NEWBY-introdue my car and hopefully get some advice-UPDATED*

[nobrakes]

I've been looking over this site for a little while and find it one of my absolute favorites. It is full of VALUABLE info and you all seem real helpful. I hope you can help me sort out my first real drag car.

My car is a 1979 Malibu with a 406 w/ 215 Pro1's, .250. solid roller .619 lift. It has a th400 with a 8" converter and a 9" with a 4.11 gear. It has an anti-rollbar, SSM lowers, TRZ uppers and rear trick springs. Solid rear end bushings. Using 275/50 M/T ET RADIAL. About 3600lbs now.
I hope you guys can help out with a few questions.
Should an ARB and rear Trick Springs be used together?
What is your opinion of lift bars versus tubular lowers?
If installing front Trick Springs should they be trimmed for? how much?
Suggest reasonably priced shocks that will suffice for a summer?
More importantly whats you guys suggestions and opinions and I look forward to your responses. Thanks in advance.

[sc racing]

I like the SSM lower bars they move the rear mount position down to help with your instant center location.You can probably get the Rancho
9000 shocks for the rear a lot of guys here use them. Koni spa1 drag shocks are reasonably priced and are better than cheap CE's orLakewoods.There is a member here that has a really fast malibu Ill bet he has some really good knowledge on the setup.
Good Luck

[Bob West]

Welcome aboard!! How does the car run now? 60ft & e.t.? I'm using the KONI street shocks or classics on the front of mine set on full soft. You want it to come up but not too fast as to unload the rear tires. They run about 103 a piece. I used to use the SSM lift bars, still using the control arms but the Moser housing mounts are lower on the bottom and higher on the upper, they do what the SSM lower mounts did. Its hard to say about the trick springs, the best thing is to get the right springs and install them, then after they settle worry about cutting them. If you cut them too soon your car may be sitting on the ground up front.

[nobrakes]

I have only been to the track once on regular radials the day I got it from shop. No tuning or anything. Went 13.8 at 106 MPH on a 2.6 60ft. That was on 7 cylinders and my brakes went and almost into sand hence my screen name nobrakes. I'm very curious about the trick springs and anti-roll bar together. I hope more of you chime in and thanks for the info. I have a race set up with a guy and would like to have a good baseline setting on suspension. I put slicks on car and took it down the street and w/o a burnout the 10.5 slicks spun hard.

[Goat Hearder]

My undertanding of using the rear sway bar is to help eqaulize load on rear tires. Torque wants to plant left rear harder. Have a 64 GTO that we ran stock rear spring, Much debate on what oiginal rate was, CE 3-way cheapie shocks and Airlift air bags, no hop upper, Hotchkiss upper and lowers with stock rear sway bar. We could not achieve the desired pinion angle so the Hotchkiss uppers were cut, shortened, and rewelded. This worked fairly well. We ran 4-5lbs on left bag and 9-10lbs on right. While I believe the ages of the cars are wide apart the fundamental rear suspension is similar. We took some weight out of the car and are presently going to QA-1 coil over setup. No one makes a spring light enough for the rear. I mean spring rate we think we need. Have done some street testing on slicks and other than goofing off it gave an idea on tire pressure because you can look at contact patch. street hook and track hook are definately two different animals. Cops don't like you to be on"bald" tires either Testing was done on a well controlled side street. Don't know if anyhelp but 2 cents anyway! Good Luck!

[nobrakes]

It's a anti-roll bar welded in. I don't have air bags anymore but I was told bags not needed since ARB controls rear movement. The worn 6cyl. springs up front. I think my mods will be remove front swaybar and new rear shocks then do front shocks and springs. Or should I concentrate on front first? Any body think a set of matched rate rear springs would be a neccesity with the ARB.

[sc racing]

Dont do too much at once,you wont be able to see where the gain (or loss) came from.Get rid of the front swaybar put in the good shocks and trick spring then do some testing.Keep everything else you do the same and take some notes.Since you only went to the track once you have no baseline with your setup.You have to do more testing before more parts changing.It will save you $$$$ in the long run

[Rick M]

The anti-roll bar is a necessity on the G-Body cars. The Qa1 single adj. shocks up front work very well. Don't cut your trick springs until you install them if they are the correct spring rate they should set about right . We run double adj uppers and lower control arms with Qa1 shocks on front and rear. Good Luck Rick

[nobrakes]

What about the rear trick springs and the ARB? What is peoples expeience with liftbars vs. Adjustable lowers.

[JeffMcKC]

I use trick rears with a ARB its fine I would not use the SSM lowers they will not be needed once you go very fast you will just go back to the tubes I have tricks on the front and 90/10 lakewoods but in the back dont skimp go QAI doubles Good luck it will hook on gravel

[nobrakes]

I been away from the car awhile w/ my gf who had surgery. I took it to the track before w/ a set of slicks. It only went 12.52 @ 106 w/ 3 straight1.87 60ft. I was expecting a solid 11.49 or better pass at 115+. I have a few issues I hope you guys could ring in on. My first my conv. It is stalling @ 5000 with the brake and I'm shifting @ 6800. It goes through traps @ roughly 6200. My motor guy said it's killing the car and I have a 10'' that stalled like 3500 behind my 327. Should I drop in the tighter converter?? Second is my carb. I have a 3310 Holley 750 vac/sec. I'm saving for an 850. (PM if you have one FS)How much ET/MPH could this carb be worth? Last issue is my rear driver side fender gets stuck down on tire. I can drive 3 ft. and it will free up but no matter how hard you rock on car it won't free up. The shocks are questionable but maybe someone else had this issue. Thanks for the input and if I can tap into the info here I feel like I can work out these bugs.

[sc racing]

How does your tire get stuck in the wheel well? The 0-3310 holley is one of the worst carbs holley makes,change that asap.

[nobrakes]

The wheel well outer lip gets stuck on tire edge and gouges sidewall of the driver side rear. It is like the shock and spring collapse and the body is all the way down. Drive it over a bump or a few feet and I have the same clearance as the passenger side again. I know it sounds odd but I was hoping for something to look at as a starting point.

[JeffMcKC]

Do you still have the stock bars in the back? What did you go with? If you have rubber in the ends and the upper mounts in the rear end you need to go solid, this will keep the rear end from moving enough to "stick" I would think.

That 3500 converter will stall more behind the 406 it may be worth a try, I would try a diff carb (Borrow one, Ebay) if you are leaving at 5000 shifting at 6800 you should be trapping a whole lot more, something is holding you back big time!

You need to dump weight that thing weighs a ton man 3600 for a malibu, its easy and cheap.

[sc racing]

I guess I needed to ask WHEN does your tire get stuck? Off the line? When your just driving? If it gets stuck when you launch off the line your "lift" bars are not working properly,that car should separate in the back not squat down.Are you sure the suspension parts are installed correctly?