I want to upgrade my suspension on my Elcamino. As of now it's all stock. I'm mostly looking for bolt on components like shocks, springs, and solid bushings. Of course like always, I'm up for any and all suggestions. Here are some products I'm considering.

Koni SPA-1 Drag shocks

Competition Engineering Adjustable Drag shocks

Lakewood drag shocks

Moroso Trick and front and rear springs

This is what I've got so far,
M/T ET Street 28/12.5-15
4.33 gear w/ aluminum spool
3500 stall torque converter flashes at 3800

Thanks
Aaron

Pure drag right? If not, a few racers have found that good ol KYBs do the trick. The nuts are backed off the front shocks for strip use. If its pure strip, I'm off base.

Weight of the car, front and rear?

How far do you back off the upper shock nut? And how exactly do you use the old lug nut trick? I would say go with the KYB's. I know they offer a lifetime warranty.

If this is going to be used on the street too, then I would not run Drag Shocks a little dangerous. I put the QA1 Shocker Stars in my 71 they are 12 way adjustable so you can tune them for street or strip and they are chrome finish! I haven't had the chance to use them yet but if you want to drive it on the street too I reccomend these.

FWIW, my buddies old 5.0 deadhooked on a 26x8.5 ET STREET, with lakewood 90-10 fronts, 50-50 rears, and an Eibach "Drag Launch" spring kit for 5.0's with some lakewood slapper bars. Car ran consistent high 10's(10.79-10.90)

Originally posted by TwoLaneBlackTop:
If this is going to be used on the street too, then I would not run Drag Shocks a little dangerous. I put the QA1 Shocker Stars in my 71 they are 12 way adjustable so you can tune them for street or strip and they are chrome finish! I haven't had the chance to use them yet but if you want to drive it on the street too I reccomend these. I hear a lot of people say these are "dangerous" on the street. I really do not see how. I run them on the street and it does not feel unsafe. I even have the fron sway bar removed.

That said, lots of people say there are better shocks and there probably are but when I bought mine I wanted cheap and my car was only a low 12 second ride.

Aaron's car is a drag strip only car. The only street time is driving to and from the strip. A very short distance. Notice it has a spool.

Koni graemlins/thumbsup.gif

how about some AFCO coilover, exteranlly double adjustable. Will fit in the stock control arms, you have to grind the upper spring perch area some, but not too bad.

Another suggestion, I noticed that QA1 has the 90/10 version of their 12 way adjustable. They were in my last Summit catalog.

Good luck.

You could probably mess around with all kinds of shocks and springs and stuff but if you really get serious, get some good DOUBLE adjustable rear shocks and coil over springs. Do away with the stock coil springs. Weld in a tubular crossmember and weld on the lower adjustable shock bracket. Some no-hop bars and adjustable upper control arms. Koni SPA-1's on the front, ditch the front sway bar and loosen up the front control arm bushings. JMHO.

Randy

Sorry I was slow getting back to this post. I just walked in the door, work has been very busy!

Pat's right I only drive this car about 10 min. to the track (maybe a little less).

Ken I don't have any weight measurements on the car, I wish there was a scale local I could use. The only thing near me is a semi-truck scale. I don't see that being very acurate. But from what I read I'll need the front weight for ordering the front springs.

I've pretty much ruled out the QA1 because of the price. I'm really considering the koni's because the seem like a happy medium.

Can anyone fill me in on the AFCO coilover that Yanniz was refering too?

Yanniz do you know if Pacific is doing any early T&T this year?

Thanks everyone
Aaron

Aaron
fwiw,I run the Koni Spa1's in my race car.
They worked well for me 1 problem is to adjust them,you have to bottom the shock shaft in the hsg and turn.I have installed a couple of sets of Qa1's,easy to adjust and well made.I don't know how fast a car you have if its a manual or slushbox you have,but they might not be necessary for a 11/high 10sec car.

lol,sorry man just looked a the bottom of you post.Are you looking for consistancy or ET?
Do you 60ft in the 1.6's?

