Installed Energy Suspension full cradle bushings

[Synner]

I was able to do complete cradle bushing replacements using the insert directions and I never lowered the whole frame. I used a lift and I can only imagine you have to use one because of the leverage and cutting necessary on the bushings. I would not recommend this on jack stands unless you remove the whole cradle.
Total time: 8 hours
For you? 5 hours if you listen to my advice. I probably installed, uninstalled, and reinstalled the friggin things 4 times.


Impressions of stock bushings: They appeared to be 40% void around the steel center core. It looked like ¾” of rubber followed by a ½” void around the entire thing. Although the fiberglass jacket and steel core is beefy the rubber center was crap. I could easily mark and indent it with a finger plus all the voids. I tossed the metal core but you can get the idea from the below pic.


Impressions of energy suspension bushings. These things are pretty massive. There was some minor flex to them but I knew going into it they weren’t the stiffest option out there. But they fit my budget and goals for the car. I had zero fitment issues and everything fit together well. Its obviously a big step up over stock and also inserts from any manufacturer. I don’t think any insert could fully fill every void as I don’t think its physically possible. I had to pierce/tear the voids a bit just to get the blade in there so I don’t see how you could possibly cram a super thin piece of rubber all the way into it. Yes the inserts are better than nothing but there’s still some gaps and the weaker stock rubber to contend with.

Here’s some info/tips that can help you through the process.
1) Have a helper. I only had a buddy for 1.5 hours and most of that time was getting the car set up, figuring out lift points, finding the tranny jack, etc. I used a rented lift so I didn’t know where anything was and had to carry in all my tools from the car.
2) Have an air ratchet. My arms were jelly by the end of the day between the cutting and ratcheting everything. Like I said it was even worse because I redid the stupid thing 4 times with zero help.
3) Lowering the rear wasn’t too tough but you need a massive breaker bar and 24mm socket for the body bolts. Make sure you have positive thread engagement on the side you leave in and a tranny jack for safety. I recommend chains/straps too as this shop didn’t have any which made me VERY nervous.
4) I had to remove the lower shock bolt despite my stock ride height. I think for inserts you don’t have to but the larger replacement bushings needed the extra room to clear the body pin and give the saw room to work.
5) Have an absolute minimum of 4 6” blades and 2 10-12” blades. The 6” aren’t long enough to go through the whole rear bushing. I lost 30 minutes driving to the store for more. Buy the heaviest blades they make, I got ones rated for ½” steel and give them time to cool down. If you don’t apply lots of pressure you’ll burn up the blade and start a small plastic fire on the bushing. Wear gloves or have burn ointment handy; they were cooking. You can see the size difference in this pic.

6) Removing the hats was a lot easier with heat and then the 2 hammer method. I tried it first with just the 2 hammers and the heat made it a LOT easier.
7) Front bushing removal: I cut ¼ of the steel jacket out and then gutted the rest of the bushing. Its too tight of a radius to just go around the jacket first without damaging the blades. Once I did that I cut through the fiberglass jacket in 2 spots and the bushing falls out.
8) Rear bushing removal: These have enough room to just go around the jacket and remove it in 1 piece. The steel is twice as thick in these and I didn’t want to destroy all my blades and go get more (again). I then did the same thing as the fronts and made 2 cuts, removed it.

And now comes all the fitment problems (learning experiences) that I will share so you don’t do it 4 times like me. I think some of these issues may be why some people give energy suspension a bad rap on fitment but honestly I think you’d face the same problems with any bushing. Plus most of the bashing seems to come from vendors selling their bushings that cost 3x more.
1) The steel hat and ferule fitment needed to be perfect or else it will remain misaligned no matter how hard you torque the bolt. This will cause subframe shifting while driving or you might break something.
a. For the front bushings the best way was to assemble it on the ground. Place the bolt, hat, bushing, and ferule as one assembly. Pay careful attention to the lip of the hat going into the ferule. Then put it up at one time and tighten the bolt by hand or ratchet. Power/air tools will shake it right back out of alignment.
b. For the rear bushings you need to hammer the ferule onto the body pin. This will prevent any alignment issues and ensure it gets seated as far up as possible. The lower half of the bushing and hat will pop right off and remain misaligned if you try to hand tighten so here’s the fix. Assemble the bolt, hat, and bottom half of the bushing on the ground. Lift it up into place and have someone hold it in place with a hand on each side. Use lots of pressure or it’ll shoot right out. Have a second person tighten it and it will remain seated perfectly.
2) The directions don’t say which ferule goes in front and which in the rear. So after getting it all together I freaked out, disassembled it, swapped ferules, reassembled it, realized I was right the first time, disassembled it, swapped ferules, and reassembled it.
3) This was the most frustrating part. I had everything back together and only had the brakes and lower shock bolt to tighten up. I found out that unless someone actively holds the shock and pushes it towards the center the lower mount will get jammed on the lower control arm gusset plate and will never go into place without lowering the whole subframe AGAIN. I had to use a ratcheting strap to keep it in place while jacking up the control arm to get a bolt through it. This is where a buddy would have really helped. It added at least an hour while I figured out a solo fix. I was ratcheting with one hand, jacking with a foot, jamming a screwdriver in with the other hand, while balancing on my remaining foot. FML.

