94 Z34 upgrades

[importfigherz34]

Im having a very hard time finding anything for my car on the web or where i live. The things im looking for are new high performance struts, strut tower brace and anything else to get it to handle autocrossing and minor scca events , the car already has power stop slotted and cross drilled rotors with hawk pads, upgraded tires and rims as well. Ive already swapped in a 5 speed even though the ecm and trans arint playing well together, one last thing id like to convert it to HID lighting and i also need to find some place that makes custom painting stencils before i get the car finished with preping as its soon going corrvette atomic orange. Thanks for any help anyone can give me.

[importfigherz34]

wow must not be a damn thing for this car...

[RedZMonte]

wow must not be a damn thing for this car...

Hit the nail right on the head. everything pretty much is all custom.

ZZPerformance.com has some mounts for a buick strut bar for the front. the rear stb will have to be custom. RSM Racing used to make one but out of business. the Lumina Z34 already has the best front swaybar you can get. Addco makes a 7/8" rear swaybar, you will need the 1995 Monte carlo Z34 rear sway bar bracket cause the 1992 bracket will snap in a week. KYB GR2 struts are good. Monroe sensatrac are decent. If you get creative you can adapt some Koni struts from a SHO (or simmilar car) to fit the Lumina. I had rear Koni's on my lumina and they where shot within a year so i don't think its worth the $$. energy suspension make polly bushings for the front and rear swaybars, you just need to match up the sizes. i had them on my 2nd Z34 lumina.

JCWhitney.com has suspension techniques lowering springs for the front of a 1995-99 monte carlo that fit the front of your car. the rears your kinda stuck. the rear has a mono leaf (which i think works good as is), there is a company that makes a replacement but kinda expencive and i don't remember the name.... Flex-a-fit or something like that. you can convert the rear to a coil over setup but you have to piece it all together and i don't like the setup too much. I think the mono leaf w/ the addco swaybar is a better setup on the car.

I like 235/55-16's on the stock wheels, they are much better handling then the 225's stock and they wear nicely on the stock rims.

the 1994+ lumina/gp's/cuttlass/monte/regal have a larger rear brakes and better calipers and 1995+ cars have a larger front brakes. Good upgrades and cheap from a Junkyard.

hope that helps answer your questions about suspention.

https://www.W-Body.com

S

[importfigherz34]

Thanks a bunch that actually helps alot as right now the car is my college project and its being built to compete against other students cars in a autocross race coming in june. one other quick question that maybe you can help out on , in the w body store i see a strut tower brace for the 2 gen w bodys along with the nice kyb struts but they dont list the first gens plus for the hid conversion would i need two kits ? one for the low beams and one for the highs?,calling isnt getting me anywhere as they must be busy.

[RedZMonte]

the 2nd gen w-body braces won't work. you can buy the factory "Buick" bar from GM. it comes with bolts and all. its CHEAP! I forgot you can also do the GMPP (OEM PART) trailing arms. They are listed for the 2nd gens but they fit 1st gens. They are solid rather then stampd and are much stronger. I bent my lateral links and trailing arms and my swaybar brakets from my couple trips to auto x. so its a good idea to strenthen it up a little.
GMPP Trailing arms.

https://www.zzperformance.com/grand_prix/products1.php?id=572&catid=138

And BMR makes adjstable lateral links.

http://www.bmrfabrication.com/W-Body.htm

As for HID's 99% of factory cars have HID's for the low beam and a Halogen for high beams. you can do both but its overkill. I personally would just do the lows. E-bay has very inexpencive hid kits now.

S

[importfigherz34]

Again thank you RedZmonte ill get those ordered and on the way. as soon as it gets done ill post the pics up on here for everyone to see heck i might even post some of the in progress pics if anyone wants to see them.

