now id love to see how "bolt in" the rear setup is on a wbody or if it would take a ton or work to make it work.
getting rid of radius arms and trailing arm trash would be excellent instead of that limp noodle flexy sh1t.
As far as "bolt -in" goes, the entire unit with upper and lower spring seats, shock mounts and swaybar attachment points come out as one complete modular unit. I can't remember exactly how many bolts holds it in, maybe 6... it would all depend on the shape of the w-body's unibody frame rails. Might be easier to saber saw the frame rails out of the donor car and weld them to the appropriate location - I don't know. I studied the swap Idea for a possible upgrade to a 79-85 Eldorado. But I like the tenth gen body style much better and would rather swap the 79-85 Eldo suspension into my 02. ...
I am so angry at Cadillac for downgrading the front suspension of the 79-85.... mating the front 79-85 with the rear 97-02 would IMO basically creat a FWD Corvette if the right springs, shocks, torsion bars, and swaybars were matched to maximize the roll couple so both ends worked together correctly.
I swapped a Caddy 472 into my 82 Eldo and added the touring suspension. It had a longitudinal engine/trans setup and therefore had a better front to rear weight bias. Since a Big Block Caddy with aluminum intake is only 35 lbs. Heavier than a 350 Chevy, the car didn't act nose heavy and it cornered flat. But it's rear trailing arm suspension -though strong , I suspect was its limiting factor.
However, installing a turbo 4.9 or an LS4 (with hot cam LS2 goodies) would have cut a little over 125 lbs. of nose weight without totally killing the torque.... but 525 lbs. of torque @ 3200 RPMs is such a rush in a 3700 lb. car I didn't mind the extra weight.
Anyway, I digress..... lol
This is the first strut suspension I've modded so the W-body crowd is where I'm turning to for expertise.
And I'm still developing the racing tech for the E-body / K-body rear ends, so don't invest your money until you make measurements yourself .... I used 3.75" diameter Dodge Dakota Sport truck front springs in mine to avoid the expense of Mustang lowering springs since there's no database on what spring rate to use. I love the ride, but I need to make a 1/4" spacer to fill the extra room around the 3.5" perches because sometimes it makes a quite pop noise if I enter a steep driveway at an angle.
Next time I swap the springs, it'll be Stang springs ...... or I'll find some really long 4X4 springs in the 500 lb. range that I can cut down to the 900-1200 lb. rate. I think a Ranger was one of the springs I looked at.
Note : the E/K body rear end with 1000lb./ inch springs is about the same wheel rate as a Cobra with #800 lowering springs and the E/K body rear with #800 springs is close to a Cobra's stock #600 spring rate and stock wheel rate.
The rear of the Eldo is within 35 lbs. of being the same as the Cobra... This makes the Eldo rear about 350 lbs. Heavier than the GP (Eldo's 2% better weight distribution). So slightly softer springs may be needed in a GP swap for the equivalent wheel rate.
