morrow

so i have gotten together with a shock company here in chatsworth ca. we have designed and built a set of struts for my 92 rs. but i have a problem.... i dont know what weight spring to use... any suggestions?

Recaro trans am

iTrader: (1)

In the front of my car I run 300lbs/in the rear is a variable 130-200 lbs/in . Both front and rear are coil over and use a QA1 spring. hope this helps.

morrow

thanks, do you do any canyon carving, auto x or tarck days? how does it ride

novaderrik

the spring rate on a coilover is going to need to be about half of what it would be with the stock spring due to the spring being right over the balljoint instead of in the middle of the arm about halfway between the balljoint and control arm bolts..

morrow

right, maybe i should pull my spring out and measure its poundage? and then cut the weight in half?

morrow

sphon sells there coil over set with either 300 325 or 350 springs.. i do a little more then standard street driving.... lol what do you think i should test fiorst... 325?

Recaro trans am

iTrader: (1)

The coil overs in my car are from Spohn. Like I said I have the 300 in my front. Most of my front end is tubular, and fiberglass so I shaved a lot of weight of the front end. The #300 spring is stiff enough with the adjustable shock to keep my car level even during hard turns, and keeps the front end from dipping far during braking. Still while driving the car rides great. Ride is awesome down the hwy. Its a night an day difference from eiboch drop springs.

The only problems I have right now is I have 12" coil overs and I need to replace them to get my car the 2" lower I want to maintain coil preload. I'm going to go down to a 10" setup. I will be selling my rear coilovers I think.

morrow

cool thanks so ill go with a 10 inch 300... we are starting to design the rears soon, external resi, fronts are internal resi

morrow

anyone else? lol

morrow

just orderd the material for the lower mount..

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

More info on everything? What made you design and make your own vs whats out there already? Did I read that right? External res. shocks?

morrow

yup you read it ring... fronts are internal, rears are external due to the fact that the shock body in the rear is much shorter.

well, there are many reasons i wanted to make my own, for one... just to say i made them myself, and there is only one set... ever...

an the ones out on the market right now arent built the same way as these ones... ever piece is replacable and they are rebuildable...
i dont want what everyone else has... i want what everyone hasent done yet...
the set i have built are more like penske struts.

a good friend of mine works for a company here in southern ca... i cant say the name , but i was able to go into a room with every part i could possibley need... and a lathe just incase i needed somthing they didnt have... it took about 8 months to configure the body and machine everything. but the bigest thing that still needs to be made actually is the upper and lower strut mounts.. everything else is done...


also the struts out for our cars are usually for stock hight... mine arent.. mine are custom made for the ride hight of my car specificaly... the strut body is 2.5 inches shorter , my car is 2.5 inches lower... the bore of the stock piston in a strut is 1 inch.. mine is 2.. the fluid in mine with stands greater temperatures and you can adjust the pressure for preload in the body as well... fully adjustable rebound and compresion.. yes it has taken a long time to complete... but again.. im building this car to be comfortable inside with full interior. sterio and air conditioning... and still be able to tear up canyons like a rapped ape and hold its own againsted just about everything on the road... hpefully soon after these are done ill be doing a 6pot brembo swap with 14 inch rotors... fingers crossed i find a good deal

plus ontop of everything... the strust just look plain awesome lol

morrow

ill post a photo when they are done

morrow

i forgot to mention... i plan to run this car in the silver state classic open road challenge. when finished the car should be able to do about 180....

i want these struts to be as consistant as possible....

Gumby

If ya went that far, you should just have a selection of springs to use as needed like a carb tuner with jets.......... just saying

morrow

i probably will.. but we are going to start with a 300 and go from there, maybe a 325..

caffeine

iTrader: (2)

IMHO start with the 325. I have 350 with Tokiko struts and with 16" wheels the car rides very smooth even on bumpy roads, yet is very firm when cornering. With 17" wheels the car gets bumpier but if I turn the dampening down it will get softer.

If you have adjustable dampening with the struts, you can go with a softer spring and make it ride firmer or smoother depending on the setting on the strut.

That being said, I think I am going to order a set of 400 lb springs soon. The other guy who mentioned he has a Spohn set is right; the Spohn set with 12" springs does not allow you to lower the car much even though the strut mounts sit higher than stock. Depending on where you have the top of the coil mounting (i.e. below the strut tower or within the strut mount), you may want to run an even shorter spring than 10". Height of the spring can also affect ride quality though. I'm currently running 9" 350 lb springs with the coil mounting at the strut tower (not inside the strut mount like the Spohn kit). I'm not satisfied with how low the car is yet.

morrow

well the way the strut we designed is set up, the coil can bottom out all the way to about 1 inch above the spindle to strut mount.. and the retainer on top it self contained with its own keeper like you would see on an off road shock... only its upsidedown in this case.. the front end of my car is fairly light.. it has the v6 in it still because i like the way it handles. i will be doing an ls1 or ls3 but then doing a fiberglass hood and it should way very close to the same.. there is an actual formula to figure out what spring to use but i cant remember it off the top of my head. we set a hand full of diferent length springs into the shock and 10 inch seams to be the best. i just dont want it to be super stiff, but not on the soft side either.. so, take the fact that the shocks are fully adjustable out of the equation , say i was using a stock strut... what coil should i use then... the strut is for fine tuning.. so i need to get a spring with a good base line to start from.

morrow

fyi, im using 18 inch wheels if that matters

tire in the front is a 275 35 18

morrow

the DOM for the lower strut to spindle mount came today

Recaro trans am

iTrader: (1)

I just put in a 10" #150 spring in my rear. I have not changed the strut yet but It gave me the ride height I was after. The only issue I know have is to find the proper spring rate. My rear section of car is for the most part around stock weight. No spare tire, but a battery in its place, glass hatch with a fiberglass aero wing. With all that the #150 spring was not enough to hold the weight properly.

morrow

really? hmm is it a coil over ?

