Mk3 brake/suspension/drivetrain upgrades

[Cp2295]

Hey everyone I got a mk3 with 1jz that I swapped last summer and have been doing a lot of research recently about how to upgrade the suspension and specific things about mk3s. I already have coilovers so I'm good there. my plan was to start by replacing the a arm bushings with polys, the rear subframe bushings with aluminum, and reinforce the rear subframe. Also replace the lower balljoints as they have play. What else could I do for fairly cheap to upgrade the suspension, and is that a pretty solid start?
I'm getting wheel hop and want to stop it, I've heard solid subframe bushings will but I've also heard the only way is to get traction bars..

For the brakes I just made a master cylinder brace, looks hokey but gets the job done, works so well in fact that it moves the whole strut tower lol. I'll post a pic of it if anyone wants to see. Also I want to do stainless braided hoses eventually. I'm not too interested in getting a big brake kit, don't got the money for that quite yet and besides this things stops great even before I braced the master, haven't tested it yet with the brace on. So as far as pad and rotor replacement for OEM brakes what's a good choice? Wanna just get some nice pads and drilled/slotted rotors. What year master do I get to get rid of this rusty cast pile of crap and replace it with An aluminum one, and will it work with my brace?

I've got a one piece driveline being made up at my local shop so that part should be good for now, when I get an r154 I'll do an aluminum probably. (2 piece was hitting my exhaust at the carrier bearing). I've got a 4.30 open diff and wanted to get a lower ratio lsd, 3.73 or 3.91 what's everyone's preference? Also, do these posi's actually work worth a damn? lol

Another question, I've got some new oem rubber engine mounts that have quite a bit of give (saw it move a bunch when it was on the dyno). would u guys recommend poly or solid or should I just stick with what I got... Solid concern me kind of don't want the block to crack since there would be no give or am I being paranoid?

Trans mount is way wore out too and wondering what route I should go there.

Thanks for the input, chris.


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[Nick M]

Front wheel hop? Care to elaborate? I picture worn out dampers where people don't change them and then the tires get destroyed over a short time.

 

[Cp2295]

Front wheel hop? Care to elaborate? I picture worn out dampers where people don't change them and then the tires get destroyed over a short time.

When did I say front wheel hop? Anyways it's just rear hop under power. Alignments good, I aligned it at work and tires wear great, -1.0 degree camber front and rear for good turning but toed in 1/16" for good tire wear/straight line stability


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[suprarx7nut]

Subframe bushings: might be a good upgrade, but start by replacing those worn out ball joints first. The factory suspension feels good when it's new. Get to a good starting point before going too nuts on poly bushings.

Brakes: Forget drilled rotors. You may as well put on NOS stickers. Slotted are fine, drilled are a hazard unless you're spending enough to just get an ARZ BBK or something. I speak from experience here. I bought a car with drilled rotors. It had multiple cracks through the disc. The disc must be properly manufactured for the holes to not introduce high stress areas. Most aftermarket drilled discs are NOT made properly and offer very little benefit while adding a significant safety and performance risk. If you want to spend less than $500 per wheel, just get good slotted rotors and stop-tech pads.

LSD: Posi? do you mean LSDs? The mk3 LSD works well, yes. You can start with no extra friction modifier and it should be "grippy". If you want a little more subtle "grab" you can add modifier. I've seen on reddit (of all places) that the factory LSD on the mk3 can have the clutch discs oriented backwards to limit grab. Supposedly, you can open it up and reinstall the discs to get more LSD effect if yours start in the backwards orientation. Haven't experienced that myself, so take that with a grain of salt.

Trans mount: I'm a huge fan of OEM rubber mounts. The solid mounts can cause all kinds of vibration problems with no real gain. I view that "mod" in the same light as a stock Honda Civic with 5 " muffler. Poly mounts are a middle ground, but I still don't see the point unless it's a track car.

 

[Cp2295]

Subframe bushings: might be a good upgrade, but start by replacing those worn out ball joints first. The factory suspension feels good when it's new. Get to a good starting point before going too nuts on poly bushings.

Brakes: Forget drilled rotors. You may as well put on NOS stickers. Slotted are fine, drilled are a hazard unless you're spending enough to just get an ARZ BBK or something. I speak from experience here. I bought a car with drilled rotors. It had multiple cracks through the disc. The disc must be properly manufactured for the holes to not introduce high stress areas. Most aftermarket drilled discs are NOT made properly and offer very little benefit while adding a significant safety and performance risk. If you want to spend less than $500 per wheel, just get good slotted rotors and stop-tech pads.

LSD: Posi? do you mean LSDs? The mk3 LSD works well, yes. You can start with no extra friction modifier and it should be "grippy". If you want a little more subtle "grab" you can add modifier. I've seen on reddit (of all places) that the factory LSD on the mk3 can have the clutch discs oriented backwards to limit grab. Supposedly, you can open it up and reinstall the discs to get more LSD effect if yours start in the backwards orientation. Haven't experienced that myself, so take that with a grain of salt.

