Need some suspension help

[NewToFord]

Now that I finally got my 93 408 running, its time to work on the suspension. The car has alot of low end torque and basically 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear are useless. The car spins like crazy even at rolling starts. I have the 94 95 spindles on the car, so I am going to run a 17 nitto drag radial. Any idea how big I can go? I need some suggestions. I'm thinking torque box upgrades, upper and lower control arms, and weld in subframes. Can anybody suggest a good brand to upgrade. The car is mostly a street car. I really do not want to get into a full MM upgrade unless I have too.
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[Noobz347]

MM or Kenny Brown full length sub-frame connectors
Torque box reinforcement kit
I would not skimp on the control arms. Let your conscience be your guide.
275 series tire on a 9 inch rim should clear with no modifications. You may have to roll fender wells with the same tire and a 10 inch rim.
Differential cover with pre-load bolts.
Hardened axle lugs for the rears.

 

[RacEoHolic330]

Big block torque and no subframe connectors or torque box reinforcements?? I can hear your chassis crying from here! It's a good thing that you can't get traction right now, because when you do, everything is going to turn to spaghetti. I highly suggest the MM full length subframe connectors. They are very beefy and extend all the way from the firewall to the torque boxes. $150 is not a lot considering the huge benefits. Don't bother with the powder coated ones. Just paint them yourself. I always purchase my MM stuff from vendors on Corral. They have cheaper pricing than the MM website. Wild Rides is well known for their torque box reinforcements.

What wheels are you running out back?

 

[84Ttop]

I agree with the others on the subframe connectors. Hit up Sharad for some nice control arms and spherical bushings from UPR. And on a final note, ditch the nittos for a real tire from Mickey Thompson!!!

 

[marks89]

What 84ttop said! i have upr front and rear suspension. They are very helpful if you have any questions on set up.

 

[NewToFord]

ok thanks guys. Should I go with adjustable lca's or the standard lca's? right now I'm thinking mm full length subframes, torque box renforcements, mm lca's and mm uca's simular to the old ford racing ones.

 

[Noobz347]

ok thanks guys. Should I go with adjustable lca's or the standard lca's? right now I'm thinking mm full length subframes, torque box renforcements, mm lca's and mm uca's simular to the old ford racing ones.

You should only need weight jackers if you plan on changing tires back and forth for like street/track or something like that where the outside diameter changes.

 

[7991LXnSHO]

I like how saleen RCA's have the 3 piece bushings. The middle is hard poly for straight line wheel hop prevention and softer outers are for cornering if I heard right.

 

[mikestang63]

Do it right the first time and don't look back.

MM rear LCA
FRPP rear UCA
MM full length SBF
Wild Ride Torque box plates
If you don't have one a driveshaft safety loop
T/A or similar diff cover
min 31 spline carrier and axles

 

[Sharad]

I agree with the others on the subframe connectors. Hit up Sharad for some nice control arms and spherical bushings from UPR. And on a final note, ditch the nittos for a real tire from Mickey Thompson!!!

What 84ttop said! i have upr front and rear suspension. They are very helpful if you have any questions on set up.

Thanks guys. Yes, I would recommend UPR full length subframe connectors, UPR torque box reinforcements, UPR Pro Street adjustable upper and lower control arms, and either M/T ET Streets or ET Street Radials. That setup would dead hook on the track. Setting the car up to hook on the street is a little different, but totally feasible.

 

[NewToFord]

Do it right the first time and don't look back.

MM rear LCA
FRPP rear UCA
MM full length SBF
Wild Ride Torque box plates
If you don't have one a driveshaft safety loop
T/A or similar diff cover
min 31 spline carrier and axles

Heres what I did.
I ordered MM full length SBF and MM LCA. I ordered from a dealer. I called MM today to order more parts, and get tech support. They recomended their panhard setup. And thier adjustable LCA's. Heres my thing. The car spins 1st through 3rd gear. It is mostly a weekend warrior. I just want the car to hook up. I have no problem spending the money on the panhard setup. If I do new UCA's and bushings its about the same price. They also told me with the panhard I do not need torque plate renforcements. So I'm not sure what to do. My other issue is the clearance. Their site says that I may have issues with 2.5 flowmaster systems. I have a Mac 3 inch cat back on the car. I am really unsure what to do at this point.

