When I lowered my car on Konis and GC springs for autox/HPDE a few months back, we guestimated a 2.5"/2.0" drop, and then I had it corner balanced. Tires are flush, front and back, with the wheel wells. It seems to drive fine (as best as my limited experience can tell anyway), but I'm wondering a few things. This is on a 00 gsr, with a Comptech rear swaybar, stock front bar, about 2800 lbs w/ driver.

My LCAs are parallel to the ground, front and back. Am I killing my camber curve this low? I'm only running 400/400 spring rates, so there is still a decent amount of suspension movement.

I have the GC upper mounts in the front, and I don't think I hit the bump stops there, but I didn't modify the rear bump stops or top mounts. I think the car is all but sitting on them at ride height. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a way to actually see where the shock and bumpstop are in relation to each other at ride height. The limitations of working with only the stock scissor jack. That aside, assuming that I'm simply very close to them, is there any real harm in hitting the bump stops regularly? The car doesn't suffer from snap oversteer on bumps or anything, so I'm guessing that if there is contact, it happens so soon in the suspension movement that they're just functioning to stiffen the spring rate. Can I cut them on the car? Should I?

Since I'm going to be modifying the front suspension again shortly, what kind of ride height should I be using? I know this is a personal preference question, but any recommendations would be appreciated. I know the 89-91 civics run absolutely dumped for autox, but I also attend HPDEs with the car. I currently have 2.2* front camber with an Ingalls UCA bolt kit, and the outside shoulder of the front tires gets substancially hotter than the insides, even when running the big track @ Willow Springs.

And before anyone suggests higher spring rates, unfortunately, this is also my daily driver. I'm willing to go a little stiffer, but I think I'm very close to what the Konis can control as is. They're set to nearly full stiff, and I still get a little bounce on the bigger bumps.

 

a freind of mine showd me a neat trick.

put some zip ties around the shaft, (they need to be able to move but you don't want them falling). lower the car back down, drive it around, then jack it back up and see were the zip tie ends up at.

that will tell you if you have enough travel.

hitting the bumb stops isn't bad, but its not good either. Its going to bumb your spring rate up rather quickly and could cause some handeling issues. I'd cut it down just to me safe.

as far as your ride height, i think its fine. If you want to get more shaft travel at a lower ride height do the front fork trick. (im sure some one will chime in with the link). Its a very effective way to go lower without sacraficing shaft travel.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slammed_93_hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">a freind of mine showd me a neat trick.

put some zip ties around the shaft, (they need to be able to move but you don't want them falling). lower the car back down, drive it around, then jack it back up and see were the zip tie ends up at.

that will tell you if you have enough travel.

hitting the bumb stops isn't bad, but its not good either. Its going to bumb your spring rate up rather quickly and could cause some handeling issues. I'd cut it down just to me safe.

as far as your ride height, i think its fine. If you want to get more shaft travel at a lower ride height do the front fork trick. (im sure some one will chime in with the link). Its a very effective way to go lower without sacraficing shaft travel.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I will try zip ties to see how much travel I actually have.

I'm not worries about shock travel in the front, the GC upper mounts give me enough, I hope. I'll check it as well though.

Is it safe to cut the bumpstop while its on the shock? How much can I safely remove from the stock bumpstop?

 

with the gc upper strut mount you'll want total bumpstop length of 1-1.5" depending on how hard of bump stop you use. go too short/too soft and the uca with hit the tower. the rear, just some amount of bumpstop is required.

do not cut the bumpstop while it's on the shock and mounted to the car. it's doable but a royal pita. if you nick or score the shock shaft you'll cause the seals to fail prematurely.

i'm afraid you'll discover that even with your gc front strut mounts you're car is all over the bumpstops. the dc/eg chassis cars have precious little travel to work with stock. on my STS car i'm approaching 1000lb/in front spring rates just to minimize how often the outside front gets into the bumpstop. the rear is very close the stop as well but only matters during the drive to events. the rear springs are stiff enough that combined with the large amounts of bump force the shock generates i don't typically get into the rear bumpstops on course. at least not enough that it's noticeable from the front seat. my suggestion is to raise the car about an inch. then do whatever it takes to get over 3 degrees front negative camber.

nate

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by solo-x &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> I currently have 2.2* front camber with an Ingalls UCA bolt kit, and the outside shoulder of the front tires gets substancially hotter than the insides, even when running the big track @ Willow Springs</TD></TR></TABLE>

Substancially hotter? How are you measuring this? Are the temps on both the front tyres similar +- 10-15 degrees? What about the rears in relation to each other? If you are taking measurements did you take temps from the inside, middle and outside if so what are they for each of the fronts and rears?

 

My car is higher than yours, with 850 lb front springs, koni SPSS3 shocks and GC upper mounts, and I still get on the bumpstops in front. You need more spring, and more ride height.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .RJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My car is higher than yours, with 850 lb front springs, koni SPSS3 shocks and GC upper mounts, and I still get on the bumpstops in front. You need more spring, and more ride height.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The answer I didn't want to hear, but was afraid I would. Oh well, reality is frequently not what I want to hear it seems.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Littleton &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Substancially hotter? How are you measuring this? Are the temps on both the front tyres similar +- 10-15 degrees? What about the rears in relation to each other? If you are taking measurements did you take temps from the inside, middle and outside if so what are they for each of the fronts and rears? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Temps are guestimation by hand. I was at Willow in November, the insides were cool to the touch, the outsides uncomfortably hot. I need to find a pyrometer to borrow, but that can be delayed until I get everything else sorted out. I'm still just using Azenis for the track, so its not that expensive for me to chew them up a little extra.

Since I'm going back to Willow next week, I'll try lifting the car some, pushing the front shocks down into the forks a little, and then get it realigned to 0 toe before I go. After that, I suppose new adjustable UCAs are in order to get some camber (SPC maybe?), and probably stiffer springs. If I'm currently using 400+bumpstops now, 500s can't seem that bad in comparison, right?

 

im not sure what track events you go to but if you go to the NASA events, hang out with the HC guys. There are alot of knowledgable people in the SoCal group, and if your willing to listen and pay attention most of them will help you out.

 

Is it just the EG/DC chassis that has so little travel, or does this also apply to the Ek chassis as well???

 

EK as well.

the EK also has a "worse" if you will motion ratio. So you would need to run higher rates all around then compared to a EG/DC. (at least on the rear i know this is how it is, some one will have to confirm the front also being "worse").

So in a sense the problem is more aplified on the EK, becuase you need to run a higher spring rate to get a higher wheel rate.