suspension upgrade

[Shinlee]

hey guys, im looking to upgrade the handling on my mustang. i'd like some help finding some good springs, struts, poly urethaine motor mounts/trans mount, and bushings.

i'd like some info on a nice upgrade for the front sway bar, as well as the rear sway bar.

for tires i am upgrading from 14" 195/75's to 16" 245/50 z rated. I'd like my car to handle really well, and i figure its easier for me personally to do suspension first, before i swap a new engine in.

any input as always is appreciated.

i reckon this will help some on handling too, but i am going to follow stingers instructions on installing the 8.8 rearend, and it says it widens the rearend wheel base by like 3/4" on each side. Also wanting to upgrade brake's to 4 wheel disc and using the lincon VII 5lug discs ( i believe thats the right car ) so that will help with stopping a bit.

Just ran into a bit of money, and its time i do with my stang as i have been wanting too, but i just cant find anything that seems reliable for upgrades, and hoping some of ya'll had some advice

BTW if asked, engine swap is a 2.3T, not a 5.0

 

[Red_LX]

Well lessee here...

Springs, it generally seems to be a matter of opinion and how much you wanna spend. Eibach makes the only 2.3 specific springs on the market and they're $220 or so a set. All the others are 5.0 springs that you would probably have to modify slightly (i.e. cut a bit off the front coils). Just stay away from the cheapo springs like they sell on ebay that drop the car 2", and you should be OK.

Struts again depends on how much you're looking to spend. Check ebay, there's a couple places on there that sell full sets of Tokicos, Bilsteins, etc for pretty reasonable prices. They have both the adjustable and non-adjustable ones.

The only polyurethane motor mounts on the market for the 2.3 are/were made by Chuck W., but he's not currently making any to my knowledge so you'd have to find some used, and they aren't cheap either. If you have a 5 speed, any poly tranny mount for a 5.0 will work.

For bushings I don't know what kind you're looking for, but Maximum Motorsports carries a lot of Energy Suspension stuff on their website.

Best & cheapest upgrades for swaybars, without going aftermarket, is a 5.0 front bar & '99-04 GT rear bar. If you can find a pre-99 Cobra rear swaybar they're the biggest ones they made, but not many of those around.

You should also look at some chassis bracing...strut tower brace, subframe connectors, maybe a k-member brace. On my old '90 I had a few things done along having subframe connectors on the car, but after I put the strut tower brace on the car it REALLY tightened it up.

 

[Shinlee]

sweet, preciate the info, sucks on the motor mounts....

bushing wise, i want something thats going to be as tight as possible, i want this sucker to stick hard basically around corners

 

[Shinlee]

36mm front and 24mm rear swaybars decent size?

 

[Red_LX]

Keep in mind that polyurethane control arm bushings are generally a total bitch to install, and they really hurt the ride quality from what I've been told.

For now I'd say just look into poly bushings & some good aftermarket endlinks for your new swaybar.

As for the swaybar size...I dunno? What are they from? I'm not too great with metrics and I don't have a ruler handy to check the sizes.

 

[Shawneebear93]

24mm=~1"
36mm=~1.5"

 

[Shinlee]

alright knowing sway bar man, is that bigger than the gt sway bar and the cobra rear sway bar?

 

[Shawneebear93]

I don't know, I just looked at a ruler.

 

[rd]

I would recommend weld on subframe connectors as the first step, otherwise the body just absorbes the flex you take out of the suspension.

The poly bushings make the car much stiffer riding, and take some slop out of the suspension, and, yes, they can be a mother to install. They also wear out faster than rubber, imho. I have had to replace them on my Capri again.

I think a 5.0 front and rear bar would be a good step. I have the stock 2.3 front on my 89 2.3 with a Cougar rear bar from a junkyard. With new rear shocks and wasted front ones, the car handles nicely, and feels much crisper in corners than either of my 5.0 cars. My 79 Capri has Koni adjustables all around, has had since 89, or so, and they are highly recommended. I tried to set them a bit firmer once, and they can be adjusted to darn near solid if you are not careful.

If you want to go nuts, there are some front control arm mounting hole changes you can make and use Lincoln or SVO arms. Caster camber plates are a must if you lower or mess with the front.

I have the FRPP B springs on my 79 5.0 Capri, and really like them. Been there since 89 or so also. They did lower it a good bit also. Might be just right on a 2.3.

Handling? My 82 5.0 with skinnies and no front swaybar handles fine to me!

The 89 2.3 LX is a very nice, smoother and more nimble car than either of the 5 liter cars.

 

[Red_LX]

Where'd you find these 24 and 36mm bars? If what tealtiger said is true that would make them bigger than factory 5.0 bars, which makes me wonder where they're from.

I just looked at an online conversion calculator and it says 36mm = 1.4" and 24mm = .94". Factory 5.0 swaybars were 1.31" in front and .8125" in back ('99+ GTs had .875" rear bars) Shinlee, you sure you weren't just a bit off measuring the bars or where did you get those figures from?

 

[Shawneebear93]

I checked again and 24mm is basically equivalent to 1" while 36mm is basically equivalent to 1 7/16 (or 1.5)"

 

[Shinlee]

yes, i am sure of my numbers, i can read lol.

eibach has a set for them i believe. i will find the site again sometime soon, and post the link, but i was thinking they were bigger than any stock swaybars out there, so i was going to buy them

 

[Shinlee]

yes, i am sure of my numbers, i can read lol.

eibach has a set for them i believe. i will find the site again sometime soon, and post the link, but i was thinking they were bigger than any stock swaybars out there, so i was going to buy them

 

[Red_LX]

Oh well you didn't mention they were aftermarket. I was assuming you got that figure from ones on a vehicle.

Anyway, sure aftermarket swaybars are great but how much do they cost? There are better areas to spend money than on aftermarket swaybars, really, which generally aren't that much better than stock.

 

[Shinlee]

the whole pack for both of em and bushings is like 230 bucks

 

[89Stang]

Hell I was just going to use the TurboCoupe sway bars.

Though anyone know about using the turbocoupe front control arms? I know the rear is wider. What about the arms? that could help slightly.

 

[Ductape91]

i have a cougar rear swaybar (got it for 10$) and even with worn shocks it makes a difference.

 

[RustBucket]

Hey RD, who's poly bushings did you use? I've got my front end completely disassembled right now and waiting for a front end set from P-S-T. I'm keeping stock springs for now.

Good, bad, or indifferent, anything's gotta be better than the 190,000 mi. original ball joints, LCA bushings, end links, and sway bar bushings.

I'd like to add a rear sway bar to mine. I guess I need to hit the local junkyards again

 

[freakintiger]

I just finished installing a 1 1/4" GT sway bar in my Mustang this morning. I also replaced the stock bushing and end links with Energy Suspension components. They(end-links) were really hard to install like Red said...but the trick is to jack up the lower A-arm then place a bottle jack under the end link bolt to compress that first bushing in the A arm so you can get the top nut started(Praise the Lord for some wisdom I needed!).

Really tightened the car up...now I must get some struts, mine are worn-out. I suppose 5.0 struts will work?

 

[Red_LX]

V8 struts won't fit the 2.3L spindles.