I need your help with suspension measurements!

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BigPinoyHunk

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I have a normally pretty lowered car with short tires and i need to get my car back to stock height to the "T". i have stock 429scj springs and its still lowered so i have spacers for the coil springs to adjust that. i also have coil over springs/shocks in the back to adjust the height. however i need that info so i can know what i'm doing and so i don't try making the mach 1 into a 4x4 looking mustang.

below is the picture of the problem i'm having. any help would be highly appreciated. I'd like to see the height you guys have from the ground to the middle fender area. and hopefully most of you guys have new springs front and rear for a more accurate stock height car.

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my car is around 29"...or 3" over the front tires.
what size tires are you running? if i am thinking right, stock tires are also 26 inches. the 3 inch tire to fender gap seems correct though. the measurements i am coming up with are (on mine):

front: 25.25 inches with a 25.25 tall tire

rear: 26.5 inches with a 25.7 inch tall tire.

my headers are hanging like 1.5 inches off of the ground and usually headers for this motor and car run 4.5 inches off the ground. i have 3/4 in spacers which is suppose to raise the front end 1.5 inches. there are 1 inch spacers which are suppose to raise it up 2 inches which will take up the headers 3.5 inches off of the ground. that sounds low but my ladder bar suspension front bar is about 3.5 inches off the ground too.

after all of this is said and done, i don't know if i'll like the ride height but as long as the front is a little lower than the back and its hard cuz i run 2 inch taller tires at the track and the same height tires almost on the street. or it might be time to change street tires.

i need as much help as possible to see what other people are running for ride height. especially for you guys who are running crites long tube 460 headers.


oh yeah, i forgot to say that i am running stock 429scj springs and they are still sagging. and no i can't just go to a 750 spring cuz those springs will be short and will not store any energy for racing.

 
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AGAIN, ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED CUZ I CAN'T FIND ANYTHING ELSE ON THE INTERNET!

 
Dude - chill... it's Tuesday. People have either been asleep or at work since you've been asking.

I wish I could pass along my springs. I picked up the 1" lowering springs from Laurel Mountain Mustang in their Super Suspension Kit, and I'll be damned if that car dropped even a millimeter or two when I dumped the engine, tranny, exhaust, etc. in there.

 
27" from ground to fender well lip in the back.

25.5" from ground to fender well lip in the front.

If I told you how I know, I would have to kill you.

The spec I have does not specify anything else in regards to engine type or wheel/tire size.

At 26.5"/25" you are supposed to replace the springs to bring them back up.

However, all that being said, your exhaust issue isn't going to go away by returning your car to stock ride height, that is for sure.

 
27" from ground to fender well lip in the back.

25.5" from ground to fender well lip in the front.

If I told you how I know, I would have to kill you.

The spec I have does not specify anything else in regards to engine type or wheel/tire size.

At 26.5"/25" you are supposed to replace the springs to bring them back up.

However, all that being said, your exhaust issue isn't going to go away by returning your car to stock ride height, that is for sure.
all the 429scj headers for our cars are made with stock ride height and even then they are 4.5 inches off of the ground .

the only thing that could be straight out bought is FPA's again but in a scj flange. but the small tubes will limit me to 600hp.

my buddy who is a fabricator, is suggesting to leave the car ride height the way it is and just refab the headers. i will need to look into it more but i wouldn't mind lifting the car 1 inch in the front so its also easier to load onto the trailer.

 
Can't say what the stock height should be but mine is 28.5" in the rear and 26.5 in front. My springs, coils and shocks were replaced last year, I picked up around 2.5"s. I'm not running headers and have a good 8" ground clearance under the exhaust system.

car.jpg

 
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it seems like most of you guys have 26.5 inches of clearance. well i'm only lowered 1.25 inches. putting in that .75 spacer would actually lift it up more than the 1.25 inches. so i'm going to be sticking up pretty high in the air.

i called up my buddy around town who runs a fab shop and he said he recommends to not raise back up a heavy/big car like ours. cars this big need to be lower to the ground so he suggested we just modify the header tubes. i brought him the car and a spare set of header tubes. within 2 days he he had them all done. now i got 4.5 inches of clearance between the ground and the collectors on a lowered car.

i will post better pics once i can get the carb for other stuff and get a better quality camera than my phone.

 
I"d be curious to see those pics,Olie.Did you end up using the Crites?I"d like to see if someone can mod. mine as well.

Eric

 
I"d be curious to see those pics,Olie.Did you end up using the Crites?I"d like to see if someone can mod. mine as well.

Eric
eric,

i didn't use the crites header because i didn't want to wait 6 weeks and deal with their grumpy staff. plus, they make their headers out of super thin material. i did buy mad dog headers which he uses very thick material. however the cross over tubes going under the panel and the other tubes going near the oil pan is for sure cooking my oil and pretty sure heating up the rest of the motor. probably why my motor wants to run at 200+.

he was able to raise each side 3 inches and thats a huge amount. now he could of pulled them up a tad more but then the 3 inch head pipe will get real close to the trans cross member. but if i wanted to run a 2.5 pipe, then he could bring it up but that'll hurt flow. but having 4.5 inches of ground clearance is pretty good on a lowered car.

i will post pics here soon. i am picking up car either tomorrow or monday. no more cross under tubes, no more 1,2,5,6 tubes being so close to oil pan.:p:p

 
1973 Mach 1, 521cid Stroker w/ Ported Aluminium SCJ-A Heads, TKO600, 3.70 gears, wavetrac diff, 35 spline moser axles, and 49ER colors baby!!!

You had me all the way until you dropped the 49er colors!!!

~~~ Silver & Black is where it's at ~~~

 
1973 Mach 1, 521cid Stroker w/ Ported Aluminium SCJ-A Heads, TKO600, 3.70 gears, wavetrac diff, 35 spline moser axles, and 49ER colors baby!!!

You had me all the way until you dropped the 49er colors!!!

~~~ Silver & Black is where it's at ~~~
i was born in oakland so i'm not going to say much. however the red and gold has been to the championship and SB the last two years when the silver and black has struggled to even keep a coach for more than one year. :p:p:p:p

 
raising the headers on both sides worked out alot better and i could retain the awesome stance of the mach 1. no scrappage leaving the driveway now. the only thing that scraps when i have my street wheels is the front cros bar for my ladder bar suspension and its a easy little scrap here and there on the driveway bottom.

 
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