Three inches by cutting your coils is a lot,about 2 turns of the spring.But,personally I wouldn't lower the car that way although I know history proves people have done it in the past.You change the rebound rate so much the Chevy can bottom very easily and damage something and the alignment can be problematic.I wouldn't worry about a 261 over a 216/235 as far as front end weight goes.I would think about buying coils already designed for what you want to do because they will have the correct number
of turns and the correct stiffness for lack of a better word.
