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View Full Version : Dumpin My Rice



RedneckRicer
07-21-2002, 09:42 PM
Well i gotta honda from hell, with an auto tranny that aamco forgot to put alignment pins in 5 times:mad:. so now i'm shoving in a 5speed, and i'm gonna go ahead and drop it while its torn apart. its been dropped a little before, and still rides well, so i don't know if its been dropped with springs, or if they just cut enough to make it still ride okay or what. but i've been lookin' and www.nopi.com has some springs for.... i thinks its $97 and some change for 2" and from what i've seen its a good price. but i was wondering how far can i go and how much will it cost? cuz i don't wanna be looking at the car sitting back in the weeds for another 4 months cuz i bought bad stuff and don't have the money to get it right.

Jims 86LXI HB
07-22-2002, 12:58 AM
Originally posted by RedneckRicer
I've been lookin' and www.nopi.com has some springs for.... i thinks its $97 and some change for 2" and from what i've seen its a good price. but i was wondering how far can i go and how much will it cost? cuz i don't wanna be looking at the car sitting back in the weeds for another 4 months cuz i bought bad stuff and don't have the money to get it right.

What do you mean by "how far can I go"? Are you asking how low can I drop it? The springs are fine, but how much it's going to cost you is going to depend on what struts you get to go with it. You can get Tokico struts for $235, but you will have some boucne in the front. Which may or may not bother you, but if it does bother you, you just waisted your money. A better choice would be to install a pair of Koni special(s) sturts in the front a $216 for the pair and then spend $120 for a pair of Tokico's in the rear. And don't kid yourself that you can get away with running stock struts with lowering springs, even if the stock struts are like new condition, your car will ride like crap and bounce all over the place.

RedneckRicer
07-22-2002, 09:17 AM
:stupid: guess ya learn somethin new every day, i didn't know i'd have to get struts as well as springs. but my car is lowered as it is, from when i bought it. it was a dealer car and they had no idea wtf had been done at all. so i don't even have an exact # on my lowering, but i'm guessing around an inch. and if they've dropped it and it still rides great, wouldn't they have had to upgrade the struts? or should i just leave well enough alone?

RedneckRicer
07-28-2002, 07:20 PM
wiping dirt away, and to my surprise, i find KYB stickers all 4 corners. so can i just buy my springs and be happy now? or do i need new ones? cuz these look really new aside from the road grime on them

POS carb
07-28-2002, 08:50 PM
check out the springs, they may be aftermarket, it so get a coilover conversion kit for those springs

RedneckRicer
07-29-2002, 12:41 AM
check out the springs, they may be aftermarket

the car's already been lowered about an inch i'd say, i just wanted to know if these could handle 2" drop or maybe 2.25"

Jims 86LXI HB
07-29-2002, 01:09 AM
Originally posted by RedneckRicer


the car's already been lowered about an inch i'd say, i just wanted to know if these could handle 2" drop or maybe 2.25"

First thing I want to know is. How does the car ride and drive as it is now? Does it ever bounce for any reason? Does the car feel sporty?

If you use them with a 2" or 2.25" lowering spring they will bounce and the handling will suffer. And the overall feel of the car will be loose and unsettled. The KYB's you have are oem replacements, not high performance struts. Even tokico H.P.s, which are sold as a High Performance strut, are really only high performance for stock springs, plenty of members know the tokicos are to soft in the front with lowering springs. Unfortunately konis are the only strut right now that has what it takes to ride and drive properly. You might be able to get away with keeping you KYB's in the rear and replace the fronts with koni's. Cost would be $216

Now here's the deal, if you don't care about any of the above and you don't mind trying to cheat the odds that you will be shortening the life of your KYB's, go ahead and use them. But I'll tell ya right now, if you climb out of your car and into one that does have the koni's in the front, their will be a night and day difference that will instantly explain why they are worth the money.

RedneckRicer
07-29-2002, 01:30 AM
The ride on the car was great. best i've driven. she never bounced, but the suspension was a little on the soft side. The rebound was good, but i think its the 'bound' when it goes down, was too easy. The car did feel sporty, i could drive it through corners all day and never get bored of it. i wanna keep my car, so to say, clean. i don't wanna hash anything up by hacking springs or wasting my struts when they've got a lot of life to them. i have about 500 saved up, but i need to ride out this auto to 5speed swap i'm doing. but if not lowering it, is there anything i can do to make my suspension stiffer? To where it doesn't squat so bad with 2 people in the back. I live in Oregon city, i made a run to salem with 4 people in the car, and my mudflaps are now ground to a point. i'm not a small guy, i weigh about 220. and my friends were around the same, so granted, i was probably over the weight limit. but is there anything i can do to make a firmer bound?

** If This Makes No Sense At All, Please Consider The Fact That I've Been Under Two 3geez For The Past Six Hours **

Jims 86LXI HB
07-29-2002, 01:56 AM
Sounds to me like who ever had the car before you, must have cut the springs. So if you were to install lowering springs they by themselves would be stiffer that stock cut springs. But they you'll come back to the issue of your struts. They will bounce and your struts won't have the valving to deal with the stiffer springs.

You could install 2 rear coilover kits from opmMotorsports.com and purchase a pair of stiffer 2.5" diameter springs from ground-control.com, total cost would be $170 . Your rear spring rate right now is 117lbs But the problem would be you might need a rate that would upset the balance of the car. Raising the rear spring stiffness will reduce understeer. But if you go to high and don't start to increase the front rates, you could find yourself with oversteer. Add if you've haven't upgraded the struts that will compound the problem. I'd think the max you could get away with would be 150lbs rear springs. Your better off waiting till you can affort to do it right.

RedneckRicer
07-29-2002, 02:13 AM
i was thinkin the same myself about the springs, but i checked, they really don't look like they've been, cut, its all clean, smooth, and painted on the ends. which doesn't seem like someone cutting springs would go to that length to clean up crap