I have a 2019 base Stingray with M7 transmission. Love the car but, one thing that has bothered me since day one has been how the car handles over elevation changes on the road. It's comfortable, but the up and down feeling like a soft pogo motion is less than confidence inspiring at speed and is even worse when it occurs in turns on a twisty road.

The spring rates between the base and Z51 suspensions appear almost identical in the front but the Z51 rear spring appears to be stiffer on paper.

My question is if changing to Z51 sway bars/bushings and Z51 shocks will be enough to reduce the pogoing and wallowing feeling without a spring change or will it only result in stiffer ride over small sharper bumps and still wallow over longer more gradual elevation changes in the road.

This is not a "should have went with MRC" and "should have went with Z51" question. It's how to best modify the base suspension to reduce the wallowing up and down motion. Thanks for any responses.

 

You should change the shocks and springs to reduce the up and down movements. Upgrading the swaybars and bushings will only reduce the body-roll during turns, it won't appreciably change the ride comfort.
You could try just upgrading the shocks first, since that is much easier than changing the springs.

 

Ive got a 2015 base that i installed z51 sway bars and bilstien b6 shocks that made a huge differance in the ride. It feels much more planted and tracks like a sports car should.Very good upgrades for me.

 

I have 2018 Stingray. I added a Mag-ride Z51 rear sway bar (31mm) with ZR1 bushings plus standard Z51 shocks front and rear. No change to stock front sway bar. The car now rides and handles great. The sway bar fixed the understeer - the car is now very neutral balanced at the limit of tire grip. The shocks fixed the floaty feeling. These OEM parts are very reasonably priced. Shocks were under $100 each. Sway bar was 80 something but the clamps, bolts, bushings and end links add quite a bit to the sway bar price. I do autocross in my car so the understeer had to get fixed. It is perfect now!

 

Similar to Rick on my 19 base except I added the rear bar and also upgraded the front bar. I'd recommend do the Z51 shocks first. They get rid of the float feeling but you still have a nice compliant controlled ride. Depending on your taste you might even feel you can skip the bars. I drove mine for several weeks w/ just shocks and, if I were not autocrossing it, I might have skipped the bars. I haven't even considered doing springs on mine. As a side note I don't understand your chart. There are two #s w/ a slash between for several of the springs. Are they progressive some how?

 

The two spring rates listed are for Mag Ride vs standard shocks. Mag Ride gets the softer springs.

I did install the front Z51 sway bar on my car and tested that configuration with Z51 front and rear sway bar plus Z51 shocks at all for corners. There was too much understeer in that configuration. So I put the stock front sway bar back on and the corner balance is perfect.

Base spring rates are fine for the base car. Only if you were tracking the car and added a bunch of downforce would you need stiffer springs.

 

Bilstein B6 shocks and z51 Sway bars was a fairly easy installation and it really helped keep mine planted instead of floating over the road. I did a thread showing all part numbers I used but there are a few vendors on here sell the bars as complete kit to upgrade from the terrible handling of the original base stingray FE1 bars. You will not regret the upgrade.

 

I agree with random Dan. Do those two upgrades and it feels like a different car

 

Sounds to me like you're more interested in different shocks and bars, than springs... just sayin'

 

Correct, I am looking at shocks and sway bars. What I was looking to find out was if I needed the springs with the shocks /bars to effectively take the up & down floating motion out and make it feel more planted. From the answers here so far, it appears changing the springs will not be necessary.

 

Shocks and sway bars are inexpensive and easy to change. Springs would be a bear to change. Good thing you do not need to change them!

I have never been able to find out the difference in Bilstein B6 shocks versus the OEM Z51 shocks (which are also made be Bilstein). I went with the Z51 shocks for several reasons. They are less expensive. They were specifically designed for the C7 Corvette. And I figured that with Z51 Sway Bars, Z51 shocks and springs that are not far from Z51 rates, this combo would closely match what GM had tested and tuned for the car. In reality, you would probably be fine with the Bilstein shocks. I doubt there is much difference between them.

If you want neutral handling, just add the Z51 Mag Ride rear sway bar (part #22936510) along with the stiff bushings (part #23305975) plus either set of shocks and you will be golden.

If you prefer more understeer (and some people do like understeer....), also add the Z51 front sway bar (part #20966781) with stiff bushings (part #84402110).

You will also need two rear sway bar brackets (part #20959449), two end links (part #22945601), four end link nuts (part #11516078) and four rear bracket bolts (part #11588742).

