Neptronix

So i pretty much love my 'teg and am coming up with a sizeable chunk of money soon, half the amount to do a H2B swap which has enticed me ever since i bought the car.

My one complaint with the LS though.. is that although it handles fairly well, it does something weird when i take turns.. it seems to either understeer, or oversteer, i don't know.. but i hear this is an issue with pretty much all FWD cars.

Admittedly, my suspension is past worn, but i don't know if this is a characteristic of the car, or if it's my suspension. The ride is not bad and i would like to keep the streetability of it.

If i'm gonna dump my money into a quicker engine, i want the handling to make up for it. And frankly i don't know crap about what bar / brace does what. I really don't want to do harder springs because the roads here suck bad. any suggestions from the crowd?

EGbubble

Basically, your best bang for your buck handling-wise will be a new set of nice tires.

Other than that, check this out http://forums.clubrsx.com/showthread.php?t=575660

Neptronix

i didn't even think of that, what a no brainer..
basically that article says that all those extra bars are kinda useless, except sway bars.

I hear the LS has a front sway but no rear.. hmm. I heard rear swaybars are bad because they tear out or something.. true? false?

_decker

iTrader: (15)

Putting a large bar on a non R will tear out the subframe unless you reinforce it. ASR and Beaks make reinforcement kits to work with ITR and other aftermarket swaybars. You may be able to get away with using a GSR sway bar on your LS without any problems, I dont think the subframes are different between the DC integras except fot the ITR

turbodcxbro

iTrader: (1)

My 94 LS has a rear sway bar... its small as hell but its there!

To keep a great ride and get much better handling start with new shocks on GOOD factory springs (use a decent shock, not the $29 specials either). Get energy suspension swaybar bushings and completely redo all bushings on your swaybars. Then look at some "soft" urethane A-arm and LCA bushings and get rid of those trashed factory rubbers.

These alone will make your car feel and handle much better than it does on worn out OEM stuff and the ride won't suffer as it would with lowering, coil overs, etc.

JdmTypeRdc2

iTrader: (1)

best handling mod after a full coilover setup, i would say would be the ASR rear brace with the 24mm ASR swaybar. They used to offer the subframe brace with the 22mm ITR sway, but changed it out for the larger ASR one, which i heard is great.

Besides that, make sure you get a coilover with pillow top mounts (metal to metal contact is way better than rubber to metal), steering response is crazy, however, its a harsh ride.

Energy suspension polyurethane bushings are probably the next best thing, to stiffen everything up.

Finalized by a good set of tires, anything over Azenis to be exact. Azenis, Eagle F1, Yoko Advans, etc.

Neptronix

I'd like to stay away from a harsh ride. I am looking into the ASR rear brace + swaybar though. That sounds like it would make sense.

I would like to replace my half blown suspension soon though. But i'm having troubles finding what's best for me. I want something that's close to stock feel ( roads are so/so here ), but gives an improvement in handling.

any suggestions for suspension setups? I don't want to spend over a grand.

jonshonda

I have H&R sports and Koni yellows, which is a great combo for street/track use. Lowers my car well, and handles awesome. The shocks may be over kill for you, but you have the ability to adjust them from very hard to almost oem soft. Also, I have the ASR brace w/ 22mm itr sway, and love that combo too!! I wouldn't worry much about your front sway bar other than new bushings and endlinks. The best way for you to find a good setup is to read as many posts on here as you can, and make your decision from there. Also, regaurdless of what most say, a full coilover setup is going to be quite harsh for steet driving!! Best of luck

Neptronix

i take it that the koni yellows are the struts and h&r sports are your springs?
not interested in lowering.. maybe an inch drop, max. car is very low to begin with and i like the sleeper look.

i don't understand spring and strut/shock combinations and looked for some sort of faq on here and couldn't find anything.. i guess i'll check some other sites.

dc2ls-vtec

H&R Sports are great. I had them on my 94 accord and the ride didn't suffer at all. It gave it the perfect drop as well, I didn't have to worry about bottoming out all the time like I do now. They are the perfect springs for street applications. Also, your stock shocks will work well for a while with the H&R's. Eventually you'll need some better shocks, but for $150, I think they're the perfect first mod.

Neptronix

What should i be looking into as far as shocks go?
mine are stock and haven't been changed in 155k miles.
My car makes a crunching sound when i go over speed bumps or dips -___-.. i assume that's my springs..

neuspeed 'soft sport' springs have a .75in drop, what do you think of those?

LillDragun

Springs:
if you're looking for an even drop but you wanna stay near stock height, i would recommend Eibach Pro Kit. I've had these shocks on my car for about 60k miles already and i loved them the moment i got them on. it's a 1.3 in front and back. As for comfort, they have a slightly higher spring rate than stock and handle better.

Shocks:
I am using the Tokico Illuminas. They are 5 way adjustable. very nice and i got them really cheap. Another good set of shocks i've ridden on are Koni Yellow shocks.

Sway Bar:
USDM ITR sway bar. You can't go wrong. get a Beaks kit and you're good to go. I say USDM over the JDM because the 23mm is really overkill. unless you just want to say you have the JDM sway bar you really do not need it unless you are doing some hardcore cornering. and if you are, you'll need more than just a spring and shock combo. The USDM ITR sway bar and your current ls front sway bar will take you to a neutral handling car than your understeering hunk of metal, maybe even more oversteering if you set the shocks correctly.

