spring rate
 

I have a 1978 Malibu.2750 lbs. I have run the car about 12 runs. runs 6.50s in 1/8 mile. My question is front springs,i have found the front is very soft,is this a good thing or does it need to be alittle bit stiffer.I think it has stock springs and shocks.Thinking about putting coil overs in ?

You want the springs to be compressed with some travel left, that puts your car at the ride height you want it at. You can get a short spring that is stiff to put it in the same place but that creates a bad situation. The lighter, longer spring has stored energy to help rotate, ( lift the front of ) your car. The shorter stiffer spring doesn't help going up and runs out of travel.

Coil over shocks are a good thing, making it easier to tune the suspension. The spring info still applies even to them. What spring rate you need would depend on the weight percentage on the front end.

Look on the lower right part of this web page under Varishock for some spring info.

https://www.cachassisworks.com/cac_tech_articles.html

Hope some if this helps.

Curtis

Thank you so much for the info.The cachassisworks site is great.got some great info from it.again thanks a lot.

Glad I could help.