Recaro trans am

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, its a QA1 coil over. I think I may try the #200 spring.

morrow

i really need to go to my uncles and put it on the chassis scales. that might help me alot lol

Recaro trans am

iTrader: (1)

Yeah that's the one thing I wish I had, Would make this trial and error much easier. Let me know what spring rate you go with. I'm really leaning to the #200 right now for the rear.

My front I think I'm going to keep the 12" #300 but what I'm doing is raising the upper strut mount with a 1-1"2 aluminum plate that I milled out to shape. That way I still have full strut travel.

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

adding 1 to 1 1/2 up top? I have a 1/2 I think it is under my billet mouts.


http://www.cecoatings.com/images/Car...-51-19_497.jpg

morrow

that could work well.. as long as the springs clear and still llet space for the alignment. maybe ill get on the scales tomorrow.. he works were i use to work doing vintage race cars.. so i need to make sure there is space for me to roll it in to set the scales up

Recaro trans am

iTrader: (1)

Interesting, What is your compressed ride height? What length shock and spring are you using? Im trying to get my car pretty low without the spring dancing around over bumps as such.

morrow

you could either do a light spring from eibach to take up space or use a limiting sprap i gues so it doesnt go past a sertain point

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

I dont remember didnt keep em that long. They were the AJE 2 inch drop setup.
I did keep my billet mounts and spacers for my vert.

morrow

im suposed to be putting the car on the chassis scales this weekend!! woo hoo lol

morrow

rear coilovers are done, now i just need to weigh the car and order springs still lol, i have been super buisy at work. i also need the steel plates like the ones spohn sells with there rear kit that loops around the stock coil bucket, any ideas?

Recaro trans am

iTrader: (1)

There only 1/4" steel plates. Just make them. Just need a center hole cut for the old spring and the shape of the space around that mount. If you have the tools it should not be hard to make.

morrow

yea, its not hard, just takes time , i dont realy have much time, work isa very buisy. if i can call qa1 or spohn maybe they will sell me a set

jharrison5

I'm interested to hear how they work out for you.

morrow

sorry i havent posted pictures of them, i just dont want to show them until they are finished, the fronts still have a lot of work i need to do, i.e. both the upper and lower mounts, but the rears are almost done, the reservoirs got painted satin black to match the interior and my pin stripper will hopefully get the logos on them this week, maybe next week, i need to do the back seat deliete panels also. because they wont fit with the back seat in, lol....

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

bump for any progress info..

morrow

So far i have the rears done, i still need to do trhe back seat delete to install them due to the resi tubes coming through the back.. ive been really busy with sema coming up so its been slow on this project. hopfully nextweekend after we get back from sema i can get some work done on the front struts to finish them up so i can order the front springs, then install them.i just rebuilt my spare iroc steering box so that should be nice as well, when all the front end pieces come together.... speeking of steering feel, has anyone used the nitto envo tires? how do you like them?

morrow

took out the back seat today, waiting on my boring bar to show up for the lathe to thread the inside of the lower mount bodies

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

BUMP... any progress?

morrow

the front strut coilovers are done... yay111 now i need to make my front lower arms that are two inches wider then stock, and switch our the rear axle for a 4th gen 10 bolt

morrow

Ended up with 275 springs.. Works very well

Want_a_v8

Sorry to resurrect a dead thread, but I've been scouring the forums, and your posts in particular in search of the best suspension to run on a drift/track built 3rd gen. To achieve more angle, the typical thing to do is to extend the LCA's, and cut the knuckles. However, the factory LCA is more difficult to extend due to the spring bucket. The best way to solve this is through a full coilover conversion, but most of the aftermarket ones aren't ideal for my application.

What I'm asking is if you can possibly get me a quote for 5 inch extended tubular LCA's much like your own, with a similar, albeit less over the top (I don't need huge external reservoirs lol) coilover setup. I'll most likely have a company like UPfab make the knuckles, and I'll try running them in conjuncture with a cts-v brembo setup up front.

I also want to run the denko widebody, but riveted on because drift car... if I smash it on accident, I can pull it off and put a new one on lol. I understand they aren't as wide as they used to be so I'll have to have some negative camber up front but that works well for drifting so it all works out.

Your car is absolutely bada** and I want to build a very similar setup on mine, although it'll be on a bird rather than a camaro.

Thanks Morrow!!

morrow

to build what your looking for at its optimum fitment and clearances, i neeed a few things


what wheels are you planing on running? what tires and sizes are you planing on? are you rack and pinion or recirculating ball like oem?

are you planing on coilovers or keeping the stock spring locations? what brakes are you planning on? toget optimal performance values you need all these this in order tominimize tolerances feel free to dm me