Hey, my Sh has F450/R400 springs at the moment. I'm thinking about switching them however. First off, I want more rotation in corners and second, I figure my shocks will last a little longer having the softer springs in front.

Just wanted to check if anyone has ever done this. Was there any differences between the left and right springs after they were mounted for a while? Im asking because after mounting my drivers side was sitting almost an inch lower than the passanger's. Is it possible for one side so compress more bc of uneven weight distribution in the engine bay? I never got a corner balance btw.

Anyway, let me know how you like having stiffer springs in the back, My suspension mods so far are rear ST bar and F+R strut braces.

Pete

 

i ordered mine 400F and 350R but switched them out. i like how it handles for the most part.

hit me up when you find a place to do this and ill think about helping. then maybe we can go corner balance it... maybe

 

ill give you a frappucino if you let me use the garage

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by piotrush &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ill give you a frappucino if you let me use the garage </TD></TR></TABLE>

haha, not like i have much choice in the matter now is there

 

i'm running 450F 550R, no problems. it's the proper setup for a competitive FWD car to have stiffer springs in the rear, imo. compensating with a big rear swaybar has its downsides.

the driver's side does sit a few inches lower, and it's because of the weight dist.

 

wouldn't a thicker rear sway bar be of an advantage?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by khalal538 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">wouldn't a thicker rear sway bar be of an advantage?</TD></TR></TABLE>

it is, to a point. you can overdo it on the rear sway bar though.

there are a couple of schools of thought on this: some people like to set up the springs softer and use swaybars to compensate for the extra body roll/tune dynamics. others like to use stiffer spring rates and smaller bars to achieve the same thing. while both have their advantages, big bars tend to create a snap oversteer condition, whereas stiffer springs tend to be a little more progressive.

there's no one right answer of course, but in general i'd rather have stiff springs and smaller bars for most race tracks.

 

If your inside rear tire starts coming off the ground your rear sway bar is already too stiff, and going stiffer will not help at all. At this point if you want more rear roll stiffness you better start using bigger springs, not a bigger sway-bar.

FWIW, my prelude has 2 times more roll stiffness in the rear than in the front Front wheel drive, front engine cars are a pain to set up even the least bit loose.

 

i think and advantage of sway bars over stiffer springs is that you can increase roll resistance, w/o increasing the stiffness of the spring rates so you dont have an overly stiff suspension.

not really sure if thats a good or bad thing, i have on a littlle of both, some mild aftermarket sway bars and some slightly stiffer springs, works for me.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Shakes &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">then maybe we can go corner balance it... maybe </TD></TR></TABLE>
you can corner balance GC/koni's?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by @ries &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
you can corner balance GC/koni's?</TD></TR></TABLE>
Shakes Can

 

i gotta be a noob and ask whats corner balanceing? i never heard of it

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by @ries &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
you can corner balance GC/koni's?</TD></TR></TABLE>

why not? what is the difference between them and a "true" coilover besides not originally being of one piece? they have just as much adjustability as any coilover except maybe some preload. but you would lay frame before you could need it to go any lower.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by raylude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i gotta be a noob and ask whats corner balanceing? i never heard of it</TD></TR></TABLE>

moving weight around the car and adjusting the individual corner height of the vehicle in hopes to get a perfect 25% weight distribution on each wheel.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Shakes &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

why not? what is the difference between them and a "true" coilover besides not originally being of one piece? they have just as much adjustability as any coilover except maybe some preload. but you would lay frame before you could need it to go any lower.


</TD></TR></TABLE>
correct me if i'm wrong but doesn't the actual shock body have to be fully adjustable?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by @ries &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
correct me if i'm wrong but doesn't the actual shock body have to be fully adjustable?</TD></TR></TABLE>

on his shock body there are three height adjustable rings. on the SP3 (mine) there are 5.

at the lowest setting on the shock body, and the GC all the way down you would nearly lay frame. more then enough adjustment space. his GC's are about 3/4 the way up the threading already and it looks like a 4x4.

 

i'm in no way a suspension no it all but i think you're gonna need more than those 3-5 fixed adjustment heights. i'd like to see you try to corner balance your car just to find out or if anyone else here with the same set-up is corner balanced please chime in.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by @ries &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i'm in no way a suspension no it all but i think you're gonna need more than those 3-5 fixed adjustment heights. i'd like to see you try to corner balance your car just to find out or if anyone else here with the same set-up is corner balanced please chime in.</TD></TR></TABLE>

i would love to, however i dont have the patients to do it myself and im not paying the $$ to have it done. with a GC/Koni setup it would require much more patients and time due to having to disassemble it each time you make a major adjustment. whereas on your HA's its just twist and check.

financially you could pay the difference of GC/koni vs. Tein's with what it would cost to do it. however i do feel it would be possible.

if anyone in the RR / auto X area has proof of either way please do put your .02 in.

 

Heres a link on cornerweights I had bookmarked that I never finished reading

http://www.autocrossracer.com/corner_weights.htm

As for corner weighting GC/Konis Im pretty sure they had a write up on it in one of the issues of Grassroots Motorsports mag. I'd check but they're all in CT.

 

slammed_93_hatch (5:40 PM 7/19/2005): yep you can.
you will need scales that do individual weights, (with the percentage), and cross weight precentage. AND A SUPER LEVEL area, some really expensive scales come with there own leveling devises.

after you do that, to get more weight to the corner you lower the spring perch, and to get less weight on that corner you raise it.

Have fun as most of the time when you set the height of the car for "street" use you end up with some really funky numbers.

 

so basically we are coming up with this answer.

yes you can, but if you have to pay for it, its not worth it.

GC/Koni setup = $750 - $850 (stock valving, revalving is $130 per shock)

Tein Flex = $1430

Corner Balancing = apx $200 per hour.

 

Hey dougie...you know loi has scals for corner balancing at the shop and Jon is a whiz at doing it from what I hear

 

I've had my GC/Koni setup cornerweighted and its no more difficult than any other coilover setup. Actually it may be easier because there's no preload. All adjustments, including moving the c-clip on the Konis, can be done without disassembly. Just do the following BEFORE you go to the shop. Set your ride height to where you want it and make sure its fairly even on all 4 corners. Then see where the GC collar (perch) is set...if its midway on the threaded sleeve, you're good. If not, move the Koni c-clip accordingly.

 

as long as you have a threaded spring perch you can corner balance.

 

Update - we (shakes and I) did the swap today and first impressions are good. The car feels more balanced and also seems to ride a bit smoother. I had all 4 konis turned to just above full soft.

The softer springs in the front made it sit lower than before, the opposite happened in the rear. This caused some more rubbing issues going over bumps and dips (mostly due to the mudflaps). Also, after we put about fourty miles on it we moticed a faint and continuos 'humm' coming from somewhere in the front. This got progressively worse after a few miles to the point where we could hear knocking when we let the car engine brake at low rpm. The knocking was coming from the front drivers side and coincided with the car bucking. Upon closer inspection we noticed that the jam tuts on top of the shock were loose, we thightened them and that seemd to have solved the problem. If anyone knows the torque specs for the jam nuts on konis please let me know, I torqued all the other bolts to spec.

Ill chime in later after I even out the ride height and retorque everything, and monitor any more noises coming from the suspension, but first impressions are definatey positive

Pete