hey guys, im fairly new to suspension and am in the market for a new set of coilovers since my ksports are blown. i've done a fair amount of reading and i know ground control coilovers are probably the best option, but lately ktuned coilovers have come out and there's not too much info or reviews about them from what i've seen. i would love your input on what the better choice would be? i own a 3rd gen integra that i take on spirited drives throughout the warm season and i also plan on taking the car to the track as well.

 

Ktuned are made in the same garbage factory that makes D2, Ksport, Yonaka, and every other anodized "32 clicks!" Taiwan coilover there is. I'd personally stay away.

Have you looked at Progress? That's right in your price range.

 

Koni/GC, out of those two. Don't lower it more than 1.25ish inches.

 

thanks for the reply. if i were to get the top hats would i be able to lower it more than 1.25 inches? i'm not trying to stance or anything, just get it low enough to still look good and not rub when cornering. what spring rates would you recommend?

 

You will need extended top hats if you want any sort of ride quality if you lower it further. I usually recommend our extended top hats for guys running the Koni/GC setup so that they can lower the car further without loosing anymore travel as the car is lowered. They ride, and perform best in my opinion with a mild drop like stated above by B Serious.

 

As Andy mentioned, tophats will help with ride quality. Unfortunately, it won't help the situation where the UCA will smash into the shock tower. So you'll have to be careful with selecting bumpstops...and careful around bumps.

For anything more than a 1.25" drop, I would recommend 500LB springs at the least, up front. Maybe 300ish in the back for some semblance of comfort.

Or...PM AMR (Andy) about possibly using one of their coilover models. He should be able to help with setup as well.

I have a good guess as to who makes K tuned coilovers. But...nothing concrete. I haven't really had any experience or known anyone with experience on K tuned coils.

 

I always find it difficult to envison what a certain drop stated in inches comes down to (lol) in actual height to the poster stating it. In my experience (EDM hatches) our stock Honda's come -after all this time- with different stock heigths ánd they are rather high: my two EK hatches easily came with 'three fingers' or 2.2" fendergaps.

I'm sporting GC coils, hats, bumpstops and OTS Yellows with standard rates 325 up front and 'one finger' or .8" fendergap with a 195/50/15 and new tires (.2" higher grooves compared to old). I think I have one inch free travel to the bumpstop. Definitely not hitting shock towers. I imagine worst scenario I'm touching the bumstops in fast or tight turns.

Stock

Lowered to 'one finger' (the EK Vic)

 

You lowered the car what looks to be 1.5 to 2". If you left the stock bumpstop in the stock location, you'd be riding on it.

You switched to an extended hat with, I assume a shortened bumpstop? It had to be shortened to put you at 1" of free travel, unless the hat extends further than I remember.

Your UCA hasn't hit the tower likely because you just haven't hit a bump large enough...yet.

Its been a while since I worked on an EK. On my DC2 ITR, there did not appear to be anywhere near the amount of room you're describing.

 

It's a one-inch GC extended top hat and GC bumpstop (think it's 5cms long).

 

I have Ground Control coils with 500lb/in in front and 400lb/in rates in the rear with Koni Yellow shocks. I'm lowered fairly significantly with no top hats. I've driven the car lowered this amount for the last 4 years, although I would estimate only around 10k miles as it's not my daily driver. I cut the bumpstops approximately in half, and have not (to my knowledge) had any contact between the upper control arms and the shock towers. I assume that's something that would make a fairly obvious noise. Also of note, my wheels are 16x8 +25 with 195/40/16 tires.

 

With stock tophats, stock length shocks, and stock UCA's, the shock body will contact tophat before the UCA contacts the shock tower. This was as designed by Honda for obvious reasons.

Some people with camber kits will say that even with stock length shocks, their upper ball joint contacts the shock tower. Yes? A camber kit ball joint is, what? 1/2" taller than stock? Granted, the LCA position is moved...and I'm not including the skunk2 (or similar) low profile ball joints in that comparison.

Also....at that height, you are absolutely riding a crushed set of bumpstops. No doubt about that.

If OP is after ride quality at all...he's gonna need to set it up pretty high. Especially if he'd like to keep the stock designed functionality. If those factors are flexible...then slam away.

 

So I got round to taking a look at the amount of free damper travel. It looks to me to be 0.8 to 1 inch. Bumpstops are GCs 2 or 2,2 inch length. Viewers may remark the bumpstops seem ridden on, this would have been true in my previous setup with same ride height, stock top hats and lowering springs.

 

Thanks again for the name drop! Peace bro!