Transmission (LSD):
I just got an ITR transmission in my car. i haven't gotten to "play" with it much yet, but i did take some corners harder than i needed to and i have to say. even with a stock rear suspension, i can feel that LSD spinning both tires. This won't be a cheap mod at all. it cost me $1800 just for the transmission alone. but well worth it seeing as a rebuild from the shop would have been $1300.

Bushings:
get some polyurethane ones and be done with it. but when you replace them shiddy stock ones, use a lot of grease to get them on, and be prepared to have your fingers hurtings. haha.

if you shop around you can find a very nice setup for your car. my spring and shock combo came out to less than $400 shipped. I am very very happy with it set up the way it is. A USDM ITR sway bar can be had for less than $100. but you'll have to get the endlinks and stuff. if you look it up on here you can find all the hardware for less than $120. the beaks kit should be around $60. or you can go for the BSQ mounting kit, it's a homemade one but i've never heard anything bad about it. and a full bushing kit should be about $200 or so.

so......good luck with your decision!

ForceFed Motorsports

Best bang for your buck is gonna be upgrading your rear sway bar with something as simple as a 22mm ITR w/ ASR brace. Will get rid of a lot of your understeer problem your facing. Tires are something many over look as mentioned which without no handling can be achieved at all lol.

Id do it all at once but basically with this shopping list:
ITR 22mm sway bar
ASR subframe brace (LCA's optional but recommend since your in there)
Damper + height adjustable coilover setup
Password:JDM 3pt front strut bar

Right there and your car will handle famously. Unless you are tracking your car you really wont feel a difference in a street car with all those extra braces people buy so dont bother.

Neptronix

hmm, good suggestions from both of you.
What would LCA's do for me?

JDM_CRX_PLEASE

the BEST mod to get tohelp your handling is


type R rear sway bar

on my old 97 LS i had it droped on coilover sleeves with GSR shocks and then i bought a type R rear sway bar and oh man all my understeer was gone, i had such ammount of oversteer i loved it.

also i was running 205/50 tires up front and 195/50 in the rear.

AcuraLsSE

My 2 cents...

I would go with the type r sway bar as everyone has said. I like th ASR sub frame kit.

For the suspension... I think you would like the koni yellows, if you want them soft they do go almost stock soft. And ground control coil overs. They make custom spring rates so that you can choose to go stock or a little more. That also gives you the ability to set your height where you want it.

Sorry if it doesn't make any sense, I'm tired.

masonn187

lower control arms will make it easier in a sense, to change the bushings because just pull the old one and put in the new ones, instead of changing the bushings in the old ones then reinstalling the old ones

and the cheapest way I'd try for under a thousand would be get neuspeed upper strut bars in the front and rear, put the itr sway bar and asr subframe brace on the lower rear,
and upgrade the front sway bar
it's cheap and you can easily do it ALL in your driveway
it'll stiffen the body up without killing your ride

and if your shocks are gone get them upgraded, which is possible yet MUCH more of a hassle in the driveway

ForceFed Motorsports

As far as LCA's some will say that brands like blox are garbage and what not but if installed properly you shouldnt have an issue. You can buy what some might say as cheaper LCA's and be ok. I have blox lca's and the bushings have NOT torn. As long as you properly preload the bushing when installing you should be ok. Majority of premature bushing failure is from installer error.


Modified by ForceFed Motorsports at 10:17 AM 8/15/2008

{Sigur-Ros}

[QUOTE=Majority of premature failure is from installer error.[/QUOTE]

why dose that sound dirty to me lol

ForceFed Motorsports

Because it is dirty Edited

Neptronix

Well i can probably do the swaybar stuff but i'll have to have a shop or independent dude do my springs and stuff.

the guys at our local honda shop said changing the bushings on my car when swapping out the suspension takes twice the time as just swapping the suspension, would it be cheaper for them to put in these LCA's you speak of whilst doing springs / shocks?

ForceFed Motorsports

Yes, as they have to remove the strut from the lca thats 1 out of the 3 bolts you gotta pull to do it. Would take maybe another 5 minutes a side to swap in some aftermarket LCA's. I was suggesting doing the LCA's when you do the subframe brace and sway bar. You could live with stock LCA's until you do the swaybar.

Neptronix

Word. Okay, so i'm gonna get the swaybar. But from the look of pics, a subframe brace and new sway makes the rear of the car look souped up and i don't have an alarm right now so i'm going to have one installed before i do the rear sway/brace/lca stuff.

My car is on the rusty side under the hood so who knows what's going on underneath.. I'm going to get my shop to put it on the lift and see if this chassis is even worth putting a crapload of money into.

I also talked to a kid at the honda shop and yeah.. koni yellows sound like the best option.

thanks for all your suggestions!

Junkie

Cool to see someone else from SLO on here, I know what you mean about the roads. I commute from Atascadero to SLO daily and you can't believe how rough the slow lane is (the concrete is from the 50s).

I agree with others that a suspension change is in order, and that if you're willing to drop the money on it the Koni Yellows + GC Coilovers is a good setup. A rear antisway bar will make the car much less prone to understeer without sacrificing much ride quality.


If your car has been a CA car all it's life and not within oh... a mile of the ocean most of the time, I'd be surprised if you have any real rust issues.

TOO MUCH TORQUE

koni gc with stiff springs..around 500-600
asr subframe with 22mm itr sway bar
and GOOD TIRES