[gpse3400]

I beleive the name of the company that makes the aftermarket rear bow is flex-a-form.

http://www.flex-a-form.com/

[dohcfiend]

held motorsports makes a variety of suspension parts for your car. full coilover kits, front and rear STB, adjustable and non-adjustable lateral arms, trailing arms, koni struts and i am in the process of trying to get a set of tubular front control arms developed by held.

d.o.h.c. is working on a big brake kit.

if you want to cut your upper rad support a little, you can fit the zzp diagonal braces.

i have done numerous group buys in the past and i may have the cad files for some of them.

you can gain performance by switching around generational parts like the newer intakes, the 97 cam carriers which have lighter lifters, 96-97 heads which give you more compression and exhaust flow, 91-93 oil cooler, a 3400 gear reduction starter, 91-95 have stiffer springs which can be swapped to the later heads, ben may still be able to get a teflon crank scraper, there is another company stepping up to make ud crank pulleys i think, steve long can do cam regrinds, there is a drop in high pressure fuel pump, head porting, intake porting, quite a few people have done 75mm tb conversions, if you have 96-97 heads, milzy motorsports sells headers, ben does 91-93 chips, sinister performance does 91-95 chips, ben sells lighter lifters for the 91-96 applications and there may be a few more i forgot about.

hope this helps.

[importfigherz34]

Heck yea that helps a ton I was really hoping there was a few upgrades to be had on this car to improve power and handling. I heard the deading the timing 13 degrees will also imporve the car and horsepower.

[RedZMonte]

held motorsports makes a variety of suspension parts for your car. full coilover kits, front and rear STB, adjustable and non-adjustable lateral arms, trailing arms, koni struts and i am in the process of trying to get a set of tubular front control arms developed by held.

d.o.h.c. is working on a big brake kit.

if you want to cut your upper rad support a little, you can fit the zzp diagonal braces.

i have done numerous group buys in the past and i may have the cad files for some of them.

you can gain performance by switching around generational parts like the newer intakes, the 97 cam carriers which have lighter lifters, 96-97 heads which give you more compression and exhaust flow, 91-93 oil cooler, a 3400 gear reduction starter, 91-95 have stiffer springs which can be swapped to the later heads, ben may still be able to get a teflon crank scraper, there is another company stepping up to make ud crank pulleys i think, steve long can do cam regrinds, there is a drop in high pressure fuel pump, head porting, intake porting, quite a few people have done 75mm tb conversions, if you have 96-97 heads, milzy motorsports sells headers, ben does 91-93 chips, sinister performance does 91-95 chips, ben sells lighter lifters for the 91-96 applications and there may be a few more i forgot about.

hope this helps.

i got a set of their coil overs when they first came out for my monte and they where crappy. they upper mount didn't line up with the holes in my rear strut towers so i had to drill them a little and they made a horrendis groaning noise. ended up giving them away to my buddy and he made them work on his 91 GP.

getting a replacemet mono-leaf is a better option in my opinion.
S

[RedZMonte]

Heck yea that helps a ton I was really hoping there was a few upgrades to be had on this car to improve power and handling. I heard the deading the timing 13 degrees will also imporve the car and horsepower.

i dunno about the timing changes. my buddy did it on his and it idles like ass. you will lose drivablility i think. but then again mabye its just his car.. don't you lose TQ but gain hp? i would rather have tq expecially if your are auto-xing your car.

S

[dohcfiend]

i would only consider the 13 degree is you have a 5 spd.

i cannot comment on the monte's but the coilover kits work well on the gen 1 w-bodies.

only problems i have had out of mine was it squeaked like an old bed for the 1st 6 months and after that it has all been good so far.

there are others with the coilover kit that are happy with it too. the rear coilover kit is definately worth it.

lastly, shouldn't this be in dohc performance?

[importfigherz34]

Yea i have transplanted the 5 speed into the car last summer. about how much better is the coilover kit compared to the rear mono leaf with new shocks?

[dohcfiend]

i cannot say for certain b/c i put a FULL coilover kit in at once. IT WAS NIGHT AND DAY! Only suspension mods I had was the coilover kit and gr2's all the way around. I was turning triple digits through the twisties and the tires didn't even make a sound.

2 negatives though, your tires will wear faster b/c of the spring pressure and the fact that you may be pushing your car harder. Next, as you know your ride quality will suffer due to the stiffer springs.

I went 1 step above though, i had 400lb springs in the front and 300 in the rear.