To top it all off I hammered my hand with a 3lb hammer while getting the frame in place. 3 x-rays and 2 vicodin later I have a clean bill of health and I’m writing this post. Hope it helps someone avoid the frustration I endured. I’m on the fence about doing the diff bushings myself after the joys of this ordeal but we’ll see. The Metco driveshaft loop is going to have to wait a bit too.

I also got the billet floor brace in from LSR which was real nice.

[Synner]

I forgot my initial driving impressions. I only tried driving it on the way home last night and since my hand was giving me a lot of grief shifting, and being in a city, there's only so much spirited testing I can do.

Previously I would very easily fishtail and engage traction control when accelerating into a turn from a stop. Last night I tried it twice and it just hooked and didn't engage traction control or feel squirrely. It just stayed planted with a slightly firmer ride. On an on ramp it felt a bit more confident as well. I'm not going to say its a super amazing night and day difference as its only one suspension piece. But I can feel a tangible difference and its a step in the right direction.

I am going to do trailing arms and toe rods in a month or two and then get a good alignment.

I would highly recommend an alignment after lowering the frame even though people seem 50/50 on it. I would do it this week if I wasn't planning on a few more suspension parts soon. There's no way the frame went back in exactly perfectly 100% in the same spot. How could it? Thats just my 2 cents.

[Synner]

Put 800 miles on them and did some spirited driving.
The extra vibration is now gone; I assume they broke in which is nice. Feels stock from a noise/harshness standpoint.

I also did 6 very hard smokey launches and didn't get any wheel hop which I was pleasantly surprised by. I had expected there to still be some with an LS3. I still plan on doing the trailing arms and toe rods but my laptop died and I had to buy a new one which pushed it down the road a month or two. I also have time off from work in Sept and I'll be doing the differential bushings then.

I'd highly recommend these to anyone looking for a good solution that doesn't break the bank.

[CausticGuy]

Good write up.

[Li0nel1234]

pics?

[Synner]

I can take some this weekend of the installed bushes and the ones I cut out.

[Synner]

Originally Posted by CausticGuy

Good write up.

Thanks.

[radz28]

GREAT WRITE-UP!!! Thank you for sharing and thank you for the review. I haven't noticed the negative comments on this product, however, I don't imagine they're going to be much, if any, different than any other poly' replacements out there. This is definately a mod' I don't have to think about doing. Thanks for the tips, too

[Synner]

Here's 2 shots of the fronts as a finished product. The rears you can't get a decent pic of with the tires on and the factory mufflers. It looks the same though so there's no point.

[Synner]

Originally Posted by radz28

GREAT WRITE-UP!!! Thank you for sharing and thank you for the review. I haven't noticed the negative comments on this product, however, I don't imagine they're going to be much, if any, different than any other poly' replacements out there. This is definately a mod' I don't have to think about doing. Thanks for the tips, too

Well in another thread where we discussed the energy suspension line in general there have been a number of people who had issues with the inserts. Any members that installed the full bushings stated they had no issues but some vendors who sell another brand had said they never got Energy Suspension full bushings to install properly as there were gaps and poor fitment. I went ahead with the purchase anyways to be a guinea pig and see how it went. I had zero fitment issues that couldn't be figured out through analyzing my own boneheaded mistakes and you saw my opinion on how well it controlled wheel hop. Overall I'm very happy with them especially for the price. I definitely beat on them harder than I normally drive to test them out and no issues to report.

If you have any questions on the install let me know.

[Synner]

Originally Posted by Li0nel1234

pics?

Added to original post. Let me know if you needed something else. I didn't have a camera during the install though so I don't have any pics of that. I was completely covered in rubber shavings after the cutting which looked awesome. The shop wasn't air conditioned so the amount of sweat on me made it look like I was tarred and feathered.

[Cyber Gray]

Excellent report Synner.

You encouraged me to buy those bushings. I was a bit worried on the noise caused. But things seem to go well with you.

[Synner]

The cradle bushes don't really add noise but I'm expecting the diff bushings to add some when I do those next month. I'm just not sure how much as it's rather subjective from other peoples perspective and seems to vary a bit on the stock gear setup and lash tolerances. I might do a similar thread for those too in a couple weeks.

[Cyber Gray]

Any vendors selling those bushings here in the forum? I was thinking about buying Pedders but it seems that there are some good low priced options like energy suspension!

I can save some money for the endlinks. Hopefully I will not need the trailing arms and tie rods!