Z28 Sway bar Conversion

[jdub]

Would stock Z28 sway bars on my 1998 3800 be a bad idea? My car has stock springs and everything, all I would be changing is the sway bars. Thanks

[V6Bob]

Yes, it's a bad idea.

Swaybars are closely related to springs. Z28 swaybars are not "better" for every car because they're Z28, they're designed to work with Z28 springs. And Z28 springs are designed to work with Z28 shocks.

I've seen a number of posts indicating you want to improve your handling, but are not really familiar with how everything works together, and are looking for guidance. My personal recommendation is that you get better shocks (especially if yours are 7 years old) and better tires before messing with bars. You can do a lot of good and it's harder to go really wrong. There are a lot of bad bars for an otherwise stock V6 being recommended online and sold. Beware.

[hockeyman]

^^He's like a suspension SuperHero! ;) [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/bowdown.gif[/img]

[V6Bob]

Aw, shucks. :D

[Dominic]

Upgrading to the Z28 30mm bar wouldn't be a bad idea for you.

[jdub]

This gets more and more confusing...

[img]tongue.gif[/img] ;)

[V6Bob]

"This gets more and more confusing..."

Sure. Swaybars are about the most complicated thing in your suspension. They have all kinds of effects. Front bars and rear bars do very different things (because you have independent front suspension and a live axle rear).

If you don't understand what each swaybar does and how, you have no prayer of deciding who on the Net is giving you good information and who is blowing smoke.

[Vracer111]

Originally posted by jdub:
This gets more and more confusing...

[img]tongue.gif[/img] ;)

What are you looking for with the Z28 swaybars?
Daily driver or weekend/track driver?

You can stiffen a vehicle with either springs or sway (anti-roll) bars but which and what size you use determines what characteristics it gives the vehicle. Stiffening and end of a vehicle (front or rear) reduces grip along with stiffening up that end of the vehicle. Anti-roll bars help out more with transitional response (slolam) than springs because of how they tie both sides of the vehicles suspension together. Hence when you increase the size of a rear ARB you increase the sensitivity to oversteer of your vehicle. Front ARB controls more of the body roll (because of vehicle dynamics). Going with larger springs will firm up the ride and keep the suspension more independant but your transitional responsivness will be less compared to going with larger ARBs, especially in the rear.

Also, upgraded ARB's or springs will not do you much good unless you have dampers and tires that are up to the task. The stock dampers on the Camaro are absolutely worthless if you value handling performance, at least the stock one were on my Camaro with 67k miles on it at the time of purchase. And the stock tires are like most all Goodyear passenger tires - horrible in their performance. Yokohama ES-100's were a big step up.

One other thing also; open differential Vs. Limited slip differential also has an effect on handling depending what swaybar/springs are being used. If you have a big ARB in the rear the only way it can perform its best with an open differential (besides having good dampers) is having the stickiest tires you can get. Otherwise you will be spinning the inside rear wheel like crazy everywhere when pushing it very hard (autocrossing). A limited Slip differential makes more available traction as the rear outside tire actually has more of a use with it... :D

And then there is the torque arm...a whole new ball game for the camaros rear suspension... [img]graemlins/naughty.gif[/img]

Personally I like the large ARB's with stock springs... but that is from a dedicated (streetable) racecar point of view of a driver with years of autocrossing experience and a little road course time, and who also dislikes 'understeering' vehicles with a passion.

[ April 23, 2005, 06:00 PM: Message edited by: Vracer111 ]