You can re-use the existing front bar brackets and end links. GM recommends replacing the end link nuts and sway bar bracket bolts as "one time use" items. End link nuts are same front and rear. Front bracket bolts are different from the rear (they are part # 11546672).

These were all the part numbers when I did mine, but GM changes part numbers all the time for no apparent reason. So, if you look up these part numbers, don't be surprised if they come up as replaced with new part numbers. The actual parts have not changed.

 

I have a similar question to the original post. I have a base stingray I just added a blower and other stuff which caused the car to drop down real low up front. Cars equipped with Mag ride already. but even in track or sport car is still very unreliable up front One bump can make it bounce and sway. Do I need to just upgrade my front spring to z51? since I already have MRC.

Also I just ordered a rear LG bar to tighten up the sway out back.

 

The Z51 non-MRC front spring is the same rate as the base Stingray. The Z51 MRC front spring rate is softer than the base Stingray. Since you added significant weight up front, you would need to get the Grand Sport or Z06 front spring to increase the rate over what you have now. I have not seen any spring rates published for the Base Stingray with MRC but you would likely have the same front spring as the Z51 with MRC.

Base front spring rate is 527.6 lbs / in.
Z51 with MRC is 451.7 lbs / in
Grand Sport (with or without MRC) and Z06 with MRC is 668.1 lbs / in
Z06 without MRC is 1085.0 lbs / in

Seems like the Grand Sport / Z06 with MRC front spring would be your best choice since the Z06 non-MRC spring is a drastic increase and would probably upset the cars balance unless you change the rear spring also. Besides that, your car is closer to the Z06 with MRC now.

 

Base suspension with mag ride - FE2 on 2016 and newer… I think you have a narrow 26.2 mm front bar. I’d proceed with caution ⚠️ on getting a giant rear bar and keeping the stock front bar. I have no experience with that combination, but that will move the balance to oversteer and you’re added xx lbs to the nose (even more oversteer). But then again I don’t have exp with mag ride. I wonder if you can get it recalibrated to FE4, 6, or FE7 in the computer…

The Sway and lurching in is the damping from my understanding of it. I don’t think upgrading the front 🍃 spring will help as much as a sway bar will. It will certainly be easier to try a bigger bar first. Do you have any ride height adjust left in the front or can you lower the rear to match? If you find that rear only LG sway bar is no the Cockford Ollie, put on the FE4 bars, front and rear with FE7 bushings front and rear

BTW , ECS has a package due to me in a few weeks. I can’t wait to enhance my loud pedal with the sound of boost. What is your supercharger set up?

 

im honestly doing as much research as possible to learn as fast as I can, I haven’t touched the suspension since buying this car it’s only got 5k miles, I did all the engine work now i’m working on getting the suspension rite. I haven’t lowered the rear, I was gonna do everything at one shot once my bar came in. I have no idea what comes original on this car but glad to know the front bar is flimsy. Could I just eventually upgrade the front bar to a z51 bar and be better off. A diff thread stated that the stiffer z51 spring will help with the added weight. I’m running an AA ysi blower with an alky control kit/Long tubes. These cars are so complicated..

im
also eventually gonna purchase a dsc controller either a v3/4 watever I find cheap on here. I have no idea how I would even upgrade the software to fe3 or watever it is you said lol. i’m hoping the Dsc will take care of that

 

Racer Rik
So, the front spring rate for FE1 is the same as the front spring rate for FE3?

 

Yes - the Z51 without Mag Ride (FE3 suspension) has the same front spring rate as the base C7.

The rear spring rate of the base C7 is slightly softer than the Z51 without Mag Ride (FE3) and significantly firmer than the Z51 with Mag Ride (FE4).

 

I wouldn't get carried away w/ lowering your car. One of the well known aftermarket suspension suppliers says stay at stock height and I agree. I like that my base Stingray w/ Z51 bars and shocks has enough suspension travel to not have to worry about bottoming out when I hit a bump I didn't know was coming.

 

hope im not too late.

if you are considering sway bars, i personally like the hotchkis swaybars. I had the same situation as you, base car and found the stock suspension to be too soft. the hotchkis will perform better than the z51 bars but it is more expensive. with that said the hotchkis has been keeping me flat on track for the past year so i have no regrets

 

Hi, sorry this is an old thread but I'm trying to upgrade my base stingray with the goal of increasing steering weight and directional stability. In other words, I'm looking for a more locked in feeling when going straight, and increased steering effort when turning. I do not track my car. I am unsure which Z51 parts I need. Front and rear Z51 sway bars? Just rear? School me!