Aaron,

I see you ride is a small block, so perhaps the weight isn't as important in determining shock valving requirements. I tried the Koni SPA1 drag shocks on my car and they didn't have enough valving for the front of the car (2,070lbs at the time). The result was the front end would rise too quickly and the rear tires would unload. Pair that with some Moroso drag springs and the car would bounce like crazy going down the track. I know you said the QA1's cost a little more than you're willing to spend, but the importance of a quality adjustable shock for fine tuning the suspension really can't be overstated. I run QA1's front and rear. The fronts were custom valved 90/10 by D&D Racetech before QA1 offered that valving configuration for their coil over shocks. Using the adjustability I've slowly been able to chip away at my short times. There is NO comparison in the quality/adjustability/valving between the Koni SPA1 and the QA1 shock. With the SPA1 set on it's firmest setting you can still easily extend the shock by hand. Imagine what the weight of the front end coupled with the acceleration forces of your car will do to a shock with that poor valving? I don't recall the exact price of the Koni's but I seem to remember them being in the $150 range for the pair. Too bad the ones from my car don't fit your ride or I would send them to you so you could try them before laying down the cash. I also tried a Lakewood 90/10 drag shock before settling on the QA1s. They had the same issues as the Koni's. My point is, buy once and be done with it. For the cost of the Koni/Lakewood shocks, 5 different rounds of spring changes, I could have just about paid for the whole QA1 coil over the first time :(

Oops. Double post.

Hey Aaron,
I am not sure if they are doing anything early this year. I am not sure if you know, but they just begun re-surfacing the track, so it will be fun running there this year. They do not have a schedule on their site yet.

As far as AFCO goes, I am attaching a link below. Let me know if you have any questions, as I have done a bunch of research on them, and talked to people that run them.

Go halfway down that page and you will see the shocks;
http://www.billingsleyracing.biz/Chassis_Suspension_GM.htm

gotta put a vote in for QA1 stocker star front shocks. I had the c-r-a-p competition engineering 3 ways which seemed to be the same in all three settings - not stiff enough for me.

I made no other changes than removing the 3 ways set on the stiffest setting to the QA1's 6 clicks in and went from a 1.45 best to 1.38 on my first pass. And I haven't even began to tune them.

I have the HAL QA-1 coil overs on mine.
The AFCO are comparable but were more expensive through my supplier.The Comp Eng'g are nowhere
close, sent them back as soon as I opened the box.
By the way, you will need to know the weight before you can pick the right springs for the coil overs, regardless of make.

Originally posted by mls48341:
By the way, you will need to know the weight before you can pick the right springs for the coil overs, regardless of make. Unless things have changed since I bought my QA1 coil overs a few months ago there are only two spring choices for the coil over conversion system, a big block and a small block spring. I bought my kit with the big block springs and ended up sending them back for the small block springs. That might be one reason to consider an AFCO or other true after market coil over setup, more spring choices. The QA1 kit uses a tapared spring so that it can use the factory upper spring pocket. I'm not sure what type of frame modification would be required to fit a real coil over spring to a Chevelle. Maybe there are other suppliers for tapared coil over springs?

Thank you everyone who posted on this topic. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do yet. Probably get the Koni's.

Will the QA1's really make that much of a difference on a car that runs 12 seconds?

I really want to get my car in the 11's but will the QA1's make that much of a difference over the Koni's?

I'm only making about 490 hp.

Aaron

I think that the Koni's will be fine for you application.
Good luck and I will see you in a couple-three months. smile.gif

Sorry for the street rat advice, I couldn't infer whether you were a hard core racer or a street guy. Its like Kenny said some time ago, theres two type of performance here really, guys like me, and guys like Ken.

BTW, I am thouroughly impressed with the advice and knowledge of the true strips guys here. Wow!

I would spend the money and make for sure you have a fresh set of slicks for each year. If you were running 9's or 10's or low 11's with a small tire I'd get into the trick suspension stuff, otherwise I'd think having fresh slicks would be most important and making what you have the best it can be.

Originally posted by Aaron Kelley:
Will the QA1's really make that much of a difference on a car that runs 12 seconds?
The driver of the car that runs 12 seconds this year, will be gunning for 11's the next year, 10's the year after and so on. You'll have to decide what the real purpose of your car is. If it's a true street car that will occassionally see the track then the QA1 shocks (and Koni's for that matter) are probably a waste of $$$. A good set of KYB ot other multi purpose shock will suffice. If on the other hand you find yourself setting performance goals and achieving those goals only to set higher goals, go ahead and PAY NOW for a quality adjustable shock. Doug F. hit the nail on the head. You'd be hard pressed to hook a big torque, nose heavy, small tire car without some of the "trick" suspension parts. They've been a very valuable part of my tuning arsenol.

