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It still stands that KYB is the best bolt on option when using a lowering spring setup. I bugs me when people say how "harsh" a strut is when they lower their car... When you lower a vehicle you need to increase the dampening of the strut to prevent bottoming out since you now lessened the shock travel, so yeah its going to feel harsh. If you don't like that feeling then don't lower the vehicle. It's a trade off.

IIRC you can get inserts for J-body and they should work... I cant remember if their strut is the same diameter, but if its not, you can do the old write up that Steph had where they spaced the cartridge with an exhaust piece.

Must see pics of this carnage also... 5-speed FTL... LOL

What I'm saying is you can have a lowering spring with a damper with a lot better valving than a KYB. I wish Edelbrock made their IAS shocks & struts for these cars.

They will not last as long... The other options Bilstein and Koni probably aren't any smoother, or will not ride like a monroe would.

I don't know where your getting your comparison but we do not have the shock travel to accomplish lowering by over 1 inch and still have a smooth ride that lasts. Maybe that goes hand and hand with the springs that are available as well.

it's the motor. I drained the oil today and got five quarts of coolant and five quarts of oil plus some metal chunks

Ouuuuch. That blows goats.

Will you be selling the 3500 top end? (asks this vulture)

that sux and what did you sell the base ias i thought you were keeping it for a back up car

Yeah if the heads didnt get hurt at all.

Gotta pick up another 3500 this weekend. Only 240 bucks with 8k miles on it. Or I can get them for 199 but there higher milage(35k)

I dont really have time to be working on it, I go to school all day then work till 9. Gay

I sold the base to my brother. He has the interior out right now fixing firewall leaks and stuff.

I thought 3500's were supposed to be superior? I have 30k on my 3400 bottom end and I slapped that with a 100 shot and its still in on piece....





I hear about more 3x00 5-speed combos breaking engines than us auto guys... I bet its got something to do with the quick shifts, and in your instance possibly the wheel hop issues you were having... that's pretty harsh on an engine.

Barry wrote:it's the motor. I drained the oil today and got five quarts of coolant and five quarts of oil plus some metal chunks

You AND Rodney are out to destroy all the 3500's aren't you?

Damn 5-speeds! That just plain SUCKS!

Save the chunks.

Wow, just WOW!

Yeah both of the 3500 5-speeds are blown up at once! Same year and color car too.

Im gonna pull it out tomorrow hopefully

Yeah... that's a bummer man. That definitely sounds like a warped or cracked head, maybe potentially an intake gasket that totally disintegrated... If it was headgasket you would have noticed some steam out the tailpipe over the build up of putting 5 quarts of coolant into the block.

Either way it kind of sounds like a fluke to me. Maybe 5 speed related, maybe not, I doubt anything that we can do would say one way or another. I will say though that for the number of 3500 swaps there are period, there are a lot of failures whether the swapped cars have been manual or automatic. Actually nearly every 3500 swap I can think of has crap the bed once now. Asylum, Rodney, SuperDave, PCGuy on 660 was having issues with his, and now Barry.

Maybe it's just coincidence, or maybe its maybelleine?

Heres my theory that I will prove or disprove when I pull it apart:

Headgasket or limg developed a very small coolant leak into a rear cylinder. Only a small amount leaked in over night. Just enough to let it kick off for a split second. Then that cylinder hit the the stroke when the cylinder is under most vacume(firing stroke but it didnt fire). That sucked more coolant in and thats where it hydrolocked that piston.

Then my stupidity kicks in. Put the car in 5th and push it backwards a few feet to take the pressure off that cylinder. Then I tried to re-fire it and it kicked blowing the headgasket out and vaporized coolent out the back of the motor(watched it happen). Then it started and ran, but really rough, probably a bent rod or valve or broken piston.

What the hell are you on about? Mine was a loose crank pick-up and it still ran 14.18.

Other than that there have been no isssues of any consequence whatsoever with my engine.

Of course there's always this weekend to get through then it's coming out.

My issue is that I dont run mine as hard as other do.

Very solid tune, 12.5 WOT and 14-15 cruise

6400 rev limit. Occasionally bounce it off it for a second or so when doing burnouts

6k shifts all day long

And its totally stock, just headers.

Dave was shifting at like 7k. Rodney boosting ALOT.

Mine just gets beat on.

I guess well find out. Too bad i cant get a 3900 for under 300 or I would be putting one of those in.

Last I was aware of you'd said the car was running rough Eric. I didn't know that's all it turned out to be.

Anyways, one quick nugget...

I think we need to get ourselves together and between here, bstuff and v6z24 we need to try to get a company to make a real front strut for us. We'd be best of targeting a company that already makes parts for us, like KYB, and then try to get them to make some front and maybe rear AGXs.

OR try to go after a company that is currently looking to expand what it produces, like Raceland US. They make nice, affordable parts. I bet Barry has heard of them from his vw friends too probably.