Hey guys, i am doing the swap pretty soon and want to get the springs gone first. What would be a good brand of springs to go for and how many lbs do i need to get. This is a full metal 70 velle with the disk brake conversion up front already with drop spindles so it sits a little lower in the front. I would like to change the ride height as little as possible. This is a mostly street car with some strip time so want something that will take car of me. Thanks a lot guys.

Daniel

ttt

You will need BB springs, they account for the extra weight of the motor over the SB. With the drop spindles you should not have to cut the springs to lower the car anymore and it will give a better ride as well. Moog and TRW are a couple companies to check, just ask for BB springs and tell them the year of your car.

Rod, thanks for the reply. I will have to do that, i was just unsure because when looking in certain areas i would only see different weights and not the year and bbc vs sbc.

Daniel

stikman,
When I did my conversion from a 350 to 454, I had the same issue. I looked in the books and bought the supposed correct springs which I believe were part number 5398. These were for a 71 BB car with no AC. When I installed the new motor, the car squated almost to the ground!! Way lower than before and I didn't like it at all! I suppose it's possible that the springs were bad or something, but I doubt it. The 'book' lists those springs as being a 365 lb load rate with a 1678 lb load rating. Well, I know the front end of a BB Chevelle weighs more than 1678 lbs!!

I ended up going with a different springs, part number 5538. These springs spec out at 488 lb spring rate and a 1984 lb load rating. I chose those because I wanted a stiffer spring, so got the higher spring rate. The load rating is just a tad too high as the car sat about 1" taller than I wanted in the front. When I did the B-body spindle conversion, it dropped the front end almost 1" to just about put it right where I want it, so it worked out good.

IF you want other info, I have specs of several other springs, but it helps to know what you want it to feel like.

Good luck,
Bill C.

BC, thanks for the info. Right now the front end is pretty tight as the car handles very very well with the big swaybar up front and the rear bar with boxed lowers. I think i already mentioned that i have the drop spindles already installed. I would like it to feel fairly firm. I run a 235 series tire up front so lateral traction is good. I have fairly new sbc springs in there now anyways so the same thing in bbc would be great. I like the way it feels now so keeping the feel about the same would be awesome.

Daniel