Thanks Jon, maybe I'll see you around some day. I never seem to make it over to the roads off the 14/210 - I think I'm too spoiled by the ones in my backyard! But I should some time, just cause.
Ok, latest round of updates...
In January, did my annual oil change. Using up the last of my Castrol "sale" stock. With two "S" engines needing about 16L annually, I think I'll switch to Motul for 2024.
I also checked on my make-shift plug for the Karb's IAT port that I don't use. I had measured the ID of the port (think it was like 13mm) and then sourced a rubber stopper in the appropriate diameter. It was unnecesarily long, so I cut it down, leaving enough incase it migrated at all. But after a decent amount of driving, it hasn't budged.
Onto suspension...
The 400lb front springs (TCK 6.25"/60mm) were a great choice when I would push the car, at least in dealing with dips and keeping the front end from bottoming over certain sections, but it proved to be too stiff, when coupled with my hotchkis bar on medium, resulting in quite a bit of push or understeer. This is even after going up to 9" front wheels (though still a 245 mps4s). My first step was to move the swaybar down to the softest setting. While that did give me more grip, it still felt slow, just not as sharp as it was when it was on medium, but with 325b springs.
This was also at a ride height slightly lower than the typical 13.5", so while I was still concerned about bottoming out, if I did decide to lower the spring rate back down closer to the 325lb, I could at least raise the car a tiny bit to help combat it, and still be at an attractive height of 13.5".
So while starting the hunt to find the right spring (not always easy!), I got lucky and saw that ECS had an H&R (bilstein) set in 60n/mm (343lb) that was 7.1" tall (good for travel) and in the 60mm I needed for the MCS and my TMS plates on sale for $63 a pop so I went for it. I figured 343lb was close enough to my trusty 325lb, but with a slight increase in firmness that the MCS surely wouldn't mind at all. I have to say, the MCS were incredibly compliant even with the 400lb springs (on full soft setting!)
My MCS shaft bearings (to pickup tolerance between 14mm race dampers and camberplates made for stock 16mm) still looking good. Removing the TCK 400lb springs.
Had the hood up, so why not some glam shots of the engine/airbox?
I'll get around to affixing the M POWER decal at some point. Don't care for the unfinished look after all.
All done, rolled the car back and forth, and it seems like I've got it right at 13.5", but I probably will have to make small adjustments later, esp after I redo the rear springs.
Much better! *I also moved back to medium position on swaybar. This seems like the sweet spot so far. My main issue is still the rear being so under-sprung...
So now for the rear, I spent a lot of time thinking what rate I wanted to go with, that would also play nice with the hardware/perches I already had (or as I like to do, use the stock pad in some way). I saw that mrgizmo04 had put GC weight jacks and swift springs in his rear, so I asked if I could buy his rear Ohlins springs/perches as I wanted to try 628lb. I know the flatride spreadsheet would call for more like 700lb, but I just really don't like how harsh it is for what is still a street car. My rear end is also failry gutted, so 700lbs for me wouldn't be what it'd be like for a stock convertible, for example.
Me being me, I couldn't use the kit as supplied, heaven's no, I had to tweak something. Out of fear for repeating the experience I had when I tried 600lb springs on a GC perch with no isolation, I really wanted to make sure these ohlins were well isolated. I don't put up with much NVH- you' be surprised how quiet and luxurious the car is despite the myriad of modifications.
I didn't love that the top perch was simply plastic. Luckily, the pig tail of the spring matches pretty well to stock adn the stock rubber pad (5mm), so I decided to use it instead.
550lb eibachs - a little different in that they're a barrell spec and 6.5" so I was able to acheive 12.875-13.25" ride height depending on how many rubber sheet shims I used, while putting hte spring directly down onto stock rubber pad. The top GC cone made of poly was soft enough to isolate well - this setup was very compliant and quiet, but just not enough resistance to keep me from bottoming out on big dips at decent speed.
Versus the ohlins setup:
The Ohlins' perch has a rubber gasket to go underneat, and there's a plastic isolator for the perch seat itself. Seemed satisfactory to me.
I rotated the spring and wiggled it a little so that it caught on to as much of the "nipple" as possible. I doubt it moves under the weight of the car, but still... Great fit in the end!
I compressed the suspension a few times to look for any movement. The perch, itself (as opposed to just the spring), does lift its seat's outer edge off the control arm a little at full droop (I don't have a lot of droop), but the action was smooth and quiet, so I'm not concerned. The top didn't budge.
Back down, rolled it back and forth a little. got it pretty close to my desired 13.125-13.25" I'll have to tweak it all a bit, but good enough for test drive.
WOW! Much much firmer, but no issue for the MCS of course, and no noise or hashness! Mission accomplished. Took it to Little Sycamore canyon right before Sandstone peak there's a big dip, no bottoming out! Then a little later on Yerba Buena there's a smaller dip, but a faster section, and I was always scraping, but no more scraping now! Of course a stiffer rate would solve that issue, but I'm stoked because I accomplished it without making the car unbearable.
Car feels great, I'm really happy now after about 10 years of trying different suspensions. Parts are coming in for the next round of changes - HEL lines to replace the junk CM ones from ECS that I don't trust. Fedoro DS2500 came in as well as Motul RBF600. I'll probably install that stuff before I order the 9.5"et22 ARC wheels and whatever tires I go with. That will only help with brake fade in the canyons, I want the wider wheels with 265s for more front end grip.