HTH.

Ken,
I was referring to the rear coil over springs.
Fronts I have no clue as my car has struts.

I agree with kjett. Almost everyone buys the cheap stuff the first time around and ends up trashing it because it isn't up to snuff or they out grow it. IMO if you want to seriously race the car and be able to adjust the shocks go with the QA1 Shocker Stars. Up front sometimes you can get away with a cheaper shock if you are lucky, but when you really wanna dial in not only how fast the car rises, but the rebound as well you need a good set of double adjustibles.

Originally posted by mls48341:
Ken,
I was referring to the rear coil over springs.
Fronts I have no clue as my car has struts. Sorry about that, MLS. I was wondering/hoping they had increased the availability of the front springs. Even though I'm using the small block springs the front end is still a tad stiffer than I would like for it to be.

Ken I may just be able to get the QA1's. I was just told today that mandatory 12 hour shifts will be taking place tomarrow. So if I went with the Qa1's would I need to weld the brackets on my housing? If I did go with them, could they be re-used if I desided to "back half" the car at a later date?

Sorry, Aaron, but I'm not running rear coil overs so I'll have to defer to someone who is. I'm running coil overs on the front of my car and regular QA1 Start Stockers in the rear.

how bout the old-school trick of drilling a hole in the top housing on an old pair of shocks, the size of the hole sets the rate, swap them in at the track. It's free

I hope ya'll are right about the QA1's because
I just ordered a set of their new race shocks for
the front of my car. These will be replacing
my tired/worn cheapo Competition Engineering drag
shocks that have been on my car for seven years.
I also just received some new Moroso springs
to replace my collapsed springs(Moroso)that were only two years old.

We'll see what happens. Thanks.

Emil Dusek, 71 Chevelle SS
502 CID
60' 1.39

If you are collapsing the morosos they are too light. I have been there done that and now run moog big block springs which hold up my car better on the street.

I am planning on changing springs once a year, this is for my race only car....I do have the Morosos, I will run them this year, next fall I will put in new ones...I think that they are $80 max..

The QA1s are a middle of the road shock. There are much better shocks out there. The better shocks also come with a bigger price. Double adjustable Koni's or Strange Engineering's are just a couple of options.

as i also have a 67 with a small block can you guys with these cars give me the correct part# for the shocks being discussed. jegs has so many different listed i cant figure it out. Thanks Dave

Originally posted by streetwize:
The QA1s are a middle of the road shock. There are much better shocks out there. :rolleyes: Why don't you share with us what you're running, along with some performance numbers to back it up?

Originally posted by streetwize:
The QA1s are a middle of the road shock. There are much better shocks out there. The better shocks also come with a bigger price. Double adjustable Koni's or Strange Engineering's are just a couple of options. A double adjustable shock will always be better then a single. It just opens so much more tuning options. Cars running under 10 seconds really tend to need this additional tuning. Everything discussed so far has been for singles. And like streetwize said... the better the shock the higher the price.

QA1's have a few bashers out there... most tend to be guys with double adjustables and big dollar and power setups launching off a trans brake. Most folks like the AFCO's the best... but both Koni and Strange have some backers as well. I think though for the money Aaron is seeking to spend it is hard to go wrong with the QA1's. I plan to swap to them this summer as well.

66 283,

I called Moroso and they do not make a spring that
will support a big block Chevelle's heavy front end. They referred me to a custom fab shop but they wanted $600+ for a set of springs so I will just continue to buy the $82 Moroso's every two years. I only race the car about once a month so I might put the car on jack-stands to prolong the springs life.

Emil Dusek
71 Chevelle SS454
502 CID
60' 1.39

I did call QA1, they refered me to a outfit in Oregon called Race-Tec. Has anyone ever done bussiness with this company?

My suspension is all stock. Last years 60' times were in the 1.695-1.691 area. How much short time could I knock off with the QA1's VS Koni's?

BTW my current rear shocks are "air shocks".

Thanks for all the input graemlins/thumbsup.gif
Aaron

buy a set for the rear also.

insuranceguy, you've got mail.