s6 to V-8 do I need to change torsion bars

73AbodEE said

me either , ever. the front end of my last duster did not float , and was rather harsh. it was stiff as a board. the slant six is still a cast iron engine and is not that much lighter than a V8. people act as if its made of aluminum. hell the bars in my charger are .96 and running around with a 440 on them , the front of that is pretty stiff as well. I load them up pretty good too. when you lower the front end it is going to make it softer , and if you have old shocks , that just makes it worse.

Click to expand...

Changing the ride height does not change the spring rate. It doesn't even change the pre-load significantly. The car still weighs the same, and the torsion bar adjuster only changes the angle of the LCA with respect to the torsion bar socket. "Pre-load" on a torsion bar car is set almost entirely by the weight of the car. There is a small variation of the effective wheel rate from changing the angle of the LCA because that changes the "effective" length of the lever acting on the torsion bar, but that effect is pretty small. And only relevant at that particular angle, since the effective wheel rate is always changing as the suspension moves through its arc.

As far as any car with /6 bars being "harsh" it's because it was probably on the bump stops. Otherwise, I can only say that your definition of "did not float" and " rather harsh" are completely different from how I define them. Because every car I've ever driven with /6 bars was the very definition of "floaty". The only time I've ever experienced a slant 6 torsion bar equipped car that didn't feel floaty and horribly vague is when that car was actually sitting on the bump stops. In which case they DO ride harsh, because there's no suspension travel at all.