rep for you for admitting you were a dumbshit.

I'll admit, I was a bit harsh, I hadn't had my monster, or my Tijuana flats yet....

 

I know how it is, those are two things that I live off of. No harm done though.

 

I've been through this 100 times before. I have been selling suspensions for about 10 years (with diffrent companies and then for myself) One thing is I always see people climb the suspension ladder. usually Blues or GR-2 and crappy springs or coil over sleeves. and are unhappy, so buy better springs and Tokico Illumina, AGX or Koni/bilstein. then FINALLY break down and buy coilovers. when they would be best served buy just buying coilovers in the begining and rebuilding/revalving them if they wanted to change the behaviour of the car.

stock length dampers will never work well on a severly lowered car. since the bump stops are never plesent and not easy to control esp. at speed. and many will bash themselves to death when ran too low. a shortened body strut is the minimum for serious lowering which most cheap coilovers today are length adjustable, and allow the user to "grow" the suspension with the owner. (stiffer springs, more damping, double/single adjustment) now I can explain over lowering of strut based cars and roll center adjustment but I'll leave that for chassis and suspension forum.

Keep in mind "cosmetic" lowering and "performance" can differ significantly as I only deal with the later. even if it doesn't "slam" the car the best performance is always the goal.

If you want to take advice, even a cheap used set of coilovers is the way to go. I have rebuilt 2 S13 sets this week alone. and during a rebuild almost anything is possable, changing to adjustable, double. diffrent spring rates, etc can all make a HUGE diffrence.

 

This thread is a bit old. But what brand S13 coils did you re-build? Im guessing set up is similar on most basic coil-over units but the internal sizing and such are probably different.

Eventually I would like to get 2 way adjustable coil-overs so I can do rebound and compression independently but that will have to wait awhile

 

Tokico blues are for sport springs. Any spring lower than 1-1.5 drop with tokico blues rides like ass and blow out quick. Even the KYB agx is rated for a spring no lower than 2in drop. If you want to go "low low" either go Koni and RS*R's with coils cut or save up and do coilovers.

 

Agx's have a nice ride..

I didnt realize that till i went back to stock struts. lol

 

Tein Flex, and an older Cusco kit. Actually, it's funny for all the diffrent coil over brands there really are only a few "fundamental" differences. mostly valving and spring rate are diffrent between brand. of course there are some bespoke models.

Some use inserts, and some are non-rebuild able at that. In those cases I replace the inserts with rebuildable ones I spec out. I tend to prefer a much stiffer damping for a given spring rate then most factory kits.. but most when rebuilt can be "fixed" most dampers marketed as "rebuildable" are what is considered "driver serviceable" and they tend to be the higher end units since making all the parts and tuning info available to every customer is a monumental task. but oil seals wipers and valve stacks are pretty universal or at least easy enough to reverse engineer. but I'll be honest, most rebuilds are rebuilt to kit specs since it's for service work.. I prefer to use a slightly more expensive synthetic Multi-viscosity shock oil based on the application, it tends to be more stable in our intense heat. and you can actually use a stiffer damping with a lower "cold" weight. so when pushed hard the dampers don't "go away".

For shock applications, some times I find it's best to replace the whole threaded body and transfer spring seats etc with something like an afco since it's not much more and I can spec out digressive/progressive/ or linear valving based on what the customer wants the car to do.

so after taking the long way around, the answer is most anything.

 

Makes sence, the only reason I chose my coil-overs was for the warranty and parts service. I'll probably keep them around even when I get a better set up so I can take them apart and see what if I can modify them to my likeing.

I always thought valving was the bigest difference between the cheaper coil-overs and the more expensive ones; And it still is to an extent but I've seen the lines start to blur a bit there. But most coil-overs for the S chassis are for "drifters" so valving means little as long as its stiff (stupid but profitable).

 

sort-of. but you'd be surprised.. most of the S-chassis kits you consider "drift spec" are actually not that bad, if it's set up correctly, these kits can be made to be quite stable. now that being said, do most people set them up for maximum Lap times? Hardly anyone does, and I'll be honest to set one up for slight understeer under power so it tucks in when you lift the throttle might not be the most fun setup but it can be made to lap fast.

i have a brand new S-14 K-sport kit sitting in my office, I should Dyno one front and one rear just to have the data. too bad it's sold already.