Nice work. I love the functionality of this car. If you do anymore painting under your car I recommend Por15. It dries to an incredibly hard, ceramic like surface. That's all I put on my car and it stops rust dead. Cheers

 

Great build, really love the progress that you made on it. I really like the pic of the Integra with the gold rims on it.

 

have you had a chance to drive around on the new suspension? I am looking into the Progress susp. the price seems good along with the reviews.

 

^^ thx everyone

@takin8ez -- I'll have to look for that stuff. This was cheap paint and it went on in very cold conditions, so I'm not expecting it to last, especially on the body. I definitely want to do a more thorough job in the future.

@fcluddington -- I just got an alignment done and now I've driven a small amount around town. I like the suspension quite a lot. I'll write a full review in a little bit, but initial impressions are good. I'm on winter tires, unfortunately, but the chassis is noticeably more responsive. The suspension really comes into it's own when forces increase (extra hard cornering, acceleration, braking). Around town it's stiffer than stock but not uncomfortably so. You notice it going over bumps, but in my impression the car feels tighter. The hardened bushings were never a good match for my stock suspension, especially with a failing shock. The car feels much more solid and secure now, and all parts of the suspension seem to be working together again.

In other news, today I recalibrated my wideband and did a compression test. I think my wideband may have lost its calibration a bit and I think I've been running a bit lean. Compression results are very good:

1- 196
2- 202
3- 199
4- 199

Here is what the plugs looked like:









I also had a bright idea and decided to tighten down my valve cover a bit more, because I'm getting a hot smell that makes me think the VC is leaking a little... and I did this...



Stupid bolt broke in half! I guess I'll have to get a new mounting bolt Anybody know if it's bad to drive around like this?

 

Gangar is a friggin HT bauce! lol Your car is coming along great man! I am sub'd fosho.

 

It's never a bad idea to check to make sure all the bolts are tight in the engine bay. If you are breaking bolts you might want to get a Torque wrench. the plugs are kinda hard to tell whats going on. When I try to read plugs for fuel or ignition try a new set of plugs go out a and do a pull up to rpm limit and shut car off coast to stop and check. your plugs look real close to how mine do after a month or so of driving.
I would say it's ok to drive with the broken stud until you get it fixed. Unless you snapped all of them off. lol.. good luck with build

 

@DirtyDA9 -- yeah, my build is in boss mode now. It's gonna slow down with the little one coming but that's no prob.

@fcluddington -- I do have a torque wrench, but I wasn't using it when I busted the bolts. I looked up later and they are like 6 ft-lbs but I was probably quadrupling that when I was torquing them :/

I've been meaning to do a detailed writeup of how the Progress install went, but I've been too busy to get around to it until now, so here goes:


Progress Coilover Installation

First I got my (new) Thinkpad out and put on some tunes:




I already had the ABS wires and parking cables disconnected, so I didn't have to mess with removing those things when I was installing the coils. I've found it's easiest to get the inner end of the LCA back into position when I'm reassembling the suspension, so I removed the inner LCA bolts and dropped the arm:




I removed the stock coils and then cut the bump stops. Progress said to cut at the third notch if you are dropping less than 2", so that's what I did!





Here are the coils, side-by-side. Some people have trouble distinguishing the 350# and 250# springs, but you can actually tell the difference pretty easily. The 350# springs are heavier, thicker, and have tighter coils. You can tell a little in the picture but it's easier in real life.




To assemble the coilovers, you put the sleeves over the shock bodies so that the adjustment wrench hole in the sleeve is towards the bottom of the shock(red arrow). The perch threads onto the sleeve so that the inner locator collar is facing up (blue arrow), and the locator bushing presses firmly into the top of the sleeve.




I screwed the collar down close to the bottom of the sleeve and then placed the spring onto the collar. Unlike the factory stocks, you can position the collar low enough that you can install the spring without preload. That means you can assemble the coilover without using spring compressors!

This is also when you put the bump stop on (tapered end down) and the bump stop washer.






Then the various bushings and washers go on. First is the lower rubber tophat bushing, and then the tophat. The upper rubber tophat bushing goes in the top and then it's topped off with the last washer. Then you install the nylon locknut:




After the coilover is assembled you need to thread the perch up until the spring has about 1/8" of free play.




After that, you screw the perch up about 1/2" so that it has a minimal amount of preload. Now the shock is assembled! And also at it's LOWEST safe ride height.

 

Next I installed the rear coils, starting with the tophat mounts.




Then I jacked up the LCA so that the shock mount holes on the LCA would line up with the new (much shorter!) shocks.




The rears were pretty easy, partly because I'd already removed and cleaned up the tophats. But I hadn't taken apart the fronts yet, and the threads on the spring compressors started to strip...




NEVER buy a cheap spring compressor.