 

[RacEoHolic330]

I had the MM pandard bar on my car. It did a great job of locating the rear end and completely eliminated lateral movement. A big plus if you are trying to squeeze big tires in the rear. You won't have to worry about that dreaded tire rub during cornering.

I had 2.5" flowmaster tails and did not have any clearance issues. It was VERY tight though. I don't see 3" pipes clearing at all. Honestly, there is no reason to have 3" tailpipes on any car, IMO. Even at 1000hp, 2.5" tails do not create a noticeable amount of backpressure compared to 3" tails. I can see how you wouldn't need upper torque box reinforcements with a PHB, but lower reinforcements still seem like they would be necessary.

I would still probably weld in some lower reinforcements, but leave the uppers alone. The ultimate setup to increase launch ability would be a Torque Arm with that PHB. They are not cheap, but definitely worth considering down the road though.

 

[Bullitt347]

Honestly, there is no reason to have 3" tailpipes on any car, IMO. Even at 1000hp, 2.5" tails do not create a noticeable amount of backpressure compared to 3" tails. .

Really?..........1000 HP and 2.5" tail pipes are not a restriction? I find that hard to believe, unless of course the rest of the exhaust upstream of the tails is the restriction. IDK, maybe I am wrong, but 1000 HP is a lot of ponies to push thru 2.5" exhaust.

 

[84Ttop]

Really?..........1000 HP and 2.5" tail pipes are not a restriction? I find that hard to believe, unless of course the rest of the exhaust upstream of the tails is the restriction. IDK, maybe I am wrong, but 1000 HP is a lot of pones to push thru 2.5" exhaust.

I will have to agree. I was told that I would pick up by switching to larger exhaust on mine. I currently have 3.5" and was told I should switch to 4" I probably will switch at some point but going to run it like it is for a while though. I have seen on a friends car the header blow out of the collector from too much back pressure in the exhaust, it wasn't a pretty sight.

 

[2000xp8]

Panhard bar only clears a couple exhausts, a 3 inch mac is probably not one of them.
It does not clear my flowmaster 2.5 3 chamber kit, i know that for sure.

Dynomax ultraflo supposidly fits best.

Regardless of whether or not a 2.5 inch kit handles 1000hp, i would NOT give up tailpipes for a few hp on a street car. On a driver, there really isn't any difference in 900 or 800 hp.

I also agree you must do the lower torque boxes, all the stress from your new found traction has to go somewhere.

 

[RacEoHolic330]

I must be hanging around the turbo boys too much these days. A lot of rules change when you put a turbo on a car, and I probably should have put that disclaimer in my post. There was a thread on turbomustangs.com where a guy tested the back pressure differences between an open 3.5" downpipe, straight through exhaust with no mufflers, full exhaust with mufflers and tails, and then dumps after the mufflers. There was almost no difference between all the different tests. The difference between open DP and full exhaust was only a couple psi of backpressure at the turbo. On a street car, nobody will ever notice.

I would love to see somebody do a backpressure test comparing exhaust sizes on a supercharged car. Dyno tests have been done comparing different mufflers, ect., but there are too many variables during dyno testing so I would have better faith in just measuring the backpressure at the collectors.

 

[84Ttop]

You are excused, lmao. I agree, a turbo car is a totally different ball game and exhaust size at a certain point is trivial at best.

 

[Sharad]

Honestly, there is no reason to have 3" tailpipes on any car, IMO. Even at 1000hp, 2.5" tails do not create a noticeable amount of backpressure compared to 3" tails

I must be hanging around the turbo boys too much these days. A lot of rules change when you put a turbo on a car, and I probably should have put that disclaimer in my post. There was a thread on turbomustangs.com where a guy tested the back pressure differences between an open 3.5" downpipe, straight through exhaust with no mufflers, full exhaust with mufflers and tails, and then dumps after the mufflers. There was almost no difference between all the different tests. The difference between open DP and full exhaust was only a couple psi of backpressure at the turbo. On a street car, nobody will ever notice.

I would love to see somebody do a backpressure test comparing exhaust sizes on a supercharged car. Dyno tests have been done comparing different mufflers, ect., but there are too many variables during dyno testing so I would have better faith in just measuring the backpressure at the collectors.

My supercharged 351W literally blew the 3.5" mufflers apart.

 

[RacEoHolic330]

Yikes. That's a problem right there.

 

[Noobz347]

Definition of exhaust restriction.