I know for a fact, that ALL FMJ torsion bars are all the same thickness and have the same spring rate.
That said, the police torsion bars had firmer rubber bushings in them (which haven’t available for purchase for 25+ years) – and might be shot already (in your potential car).
The good news is there are urethane bushings available for torsion parts – but they can be a headache to change.
I hadn’t tried them yet, but the Firm Feel torsion bars are on my want list. The factory bars are, well, lacking in spring rate (and I'm going big block).
Things to get off a police car (if they are parting it out):
- Front sway bar and the frame bushings/links (which is thicker than non-police versions).
- Rear sway bar and all components for it (which includes the frame brackets, top half of rear ISO-Clamp).
- The 5-leaf rear springs (and lower half of ISO-Clamp, which is about 1/4" taller).
- The trapezoid shaped rear leaf spring hangers and frame brackets (only available on rear sway bar cars)
- The 8¼” rear differential (matter of fact, leaving the leaf springs and sway bar attached to rear differential makes it easier to move (if you have tires to toss on it).
- External transmission cooler and lines.
- External engine oil cooler and lines, brackets, adaptors and fuel pump bolt (not all police cars came equipped).
- Engine oil pressure gauge (dash) – if not to use, to sell.
- The A999 transmission is nice to grab, as mentioned earlier it does have more clutches inside but what I like about it is higher shift points (a governor more in line with how some/most of us drive). It does have a 1st gear lockout – but that can be unbolted (external of transmission) and discarded (used to keep the police from blowing things up in 1st gear).
- The 4-bbl air cleaner (without a computer on it). The computer is under dash by park brake petal (nothing is special about the computer). If nothing else, there are people looking for that air cleaner (like me).
- There is a under front bumper spoiler that is different (and hard to find) – but in most cases, they are broken or missing.
- The trunk lock cylinder is keyed to match the ignition key (great for people who only want to carry 1 key).
There are other items as well – this is just a highlight of things to get from a police car.
Other items:
- The police 318 has 360 cylinder heads, 360 intake and 360 exhaust manifolds which is good (but engine is fairly low compression).
There are very few factory installed 360 engines (on special build police fleet purchases) – but those are very few in number and not something a person from street could order (after 1980 or so). If this car is a 360, most likely it was installed after the fact.
- The factory has a different part number for police K-frames and I’ve been told they are different – but of all the ones I have seen – the police K-frames look exactly the same, to me.
If the car is in decent shape – it might make for a good car.
If car is not in decent shape, there is a ton of things to get from it.
BudW