Trans mount: I'm a huge fan of OEM rubber mounts. The solid mounts can cause all kinds of vibration problems with no real gain. I view that "mod" in the same light as a stock Honda Civic with 5 " muffler. Poly mounts are a middle ground, but I still don't see the point unless it's a track car.

Awesome reply man thanks, it's not a daily but I think I'll just go with a rubber trans mount. I'll take your word on the brakes, who makes stop tech or is that the manufacturer? Just got the driveline back and drove it today, the brakes feel excellent with that mc brace I fabbed up. Do you have any experience with mevotech balljoints? I know moog are always good but the mevotechs are 1/2 the price.

Wasn't able to get on it at all to see if the one piece driveline cured my wheel hop, if not then I'll have to get those solid subframe mounts and reinforce the subframe.


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[Cp2295]

Nevermind, centric makes stop tech, rockauto sells them for about 30-40% cheaper than driftmotion[emoji106]


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[suprarx7nut]

Awesome reply man thanks, it's not a daily but I think I'll just go with a rubber trans mount. I'll take your word on the brakes, who makes stop tech or is that the manufacturer? Just got the driveline back and drove it today, the brakes feel excellent with that mc brace I fabbed up. Do you have any experience with mevotech balljoints? I know moog are always good but the mevotechs are 1/2 the price.

Wasn't able to get on it at all to see if the one piece driveline cured my wheel hop, if not then I'll have to get those solid subframe mounts and reinforce the subframe.


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For the ball joints, I recently used MOOG on my 90 and OEM on my 91. OEM is expensive, but would be my choice if I did it again. I wouldn't go much cheaper than MOOG, but I guess it depends on your purpose for the car. A super cheap new ball joint is still better than a worn out OEM.

 

[destrux]

I would get a set of the Ronnie K (I think that's who makes them) medium hardness rear subframe bushings and SKIP the solid ones. I have solid ones in mine and they transmit an ANNOYING amount of driveline noise from the trans and rear diff, and I am very tolerant of noisy performance cars. My trans and rear are like new so mine is a best case scenario as far as noise goes. It did eliminate the wheel hop I was having and it also stopped my rear brakes locking up during hard braking. I had already done poly arm bushings and Koni shocks with drop springs back when I initially put the car on the road (got it with no engine), but the rear subframe bushings were the ticket for curing the wheel hop. I'm only at ~500hp so I haven't done traction rods yet. I have only heard of people replacing the traction rods to prevent breaking them at high power levels.

I also can't recommend highly enough replacing the sway bars with an aftermarket upgrade. I put the Godspeed set in mine and they are great. Huge transformation. Better steering response and they keep the car off the bump stops in the corners which is very important. I normally stay away from Godspeed parts but their sways are GTG.

I did Tein SA coilovers then after all that and it was better yet, but the ride is hard and lifting a wheel on parking lot entrances is an issue sometimes now. The car is unflappable in turns though, even bumpy turns. It hangs on like it's anchored to the inside of the turn with a rope. I never thought my Supra would out-handle my Mazdaspeed 3.

Make sure you lube the hell out of the poly bushings when you install them, and if you can install grease zerks do it. I have to pull my front upper arm pivot bolts every year or two to re-grease them because otherwise the bushings start to shred from lack of lubrication.

Actually, I'm not entirely sure the poly control arm bushings are worth it. If I had a chance to drive the car with the stock bushings I might feel differently but I think the stock arm bushings are better and lower maintenance. I'm not sure how much worse than the poly bushings they are as far as handling goes, and they'd need to be a lot worse for me to bother with the poly bushings again on another build. I think I'd stick to only replacing non-pivoting bushings with poly, like the subframe, rack, and engine mounts.

I have a set of Energy Suspension Jeep CJ8 poly engine mounts on custom welded adapter brackets on my car and they work great, no issue with excessive vibration like I experienced on past cars with poly engine mounts (my turbo eclipse was an unbearable buzzbox with them). My engine doesn't move much at all with them. I can't speak to how solid mounts would be I have never used them.

Unless you want to do Mercedes brakes or Mustang brakes as outlined in one of the other threads on here then I'd stick with stock cast iron rotors and a set of good brake pads (if they're under $100 they're not good). I prefer EBC Yellowstuff pads and they've been working great on my car and I'm not kind to them.

Stock trans mount should be fine. I haven't seen a reason to replace mine.

 

[Nick M]

When did I say front wheel hop?

When you said you changed out the front suspension parts and said you had wheel hop. No big thing. Wheel hop with IRS and a limited slip diff is common. Stronger components and the bushings like you have already indicated help a tremendous amount.