With the front OEM shocks removed, I jacked up the knuckle to my desired ride height, and I loosened and re-tightened the bushing bolts. With the super-hard PIC bushings I've found I have to get them pretty tight to stop them from squeaking. It's also VERY important that they be tightened only with the car at ride height. Because some of them are impossible to reach with the car on the ground, you have to get creative :/




The front shocks assemble in the same way as the rears, so after I got the front coilovers assembled I mounted them, again from the top. Progress supplies mounting brackets for the brake hose. It works slightly differently from the OEM mounts, but it's pretty straightforward.






I was kind of sad that I ran out of time to clean up the front arms, but it was starting to get cold in the garage so it'll have to wait till next year.

After I installed the brake lines I put the front suspension together:




Then I put the wheels on and pushed the car into the driveway to measure the ride height. Here it is, fully slammed!




Then I measured the hub-fender height and calculated how much to raise the springs to get to the height I want. One inch equals 16 turns






My final heights were 12 3/4" all around. That equates to a 1 3/4" drop in front and a 1 1/4" drop in the rear.

After the ride height was set I tightened the remaining bushings using my patented method, and took the car in to get an alignment. The guys at the shop were pretty cool. At first I could tell they didn't really want to mess with a lowered car, but then they were really complimentary of the work I had done. They said most of these installs are hack-jobs, but they could tell I'd done a really good job! The clean undercarriage and arms ARE pretty

 

Progress CSII Coilovers Review


Ordering:

I ordered from Hardparked.com (a forum sponsor) for a pretty good price. They took care of me, but they weren't super communicative.

When I first contacted Hardparked they said they had shocks in stock and I would have them in 5 days. By the time I placed the order, the shocks were out of stock, but nobody told me.

So I waited a while before contacting them and learning that I would have to wait another week or so for the coilovers to get drop shipped from Progress. Moreover, nobody gave me a tracking number when it was shipped. Overall, it was a reasonable solution, but I was kind of bummed that I was kept out of the loop.

So I'd vouch for Hardparked, but be aware that you might have to stay active to keep informed.


Initial Impressions:

The coilovers come well-packaged and disassembled. Everything you need is included, except for the top hats. So you get the springs, the shocks, and the washers. The top hat bushings are rubber, which is really nice, and the "bushing" that goes over the shock is poly, as is the collar locator. You also get some adjuster wrenches and brake hose mounting hardware for the fronts. The 250# springs were labeled but the 350# springs were not.

All the materials appear to be of high quality and it's honestly hard to believe that these are available for <$600 U.S.


Installation:

Installation was very easy. The coilovers assemble well and install smoothly.


Ride:

The ride on the 350/250 kit is very nice. It's stiffer than stock, but not uncomfortably so. The stiffer springs work very well with the PIC bushings, as well. When I just had the bushings the suspension didn't seem as 'together.' There was a bit of high-frequency harshness but slop over bumps. Now it's all much tighter and more solid feeling.

The best way I can describe the ride is that it's like you're going 10-15 mph faster over bumps. So if a bump has a certain feel at 45 mph, it will feel like that at 30 mph in the new suspension. If the road gets bumpy it's not uncomfortable, it's just a bit choppier.

I think a regular person would find even the 350/250 setup to be fairly stiff, but not uncomfortably so. It gets the wife seal of approval and it'll be no problem for the baby.

The ride is also well controlled -- if you take a bump hard the car will bounce up but it composes itself very quickly.


Handling:

I'm stuck on snow tires for now so it's hard to say what things will feel like in the summer, but so far the handling is great. With a 22 mm rear sway the rear feels eager to come around. I'm really looking forward to getting the snows off because I expect even better rotation with the summers on.

There is noticeably less body roll, and a LOT less dive during braking. The chassis also loads MUCH faster during acceleration. I'd say that the accel/decel benefits at least as noticeable in DD (with snow tires at least) as the turning benefits.

Overall I think the 22/23 mm rear sway, 350/250 spring rate and PIC bushings makes a really nice handling car!


Ride Height:

The only caveat I have about Progress coilovers has to do with ride height. The coils are technically height-adjustable but I see that more as a fine-tuning tool than for choosing between a 1-3" drop.

This all stems from the fact that the shock body itself is 1" shorter than stock. I think the reason for this is to put the "sweet spot" a little lower, where road racers with a 1-2" drop would want it.

What it means for average Joes is that 1" is the MINIMUM drop for the kit, and 1.5-2" is the MINIMUM RECOMMENDED drop. Unfortunately for some people, because 350# is not very stiff for the front, you can't really drop more than 1.5-2" or you will have clearance problems.

They specify that you get the best handling at 11.5-12.5" fender-hub height. What this equates to is a 2-3" drop in front and a 1.5-2.5" drop in rear. But 2" is the ABSOLUTE MOST you can drop in front without rubbing. So if you want an even drop you have to compromise the sweet spot a little, or risk rubbing.

