This is how I decided to lower my C8 since I did not order a Z51 package on my car. The goal here is to achieve a safe, economical way to lower the car since I added aftermarket wheels and tires, but not totally screw up the ride. I'm sure there will be easier ways to do this once the aftermarket suppliers catch-up and go back to work, but in these Covid times, I felt this was the best way for me.

Started at stock ride height and stock wheels and tires

Added these lifting pucks from wildhammer

Bought these shock bodies and springs from GM parts dealer

 

Using water levels, we made sure our garage floor was level

Using "shims" as needed to make sure the scales would be level under the car

Here is Sean in his home shop setting up for the scales. For those of you wondering.... Sean Roe was the 1989 IMSA Super Car Rookie of the year in a Corvette, and campaigned a Greenwood 383 Corvette for a few years before changing to Vipers before the series ended in 1996. He just re-acquired the Geenwood Corvette after it was totaled in the Golden State Highway races back in the day by the man who bought the car from Sean when he retired it to run the vipers.

Sean Roe measured all for corners to establish a base line for height.

We then gathered our 4 corner weights after we made sure the car was settled down to current ride height.

We then placed the scales under all 4 wheels, and before you "uber" tekno geeks freak out, yes the scales are marked front left or right rear, that did not matter as long as the scales wire leads were plugged in the correct order.

We then recorded our findings for the beginning base line and are now ready to put the new shocks in, but that will be another day this week.

 

Nice! I used the Cicio front collars (my C8 has front lift) with the FE3 shocks in the rear to lower around 1” all the way around (rear slightly more) and I couldn’t be happier. Ride quality is on par with stock. I have 20/21” wheels on order - when they come in I’m throwing R888Rs on the stock wheels and going to try to corner balance and set street and track alignments.

BZ

 

Just getting into the C8 scene.. Can you explain to us NEWBES what this will do for you and how much it cost PARTS WISE? Does the Z51 package come with the FE3 shocks?

Could this be done WITHOUT the scales?

 

I would like more info as well. My C8 does not have the front end lift nor the z51 package so I will be doing the same. Do you have the part numbers by chance? Thanks

 

Yes... The reason for scaling the car, I want to stay as close to the ride quality that I have now, and you can lose that ride quality once you lower the car and have it re-aligned because now using shocks that are height adjustable, you are changing the factory settings that were engineered into the car from the factory. I am lucky in the fact that I have a friend like Sean who has these scales and is experienced in setting up car suspensions. You do not need to scale the car, but it is helpful, especially if you plan on doing any track day runs with the car, which I am planning on doing a limited few. Taking good notes on ride height before and after is important just so you know where you started and where you are ending.

Parts were less than $900.00. I would suggest the jacking pucks no matter what you are planning on doing with the car since we have seen on the forums and read all of the horror stories of techs dropping cars off of lift. By having the pucks already on the car.... you should have a little piece of mind just in case you have to have the car serviced or repaired and you are not near a GM certified mechanic, you can at least explain where the correct jacking points are.

And the only real reason to do this is because without the Z51 option, the base FE1 coilovers do not have any height adjustment, and if you want to lower the cars ride height, you cannot do that with the stock shocks.... The FE3 shocks, which come on the basic Z51 package do have ride height adjustment, so this was a simple solution for me, and that is why I an doing it.

 

I saw were you had done your conversion, looks good. I hope I was of some help with the research for the correct parts and suppliers?

 

You only need to buy the parts that are not circled, these are a direct bolt on, you just need to re-use the parts you don't buy from the FE1 shocks to make the FE3 shocks bolt on.

Same for the rear as well
This should be the part numbers

 

Garage flooded from record rains tonight... So no progress on shocks tonight..., try again on wednesday

 

Anxiously watching this thread to see if it all worked out! Keep us updated

 

WE got back on it last night, got the bumper cover off, changed out the rear grills while it was off, not sure how they can be changed out without removing the rear bumper cover.... I've run into some small issues with the exhaust, but we will overcome that. Will start on the shocks tonight and post pictures real soon.

 

We got behind on the shock swap with the hurricane and the small matter of work and my graphics computer crashing... but I'm hoping that we will get back to the shocks by Thursday night! Stay tuned!

 

Any updates on the shock swap?

 

We got really busy getting my shop back into shape and still fighting the exhaust gremlins, but I'm hoping to get the shocks swapped out this weekend!

 

While we are in the rear changing the shocks out, decided to upgrade the rear axles.... New 1400hp axles are way, way beefier, hope that preventative medicine works out

 

Getting the rears swapped out... Finally

Basically same shock except for the threaded body and the soring rate... I assume the shock is also a little bit different for the FE3 as far as valving? The FE3 shock is the red springs

Using the spring compressor made it alot easier to take the stock FE1 shocks apart and put the FE3 shocks together

 

Got one rear shock bolted in and all torqued up. Axles went in with no issues. Should have other shock in and
move to the fronts in the morning

 

Any updates? Where did you get your parts from? The local Chevrolet dealership quoted me almost 2k for the 4 shocks! My car comes in 2 weeks and I’ll be doing the same!

 

I got my parts from a local chevy dealer... they are all installed as of tonight, we will go test them out on Saturday afternoon, but until I get the car re-aligned, we wont' be doing any high speed runs or long distance driving, so after Tuesday, I'll have a better idea of how everything went.... The main thing we learned is you better make sure that the shocks are set correctly for the ride height before you bolt them in... because they are not going to adjust at all while they are installed in the car unless you have a spring compressor and really strong forearms!!

 

unlike conventional coil over shocks aka QA1's or JW or BC coil over shocks, these GM FE3 coil overs have the rubber isolators top and bottom, and they will restrict the movement of the collars so severally that you basically cannot adjust them without taking them out of the car... that is kind of a bummer.