of actual track to street driving you do and plan the agressivness of the set up accordingly!

A good question to ask the tech before you commit is ask him how he does the bump steer alignment for the front and rear!

 

I would agree as well. The best parts in the world won't make a hill of beans difference if the tires are not pointed in the right direction.

 

Some cool real-world experience with lowering in this post. Lowering for me has always messed up the total geometry and caused some bump steer. I notice it most in sweeping turns at high speed with bumps, gets really really scary...

I found a cool document over at zip-corvette. http://www.zip-corvette.com/_Resourc...PM-499_doc.pdf .

Basically says for bump steer, you want anywhere from 0 to toe out throughout the suspension travel range. Seems straightforward with the right tools and a decent bump steer gauge.

Anyone have suggestions for a shop or person in Southern CA that is capable of doing a bump steer alignment?

 

I installed Pfadt coils and their fatty race sways on my 04Z.I set all 4 corners to 8 and did their street/race alignment with me in the car and corner weighted the car.I do not road race at least not yet,but I wanted to drop it without using bolts.The ride is stiff but not harsh and the car is very linear and flat.The biggest thing you will notice is for instance is going around a curve and imagine a depression or similiar the car does not deflect which is very common in these cars. My only downside to this is I run 345 30 19 with L-5 flares.Because the car is low and tires are so wide I get rubbing on certain angles on inside of tire.

 

You want no bump if at all possible. The front you would want toe out if anything and you want toe in at the rear but as little as possible.

Given the car goes to a toe out in the rear, then you start to have a 'rear steer' situation and the car is going to be very un-stable.

While this does correlate to cars with dropped ride height, bump a stock car and see where it is, that may surprise you.

 

I've had the LG GT2's on my car for about 6 months. One of my favorite mods.

 

Dave do you get any unwanted vibrations with the transmission brace? tks

Rob

 

You no what when I installed it I did pick up some, but I'm okay with it. In reality it gives it a even more race car feel. It is worth it though it really stiffens the drivetrain right up. I do not pay much mine or think anyone should about guys crying when they mod their cars and complain about noises or things breaking.If you didn't do it yet,you should a worthy upgrade.

 

You should look at the new adjustable LG shocks too, as you won't need to drill holes in the floor of your car to adjust the rear rebound.