Ok, latest round of updates...
In January, did my annual oil change. Using up the last of my Castrol "sale" stock. With two "S" engines needing about 16L annually, I think I'll switch to Motul for 2024.
I also checked on my make-shift plug for the Karb's IAT port that I don't use. I had measured the ID of the port (think it was like 13mm) and then sourced a rubber stopper in the appropriate diameter. It was unnecesarily long, so I cut it down, leaving enough incase it migrated at all. But after a decent amount of driving, it hasn't budged.
Onto suspension...
The 400lb front springs (TCK 6.25"/60mm) were a great choice when I would push the car, at least in dealing with dips and keeping the front end from bottoming over certain sections, but it proved to be too stiff, when coupled with my hotchkis bar on medium, resulting in quite a bit of push or understeer. This is even after going up to 9" front wheels (though still a 245 mps4s). My first step was to move the swaybar down to the softest setting. While that did give me more grip, it still felt slow, just not as sharp as it was when it was on medium, but with 325b springs.
This was also at a ride height slightly lower than the typical 13.5", so while I was still concerned about bottoming out, if I did decide to lower the spring rate back down closer to the 325lb, I could at least raise the car a tiny bit to help combat it, and still be at an attractive height of 13.5".
So while starting the hunt to find the right spring (not always easy!), I got lucky and saw that ECS had an H&R (bilstein) set in 60n/mm (343lb) that was 7.1" tall (good for travel) and in the 60mm I needed for the MCS and my TMS plates on sale for $63 a pop so I went for it. I figured 343lb was close enough to my trusty 325lb, but with a slight increase in firmness that the MCS surely wouldn't mind at all. I have to say, the MCS were incredibly compliant even with the 400lb springs (on full soft setting!)
My MCS shaft bearings (to pickup tolerance between 14mm race dampers and camberplates made for stock 16mm) still looking good. Removing the TCK 400lb springs.
Had the hood up, so why not some glam shots of the engine/airbox?
I'll get around to affixing the M POWER decal at some point. Don't care for the unfinished look after all.
All done, rolled the car back and forth, and it seems like I've got it right at 13.5", but I probably will have to make small adjustments later, esp after I redo the rear springs.
Much better! *I also moved back to medium position on swaybar. This seems like the sweet spot so far. My main issue is still the rear being so under-sprung...
So now for the rear, I spent a lot of time thinking what rate I wanted to go with, that would also play nice with the hardware/perches I already had (or as I like to do, use the stock pad in some way). I saw that mrgizmo04 had put GC weight jacks and swift springs in his rear, so I asked if I could buy his rear Ohlins springs/perches as I wanted to try 628lb. I know the flatride spreadsheet would call for more like 700lb, but I just really don't like how harsh it is for what is still a street car. My rear end is also failry gutted, so 700lbs for me wouldn't be what it'd be like for a stock convertible, for example.
Me being me, I couldn't use the kit as supplied, heaven's no, I had to tweak something. Out of fear for repeating the experience I had when I tried 600lb springs on a GC perch with no isolation, I really wanted to make sure these ohlins were well isolated. I don't put up with much NVH- you' be surprised how quiet and luxurious the car is despite the myriad of modifications.
I didn't love that the top perch was simply plastic. Luckily, the pig tail of the spring matches pretty well to stock adn the stock rubber pad (5mm), so I decided to use it instead.
550lb eibachs - a little different in that they're a barrell spec and 6.5" so I was able to acheive 12.875-13.25" ride height depending on how many rubber sheet shims I used, while putting hte spring directly down onto stock rubber pad. The top GC cone made of poly was soft enough to isolate well - this setup was very compliant and quiet, but just not enough resistance to keep me from bottoming out on big dips at decent speed.
Versus the ohlins setup:
The Ohlins' perch has a rubber gasket to go underneat, and there's a plastic isolator for the perch seat itself. Seemed satisfactory to me.
I rotated the spring and wiggled it a little so that it caught on to as much of the "nipple" as possible. I doubt it moves under the weight of the car, but still... Great fit in the end!
I compressed the suspension a few times to look for any movement. The perch, itself (as opposed to just the spring), does lift its seat's outer edge off the control arm a little at full droop (I don't have a lot of droop), but the action was smooth and quiet, so I'm not concerned. The top didn't budge.
Back down, rolled it back and forth a little. got it pretty close to my desired 13.125-13.25" I'll have to tweak it all a bit, but good enough for test drive.
WOW! Much much firmer, but no issue for the MCS of course, and no noise or hashness! Mission accomplished. Took it to Little Sycamore canyon right before Sandstone peak there's a big dip, no bottoming out! Then a little later on Yerba Buena there's a smaller dip, but a faster section, and I was always scraping, but no more scraping now! Of course a stiffer rate would solve that issue, but I'm stoked because I accomplished it without making the car unbearable.
Car feels great, I'm really happy now after about 10 years of trying different suspensions. Parts are coming in for the next round of changes - HEL lines to replace the junk CM ones from ECS that I don't trust. Fedoro DS2500 came in as well as Motul RBF600. I'll probably install that stuff before I order the 9.5"et22 ARC wheels and whatever tires I go with. That will only help with brake fade in the canyons, I want the wider wheels with 265s for more front end grip.
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