I am sorta confused

[gojo83]

been browsing around and stumbled on this part and I have no freaking idea what benefits it has besides replacing a stamped steel piece and potentially dropping a lil weight and reinforcing at the same time.
http://bmrsuspension.com/index.cfm?page=products&vehicleid=6&maincatid=55&catid=143&productid=252

That being said here is another thing that has me confused I found a BMR K member for sale used and it has LCAs on it but he said "The motor mount brackets were cut off and used a motor plate" and he wants extra money for the motor plates. he seems a bit high on price but I think I may be able to negotiate him down. what is the advantage/disadvantage of using a motor plate and how much different would it be vs a k member with stock mounts. I may not be up there in power dept yet but if I can make it hook hard and leave well then maybe I can squeeze some decent times out of it. If I was to be looking at 500+ whp what other strengthening upgrades would you all suggest to keep the power to the ground and not twist the chassis or whatever. The goal of the car is a autox and canyon racer with the occasional 1/4 mile blasts.
I got a free cam so I just want to do suspension first then possibly go boost like the rest of my stable.

[ItSSlowZ28]

i highly doubt you need a motor plate. you really only see those on full blown race cars. unless the k-member is a really good deal and you can have motor mounts put back on it cheap, it's probably less expensive to just get the a-arms from him and buy a new k-member

[96LT1355Z28]

Agreed, go with a K that has stock location motor mounts. A motor plate will require more fabrication than your gonna need. A good set of subframe connectors, and a roll bar are the best way to stiffen the chassis. Cross bar location will varry in the roll bar design given the task, drag, auto-X, etc. so talk to others who are doing with their cars what your want to do and see what works best for them. As far as suspension goes upgrade the LCA's and TA. The springs hold up the car and the shocks controll the springs so a good set of adjustable shocks will help with changing demands. If your gonna change ride height or get into auto-X also adress your PHB. Your budget and level of desired performance will determine what brand and options of parts to but i.e. polly vs. rod ends. You mentioned you allready have a cam, make sure you have the supporting mods to take full advantage of that cam. Comming from experiance you'll have more fun with your build if you remember to build the car for the engine before you build the engine for the car!

This might help:http://ltxtech.com/forums/showthread.php?4924-rear-suspension-info...&highlight=instant+center

[quik95lt1]

yes no motor plate for you lol.........run stock location mounts and as for that tunnel brace IMO its not necessary unless your doing some serious road racing........

[gojo83]

Just a little update for all of you on this topic, I picked up about 3k worth of bmr goodies from a show car demod. I will post pics when the parts work on mating up to the 97. The woman is not too thrilled that I got suspension instead of go fast goodies but I think she understands now that you need to have a good suspension to handle bigger power. I am only missing a strut tower brace and a relocation bracket and the car will be fully tubular. I only need those 2 things and need to find a ls steering shaft and driveshaft and I will be happy. Time to start combing the classified here and ls1tech.

Off topic the suspension and this is what the red car got for Christmas.
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g205/gojo83/17ec8d0c.jpg

[QWKzee93]

Well atleast I'm not the only one that doing suspension before engine mods lol... I pretty much have everything done also except I went with UMI performance. Now get some pics up lol...

[gojo83]

Well atleast I'm not the only one that doing suspension before engine mods lol... I pretty much have everything done also except I went with UMI performance. Now get some pics up lol...

Pics will be coming when i finish juggling stuff and get it all ready. As for no motor mods that is not entirely true... it has cam and maybe some juice coming too once ups pays my buddy back for the stuff they lost over the holidays when he tried to get it to me