Interesting front spring idea: Hear me out...
Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 5:39 pm
I have a very nose heavy truck (+60/40), and from what I've gathered from this site and Dave's book, I need a long light spring in the front to get it to transfer weight.
I picked up a set of V6 springs to see if it would help, and it did....some. From my calcs, the stock V8 springs are around 438lb/in, and the V6 springs are 333lb/in. They're good at supporting weight on the nose, about 2600lbs (cast iron block, turbo, A2W IC, AC etc.), but pretty stiff for drag racing.
The 2nd issue is that the 0D of the spring is rather large as is the ID. I think the minimum ID spring the pocket will take is 4.5". This means that no readily available car spring will work. Plus they're probably not long enough (I need about 20") to support the weight without binding. I thought about coilovers, and I haven't ruled them out, but cramming a 20" long coilover spring on a much smaller shock sounds next to impossible.
So here's my idea. Run 2 springs in series (on top of each other). That way I can run a higher rate, larger circle track spring and get the length I need. When springs are in series thier rate is determined like resistors in parallell. Two 500lb/in springs in series will be like 1 long 250lb/in spring. Or 2 400lb springs equal 1 200lb spring. Obviously I would have to make some kind of pocket/sleeve to locate the two relative to each other. Also they'd have to be ground on the end, but those springs exist for circle track. I haven't rulled out coilovers either, but this principle could still apply. I could get the perfect length and spring rate I need, although install might be hard.
Am I nuts or do you think it's worth a shot?
I picked up a set of V6 springs to see if it would help, and it did....some. From my calcs, the stock V8 springs are around 438lb/in, and the V6 springs are 333lb/in. They're good at supporting weight on the nose, about 2600lbs (cast iron block, turbo, A2W IC, AC etc.), but pretty stiff for drag racing.
The 2nd issue is that the 0D of the spring is rather large as is the ID. I think the minimum ID spring the pocket will take is 4.5". This means that no readily available car spring will work. Plus they're probably not long enough (I need about 20") to support the weight without binding. I thought about coilovers, and I haven't ruled them out, but cramming a 20" long coilover spring on a much smaller shock sounds next to impossible.
So here's my idea. Run 2 springs in series (on top of each other). That way I can run a higher rate, larger circle track spring and get the length I need. When springs are in series thier rate is determined like resistors in parallell. Two 500lb/in springs in series will be like 1 long 250lb/in spring. Or 2 400lb springs equal 1 200lb spring. Obviously I would have to make some kind of pocket/sleeve to locate the two relative to each other. Also they'd have to be ground on the end, but those springs exist for circle track. I haven't rulled out coilovers either, but this principle could still apply. I could get the perfect length and spring rate I need, although install might be hard.
Am I nuts or do you think it's worth a shot?