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Replace bushings and go with adjustable spring plates.

I had my '80 SC 3.6l lowered to approx. 23.5 in at the fender in the rear with 255/40/17's and fully stock suspension except a 22mm weltmeister sway bar. I did not touch the alignment settings in the rear at the time. No rubbing even on the track. Fast forward to a well planned suspension upgrade- rebel solid bushings, mono ball inner bushings, 22mm Tarret bar, Bilstein sports and 29mm torsion bars. I also increased the rear camber to -3deg. All was good around the street. At the track the left rear rubbed the inner fender 2 inches up and actually burned the paint. I had cut the bump stops in half because I was told you don't want to be riding on the stops during compression mid corner. I fixed this by increasing the t-bars to 31mm and adding the missing piece of bump stop back on. All is good now. Bottom line is, whenever you change something be prepared to adjust or compensate somewhere else.

FWIW. I lowered my car many years ago and added 6 and 7" fuchs. No problems and all was great.

Many years later I went to 7 and 8" Fuchs. This created a problem in the rear suspension where there was a lot of "wallowing", or uncontrolled swaying of the rear of my car. I played around with the shock's adjustments (Koni reds), but it did not fix the problem. Finally I went to 26mm rear torsions. This transformed my cars handling to how you would want a 911 to behave.

Just another data point...

Yeah, the doctor told me I had to exercise and take a certain medication, but I don't like to take pills. Do I have to take them ?
The only thing more painful than paying to do something once is paying to do it twice.

I'd jump up to a 26 (turbo) bar just to balance the car out. The cars understeer like a pigs with the stock t-bar setup.

Just being a little nit picky, but some of this is incorrect. Raising or lowering a car with the same torsion bar does not change the spring rate of said torsion bar, so it doesn't change the ride stiffness.

It does reduce your jounce travel below designed, which increases the conditions in which you'll contact the bump stops. Don't go low enough to do that. Modern cars (even modern Porsches) use fancy long, multicelluar progressive bumpstops that are intended to be ridden on almost as secondary springs. Our 70s/80s tech is hard rubber bumpers whose primary function is to protect the shock shaft.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads/shocks_3.jpg

So don't go low enough to get to those things, even if you hit a bump, while going around a turn, with a full tank of gas, luggage, and two people in the car.

Does it matter if you use an oem or after market bar? Our host carries a couple aftermarket brands that are priced reasonably. I'm assuming the oem torsion bars are made of platinum based on their pricing lol.

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I'm not sure that the term "upgrade" is appropriate when discussing a change in torsion bars.

You're making the car stiffer but why are you doing that? What is the purpose? It may handle differently at the edge but why is that important?

My 911 has been to the track and back. At one time it was a great track car and a terrible street car. After if gave up running Solo 2 and the track I want back to the stock configuration. Would you call this a downgrade?

Now I have a car that is really nice on the street but not so good for the track.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1475158447.jpg

Ask yourself why you want to drive a stiffly sprung car on the street.

Richard Newton

OP, I run my car pretty low and have stock torsion and sway bars. I just completed a 4-day road trip driving a bunch of backcountry roads in eastern WA and the car handled wonderfully. We drove our cars like we stole them too. Do you need to go with bigger bars? It just depends on the kind of ride you want, but you don't need to get bigger bars for a street car IMO.

I'm in the process of doing a 3.6 conversion and plan on installing bigger torsion and sway bars. For one, I want a slightly firmer ride and two, my understanding is the 3.6 lump weighs approx 100 lbs more than my 2.7. Anyone know if this is the case? I had a 1980 SC running 22/29 torsion bars and 22/22 sway bars and really liked the way that car handled. It was slightly aggressive for street driving but was ideal for canyon carving.

It's a piece of spring steel with some splines on it. Not really.

The expensive aftermarket ones are hollow (lighter, but not enough to notice) and plated to prevent corrosion. Both the cheap Sway-A-Way solids and the expensive Sanders bars fit beautifully in my car.

Here's the 30 (Sway-A-Way) 33 (Sanders) and 36 (Sanders) I've had in my car. A nice coating of grease on the whole bar and splines before install was my plan of action.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lPNVSLqkri...102_175151.jpg

The way to avoid the bump stops is to have your damper shafts shortened. It's similar to cutting the bump stops but gives you the added protection you need to avoid interference inside the damper.

I once had single adjustable Konis on the front of my former '87 911 with 23/31 torsion bars. One of the adjusters got jammed. A knowledgeable dude in the business of modifying these cars (Tyson Schmidt here on the forums) told me that I probably bottomed out the shock and damaged the assembly. He'd seen this himself on his own car and after having the shock repaired, he did some shortening of the shock body (the Konis have a thick standoff on the bottom) and trimmed the strut tube threads accordingly, along with shortening the damper shaft, to address teh problem.

Here is my 78 SC. Stock torsion bars. No bottoming.

http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...psa3dbed16.jpg

The operative thing here is that you have to really lean on the car with speed, like at the track, to hit the bump stops and experience the effect. Everyday street driving isn't going to make it happen on a regular basis.

That is unless you seek out curbs and potholes and railroad crossings like you're actually trying to hit them. An occasional sharp dip in the road that causes the suspension to compress to the stops isn't going to make the car explode. But it still can make for some hairy handling if you're in a turn and going fast.

Afraid I do not know the exact comparison to a 2.7 engine, but I have personally weighed a 3.2 and 3.6 engine for comparison.

3.2 '84 ROW engine, without AC, ready to run with all ancillaries (except heater blower), with a stock clutch, Euro pre-muffler and Dansk 1 in 2 out rear muffler = 179kg (394.6lbs).

3.6 '96 Vram engine, without AC, in transplant configuration ready to run with all ancillaries (except a heater blower), with a Sachs power clutch and a "happy crab" type silencer = 178kg (392.4lbs).

Both were weighed on the same day on the same scales, so any inaccuracies would apply equally. The conclusion is, no material difference in weight when comparing a 3.6 ready to go into an earlier car in a fairly typical transplant configuration.

Mark

I've read before that similarly equipped, meaning same clutch assembly, exhausts, a/c delete, power steering delete, etc., a 3.6 weighs close to a 3.2. I also know the magnesium block is only like 12 lbs lighter than an aluminum block and the CIS system is heavier than the motronic set up on a 3.2. So there isn't much difference between the weight of a CIS equipped 2.7 and a 3.2 or 3.6.

Need to? No. Want the car to drive better? do it
IMHO these cars were undersprung so a mild upgrade (22/28) really transforms the car
on the street