Spirit R/T Go Faster ideas, from suspension/handling tips, to brakes to mufflers

From Wes Grueninger :
    Congratulations on the new R/T!  I had one for two years, sold it about
two years ago, and finally got another one to replace it last week.
    For handling, I would say the a set of red Koni adjustable shocks and
struts would be the *best* thing you could do.  When you set those to full
'hard', the only play left in the car is chassis flex.

   Any ideas on how to mount wider tires without rubbing....or how to expand
   the wheel wells without too much pain?

I know TSW makes a set of wheels which is a full 7" wide, and clears
everything.  Even on the small L-body Omni GLH.  Otherwise, with the stock
offset and backspacing, the only way to properly keep the tires from rubbing
is to go back to 205/60-15s.

   Also, any quick add-ons to improve performance?   I really like the idea of
   a sleeper car (What? ....a fast SEDAN?).

    K&N makes a drop-in replacement for the pleated paper air filter.
    Neil Emiro, whose e-mail address I do not have handy, makes custom
computers for the T3, which allows higher boost levels while maintaining a
safe stoichiometric air/fuel ratio.
    If noise is not a concern, I have heard wonderful things about removing
the muffler and running a straight pipe.  It is supposed to really uncork a
lot of power on Turbo 3 cars.
    And, if you are feeling ambitious, a 2.5" mandrel-bent exhaust system is
much less restrictive than the stock tubing, especially where it snakes
around the rear axle.
    And one very important reminder:  IF you ever need to replace the stock
muffler, and want to just stick on another stock replacement, be sure to
order the muffler for a '91 Spirit with the 3.0L V6.  Many catalaogs list
the 2.5 muffler for the Turbo 3, which is a smaller, more restrictive, and
is not correct.  The Turbo 3s came with the larger 3.0L piece installed.
This will same many headached and trips to the parts store when you're doing
this repair.



- Wes Grueninger
1998 Saturn SL2
1991 Dodge Spirit R/T
1989 Dodge Caravan SE Turbo
1988 Dodge Shadow ES Turbo
1987 Chrysler LeBaron GTS Turbo
1985 Dodge Omni GLH Turbo

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Hello all,

Just wanted to do a report on the installation and driveability of
our R/T after putting on KYB GR2 front struts and rear shocks, and
Eibach Prokit springs on the front and rear.  We also added a rear
sway bar.

We decided we needed to do something to the suspension after I had
noticed for a couple thousand miles a  fast "whump-whump-whump-whump"
coming from the rear of the car area during highway driving.  It
turned out that our rear shocks were totally gone and the rear tires
(both sides) had cupped very, very badly, causing the whumping noise.

We decided on KYB GR2's and Eibachs mainly because I liked how they
did on my '91 Eagle Talon turbo All-wheel-drive.  The new setup made
the Talon (which had had the original struts/springs for 130k miles!)
handle pretty flat in the corners, and it now rides much sportier,
but not punishing.  On the Talon, it is definitely a setup for daily
performance driving (with some red-light racing), but not for
autocrossing or serious stuff, and we were looking for something
similar on our R/T with 60k and the stock struts/shocks/springs.

The installation of all of the parts - the front struts, rear shocks
and springs all around, is very straightforward.  There's really no
tricks or tips to offer.  The rear sway bar fits directly under the
beam axle and bolts to the frame.  If you have installed a sway bar
before, this is no different. 

What a difference in the ride!  Just by installing new rear shocks
alone did the ride improve!  Before installing the new rear shocks,
when we'd take off from a redlight, the car would buck like a bronco
at each shift.  After installing our front struts, rear shocks,
Eibachs and sway bar, there is little dive when shifting.  It corners
much flatter and handles very well.  It is a tad stiff when going
over some bumps, but seems to be very sporty without being overly
harsh on the road.  We like it a lot!

The Eibachs lowered the car about 1" or so;  we were told that it'd
be around 1 to 1 1/4".

We got the 3/4" sway bar and Eibach springs from Lambros Engineering
(314-725-7181) for ~$483.  The sway bar came with red polyeurthane
bushings for the rod ends, but the bushings for the bar itself where
it bolts to the beam suspension were too small, so we're waiting on
new ones while we put some old rubber ones in there that we happened
to have.  The springs are black power coated and all are progressive
rate (springs are closer together at the bottom and farther apart at
the top).