The bottom line is that you basically have to stay around 12.5"-13" fender to hub. So although there is a small window of adjustability, it's not as large as stock. I'm happy with the ride height, but for people who don't want more than a 1" drop it's not the best choice. Of course people looking for a lower drop shouldn't consider these coilovers anyways, because the spring rates are obviously not high enough to support more than a 12" drop or so.


Final Thoughts

The Progress CSII are probably the best value for coilovers in the Honda world. Build quality is great, ride is great, and handling is great. The only caveat is that the ride height is not as adjustable as it might first appear.

Overall, though I wouldn't hesitate to recommend these to people interested in a performance-oriented coilover system!

 

Great review, I love my set. I went with 350f/350r and am very happy.

 

I enjoyed reading through this build so far. I have been trying to get back into building my car again it has been on the backburner for a long time. Reading through your thread has made me want to start working on mine again. Maybe until I get bored with mine again.

Can't wait to see more, keep it up.

 

Great reveiw and great thread

 

Got a goodie in the mail today:



I've got some leaks and now a vacuum leak so I'm going to get to work on sealing everything up. Some Honda bags are in the mail as well.

I've also been messing around with street tuning. Here is a virtual dyno plot of some runs I did. I'm having trouble with the high rpm datalog looking a bit ragged. I think that's why I'm not really getting consistent hp results. I'm replacing the rusted old engine ground on my car right now and I'm hoping that will help.



Virtual dyno works pretty well but it seems like you need a really good datalog for it to do the job. Still, it's at least getting in the ballpark of what my build should make.

I've also got to work on the AFR. I thought I had everything smoothed out and I was surprised to see I've still going rich at 7k. I think maybe I didn't save my last tuning session correctly...

 

I read all your post since the day you started. Yu focus alot on it. Thats very good and for dome very hard.. i drive a 96 integra.. i have coiloversleves on it but wanting to switch to lowering springs. I have some 15's circuit 8 rota on it. But idk how many inches drop i need so i wont have a gap.

 

Virtual Dyno read like crap for me so I quit using it. Unless they have updated it since then. None of my graphs ever looked like that.

 

Stock tires are 11 3/4" in diameter and stock height is 14.5" front (hub to fender) and 14" in back. So you'll start to tuck at around a 2 3/4" drop front and 2 1/4" drop rear. You'll probably need about 3" drop to feel like you are really tucking tire. But suspension geometry gets messed up by that drop and you need a strong spring to avoid contact issues with various parts of your suspension. My advice is that you get height adjustable sleeves and set it yourself.

Yeah it's been a bit disappointing, but fixing my grounds did help a little bit. It's still not perfect but it's better. But I'm getting lower power numbers so *ck that lol.

 

I have sleves but, i dnt really like the ride. Byt thanks for helping me. I think i know wat to do. Keep updating mods about yur car looks good.

-jdmb18b

 

Awesome work!!! Love the special touch you did to your ASR brace. I just swapped a gsr into my EG and trying to get it up and running next time I go home. I plan on running it on Neptune as well, but I will be going turbo. I have heard nothing but good things about it. Por15 is awesome and will out last your car!!!

Aslo congrats on the baby. My boy will be 2 in April. It is the best thing in the world!!!

 

The end???

 

well that sucks,, it looks like you bounced off a guard rail, What happened? if insurance covers get a freakin jdm front end. Turn the frown upside down.

Is your Dad a TV repairman with a awsome set of tools?

 

A lady ran a stoplight, so at least I wasn't at fault. The damage doesn't look terrible but there are some annoyances. The PS pump dug into a refrigerant line, and while it's not ruptured it is compromised. The inner frame is buckled and torn, meaning I might have trouble convincing a shop to do the repairs. And there appears to be an oil leak. Can this kind of damage crack a block?

Insurance valued the car at $5k - $1k salvage. So I have $4k for repairs, or I can keep the cash and part out the car. Anybody know what a partout GS-R is worth?

 

That doesn't look so bad. I'm in the process of parting out a 95 gsr as well. I only paid $640 to Insurance for it so it was not hard making my money back. But then you just end up with a pile of garbage and **** everywhere. I say buy it back and sell it as is for $2500 or so depending if the motor is still good or not.

Also sorry for not getting back to you about the Rad support. I have no time to take it off. This school quarter is stressful

 

No worries, man, I know what it's like. I'm in school myself and things have been CRAZY this semester.

I still don't know if I'm keeping the car, either. It all depends on the type of damage to the frame rail and whether I can convince a shop that it's worth bending back/welding. I'm worried about the tear because I believe there are some laws about whether they can do welding to repair frame damage, and even though the damage is only at the very end where the frame is only supporting some accessory mounts, it's definitely ripped.

 

I hope not. Make it nice again.

 

Ya, redo it.