Lowering with more performance oriented springs and struts helps a good bit- and really buying a high performance tire can make a big difference as well (lowering the car with stiffer springs keeps the car from leaning a lot into corners, but good tires give you more grip overall). The nice thing about performance tires is not only does your handling improve- but also your acceleration and braking as well. The only downside to tires is they can turn into a pretty big expense if you get really high performance stuff- IIRC the oem tires on my gxp run like $800 for a set of 4 (granted they're 18's), and aren't known for lasting all that long due to being a fairly soft compound. So its kindof a tradeoff with tires between how much of your driving is daily commuting and how much is really pushing the limits of the car.

Honestly, replacing those round solid rubber upper mounts with a solid poly mount does very very little for vibration. Replacing the semi-hollow front square rubber ones with poly accounted for at least 90% of my vibration change in my car. If I hadn't got mine cheap (but still new) off someone demodding before completing a build, I would never have spent the $40 or whatever on them.

Another thing to keep in mind is not all poly is the same hardness either. I know a lot of the poly engine mounts now seem to be a good bit softer than they were originally when they first started making them and everyone was complaining about vibration.

For anybody considering changing their upper engine mount for more engine stiffness/vibration transfer- I always suggest doing this first. Take off the dogbones, and put the bolt and nut back on the square radiator mounts. House down the edges of the squares with WD-40 or some kinda lube, then take a wrench and turn the bolt. Takes some force, but the whole thing will spin. It makes the solid rubber piece turn horizontal instead of vertical. Then put the dogbones back on. The vibration change from stock is pretty small compared to solid polys though- so keep in mind, if you want more vibration, that going from that to solid polys is a big jump.

I completely disagree. I have helped people install square poly mounts that were insanely hard- would vibrate the mirrors and make the interior rattle at idle on nearly stock cars. The ones I have in my monte aren't that stiff, but with my cam- the whole car shakes quite a bit, especially when it idles down and starts loping really hard- it almost feels like you're running a pair of subs under the seat. I do get a little mirror vibration at idle too.

In my opinion, there is no way thats worth it on a daily driver unless you like that. It doesn't bug me on my monte because I only drive it for fun- but to me that would be unbearable every day. Not to mention, how much power are you really losing anyways with the stock rubber? Lets say a person does a turbo kit that adds 150 hp- but doesn't do poly mounts and doesn't gain that extra 2 or 3 hp because they can't stand the vibration of the car in their daily driver- so you'd say they shouldn't buy the turbo kit either?

To me, thats like saying if someone is going to do performance mods- they should chop their mufflers off because it adds a couple hp. Well sure it does- but its gonna be crazy loud too. For someone who cruises on the weekends, it might not be a big deal- but for someone DD'ing their car- straight pipes and the screaming race car style noise that comes with it may not be an acceptable trade for those couple hp.

 

and allso ive heard you can change out springs and struts with a couple floor jacks. is this true cause i dont need a spring flyin out into the nieghbors house... well... no i dont.

 

Its not that hard- and its not dangerous if you're careful. When you take the old unit out- you just unbolt the two bolts holding the strut on at the bottom and the three bolts up top- it will come out in a single assembly. In order to get the spring out, you have to use a spring compressor (Autozone rents them)- that just mechanically clamps the spring together- then you take the big nut off the top and that lets you remove the top plate that holds the spring- and you just let the spring compressor loose and slide the spring off. Its really not that bad, or dangerous if you follow the directions on the spring compressor tool.

 

what about shorter stiffer struts? is this possible without smaller springs? i mean i dont really drive like im racing id just like to have alittle better handling. and what would you recomend for tires radial or bias, i dont want teh lip on the tire down by the road. and what kind of tire keep in mind i want them to last.

 

Never heard of a shorter, stiffer strut- for the most part, it is the spring height combined with the spring stiffness that determine ride height on these cars- if you want a lower car, you either need a softer spring, or a shorter spring (or if you want performance- a harder, shorter spring). I've just never seen a strut modified to any length other than stock.

As far as tires, I thought all normal tires were radials now? I'm not much of a tire expert. I'd suggest going on tirerack.com, picking what you want to do with your tires (ie all season, or summer only tires that you'll take off in the winter)- and then reading the reviews on there. There isn't any one tire that I could really lead you to- every tire has its ups and downs- and part of it depends how much you want to pay, and how long you need them to last- but its easier just to go through their selector thing, find out what is available in your size and your style (performance level and all season or summer)- and then see how the reviews compare between them.

 

This is my point:

https://montecarloforum.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=18940

This is exactly what I'm talking about- these are the guy's mods:

There is no reason his car should be shaking like a top fuel dragster just to gain an extra couple horsepower out of the hole. This is just a mod that I think is better suited for a weekend toy where the person really wants the extra vibration.