We got the front struts and rear shocks from RD Enterprises
(800-683-2890) for around $160 total.  The front struts bolt right in
- and as usual when replacing struts, you'll have to take the old one
apart to get the upper and lower rubber isolators and dust cover to
reuse on your new struts.  We went to AutoZone and 'bought' a spring
compressor for $40 to get the old struts apart and get the new ones
together.  AutoZone's policy allows you to take the compressor back
for a full refund (if you don't break it to pieces), so you really
don't end up paying anything for it.  The rears are simple shock
absorbers that also bolt right in.  The spring on the rear is
separate; it's not a strut assembly like on the front.

If you have any questions about our installation or our ride, just
drop us a line!  --  Julie

  Julie and Jim Moore
    http://www.mooresmopars.com/
       ><>   Moore's MoPars!   ><>

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   Hi again, anybody know anything about brakes for an R/T?  Mine just
   reached 55k miles and needs front brakes badly.  I have a rotor out of
   round and that makes stopping from speed interesting... :-0


Especially with a top speed over 140 MPH :)

 Does anybody have any advice about brakes for R/Ts?  Should I replace
 the rotor without even thinking about it, or should I first see about
 having them turned?  Is there anything special about the rotors or pads?
 Will they be hard to get and are they different from regular Spirit
 brakes?


    Before you order rotors, make sure you know if it is the front or rear
which are warped.  As crazy as it sounds, both of my Spirits had warped rear
rotors when I got them.
    I personally am not a big believer in having rotors turned.  This may be
because of my experience with my grandfather's Park Avenue (GF - "The
peckin' brakes on this car are bad!"; Me - "Why don't you get new rotors?";
GF - "Well I just had the peckin' things turned three times, and they keep
goin' bad!")
    The rotors for the R/T are the same as any Spirit with 15" wheels and
4-wheel disc brakes.  Ditto the pads.  On both my cars, I have excellent
luck with the combination of Bendix rotors and Mopar pads.

Are there any interesting upgrades that people have done.  Herb
DaSilva once mentioned getting rotors/calipers from a caravan and
replacing the stock brakes with these bigger ones.  Anybody got any
other suggestions.


    Personally, I think the brakes on the R/T are more than adequate.  The
slight increase in braking performance you may notice from a minivan brake
upgrade is not worth the time and labor involved in doing the swap.

Take care,
Wes Grueninger

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On Sun, 10 May 1998, Wes Grueninger wrote:

   Is there anything special about the rotors or pads?
   Will they be hard to get

They will be quite easy to get indeed.  The same brakes came as standard
on the Spirit ES, and were available as an option on other AA-body models. 
My experience is with MoPar pads.  There may or may not be available these
high performance "Carbon Metal" type pads.  I haven't looked seriously
into it.

  I personally am not a big believer in having rotors turned.  This may be
  because of my experience with my grandfather's Park Avenue (GF - "The
  peckin' brakes on this car are bad!"; Me - "Why don't you get new rotors?";
  GF - "Well I just had the peckin' things turned three times, and they keep
  goin' bad!")

This most likely is to do with the trend towards ever-thinner,
ever-lighter rotors to trim costs and weight and keep MPG up to meet the
US Corporate Average Fuel Economy nonsense.  Thin/light rotors cannot
dissipate heat nearly so well as the older bulky items, and so many new
rotors tend to warp quite easily.  This has been a problem on new ('93 and
later new designs) Chrysler products as well as just about every other
make and model of standard passenger car.  I believe the rotors on the
ES-R/T disc brake package are substantial enough NOT to be notably
affected this way.  Just the same, if I wanted to make a set of brake
rotors *LAST*, I'd go buy a new set, have them cryogenically processed,
(Popular Science, 1987) and have them turned.  I'd lay money I'd never
have to replace them or worry about warpage ever again.  This is going to
extremes, however, and I see no need to do so on the Spirit.  Rotors are
available and inexpensive.  I might go to this length to fix the problem
on late model "tiny rotor" cars or on early disc brake systems (such as
that on my '65 D'Valiant) for which rotors are scarce and expensive.


     Personally, I think the brakes on the R/T are more than adequate.
	 
	 
Agreed.  I dislike the "disconnected" feel of power-boosted brakes, but
suspect that pedal effort might be impossibly high without a booster on
the 4-wheel disc system.  I very much like the progressive, connected feel
of the nonboosted discs in the D'Valiant.  Maybe someday I'll experiment
with unboosting the brakes in the Spirit.
 
Daniel Stern

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