Rear Coilover conversion

Topic: Rear Coilover conversion (Read 2061 times) previous topic - next topic

Rear Coilover conversion

May 11, 2013, 02:27:40 AM

Well after a very long cold winter in the great white north, my Windsor stroker is built and on the way! Right on I can hardly wait but the whole build of my car will not be done until next spring...
What I am wanting to get done this summer is a tough rear end and room for big enough slicks to get some serious power down at the track. I took my car down to a shop today and talked to the owner about getting the work done. I am undecided on which route to go. It will cost serious money either way but I am thinking of going with a fab 9 rear with an 8.5 legal cage and have the car back halved. If I go that route I will be able to fit 14x32x 15 slicks with a four link setup. It is not cheap the shop says that they can do it for under 15k. I was expecting this but not sure that I need to do this. I am still thinking of building a fox stang 8.8 and run a coilover conversion using the che control arms. The engine was dynoed at 491hp and 500 ft lbs with 8.5 to 1 compression ratio and running a carb. I am planning on using a fast xfi setup with the fully ported eddie jr manifold and Wilson elbow with an accufab 90mm tb. The engine is built to run at 14lbs of boost so with the Turbonetics T-76 I have I am thinking 800hp @ 10 to 12 lbs will be a conservative number. I am going to run a G Force G101a qith a long v gate shifter and I am thinking of about a 3.55 rear gear ratio. What I am wondering is should I go with a fox 8.8 built with 35 spline axles ect and maybe a mini tub and stuff in the biggest slick I can fit? I know that there are a lot of guys running very quick with a 28x10.5 slick but I have never run a car at this power level before and I want to make sure traction will not be an issue. I do know that fast has an option of traction control wonder if that might be a way to go? I already have a lot sunk into the engine, turbo and related parts and my cash is limited so if I can save some on the back half of the car it would be nice as long as I can get traction...
Any ideas and or suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark

Rear Coilover conversion

Reply #1 – May 12, 2013, 10:07:58 AM

There are 1,000+ hp Mustangs running on 10.5W's with no mini tubs and lay down some nasty 1/8 and 1/4 mile times. Save your money and get with someone who knows suspension so you get the maximum weight transfer to the rear of the car a quickly as possible. This is mostly done with struts/shocks and springs via coil overs, a good anti-roll bar, good control arms, and a stout rear end. If you use an 8.8 rear do the 9" axle bearing mod to it and the rest is pretty straight forward.

Darren

Rear Coilover conversion

Reply #2 – May 12, 2013, 01:50:02 PM

As Darren pointed out, there are plenty of Fox bodied Mustangs working with stock style suspensions & mini tubs. The wheel houses on Thunderbirds are larger, a mini tub shouldn't be needed to run a comparable tire (to the fast Mustangs).

Consult with 5.8fastcat. He's running a twin turbo Windsor, 8.5 cage and was in the bottom 9's in it's previous iteration.

Rear Coilover conversion

Reply #3 – May 12, 2013, 01:54:56 PM

you should be able to fit a pretty good sized tire under there. I have 275/60's on a completely stock setup on some stang 10 holes.

Rear Coilover conversion

Reply #4 – June 04, 2013, 12:29:22 AM

Sorry for so long to get back and I posted a bunch of other stuff before looking back at this! I work out of town a lot and do not get back to checking out threads here as much as I would like.
Anyways, I know about what other stangs do off the line but do not forget you can have a very wide 10,5w slick and even with a good start I was more concerned with half track traction. I made sure I did not go to big with my turbo for that reason as I have seen a lot of 400 inch small blocks run a 88mm and get lag then hit so hard that the car is all over the track and then they run a slow time from backing off. I was looking this Mickey Thompson ET Drag that still fits on a 10" wide wheel. This has an 11.2 inch tread width but is 13 inches wide for a section width. I think some mods will be needed to fit.
90000000860 3062W 29.5/10.5-15W 30 M5 90000000290 10 13.6 11.2 29.6 93 I copied and pasted that from there site. I had come to the conclusion before I came back to this thread and I am getting a fox stang 8.8 and going to run 33 spline set up. I want good brakes too but they gotta fit 15" wheels. I was looking at welds site and there rts and aluma pro are nice but really expensive so I am thinking I will go with draglites, they look great and are light also on the wallet. I guess I will have to order from che for control arms but I am not sure exactly what I need to do the coilover conversion. I did take a decent look at the rear of the car when I washed it this past weekend and there looks like some good room to be gained from removing the quad shocks but I do think there is a couple of inches still available for mini tubs. I figure the fox 8.8 gains me 1.5" and if I can make the wheelwells 2 inches wider that will get me some room for big slicks back there and be able to run it low to the ground. I still have not had it up in the air on a lift so I might be wrong but it looks promising. I bet an 03/04 cobra gas tank will fit too...