Performance suspension help needed

[Scorpion88LX]

This has probably been posted on many times, and will fall to jim anyway. My suspension is almost gone, it feels like bill cosby put jello for my springs. I don't know as much about suspensions as I do about engines. However I do know that I like a nice tight/hard suspension and don't care as much for comfort. What I need to know is what suspension pieces I would need to cut good curves. I don't want to lower to much but I am willing to lower a bit. I need to know manufacturers and what to look for. I would also like to hear what people think of the products. I want good performance not looks or comfort.


Again Sorry if this has been posted on countless times before.

[Jims 86LXI HB]

Originally posted by Scorpion88LX
This has probably been posted on many times, and will fall to jim anyway. My suspension is almost gone, it feels like bill cosby put jello for my springs. I don't know as much about suspensions as I do about engines. However I do know that I like a nice tight/hard suspension and don't care as much for comfort. What I need to know is what suspension pieces I would need to cut good curves. I don't want to lower to much but I am willing to lower a bit. I need to know manufacturers and what to look for. I would also like to hear what people think of the products. I want good performance not looks or comfort.


Again Sorry if this has been posted on countless times before.

First thing, I want to get out of the way, based on your requirments, do not get any strut in the front other than a koni or revalved bilsteins.

Hmm, I loved the H&R/Koni setup I had. Nice firm/sporty feel that with the 15" rims and tires really made the car really nice to drive hard. It really did invite you to push things cause it was so nice. However I don't know if it would meet your request for "tight/hard". Most of the time the setup was fine, only when I would push the car to the absolute limit 10/10th's did I know I wanted stiffer springs and stiffer struts. So if you think that does meet your requirments after all, this would be your cost. $149 for the springs at www.optauto.com and $424 with free shipping from www.shox.com (if you wanted to you could get away with substuting tokico's in the rear for the koni's and save a few bucks. Several members are doing that, bobafett has his car that way with the H&R's).

Or I will give you another plan in case the H&R's aren't "tight/hard" enough for you. You could get ground-control coilovers for $329 from www.nopionline.com and the koni's. Or you could try to get into the group buy for dropzones in the market place for $65 and get a pair of 250lbs springs from ground-control for $100 to replace the pair of springs in the dropzone's that are to stiff for standard koni's. You would have coilovers with the same stiffness as the ground-controls for $165, not bad ehh.

Or if that still ain't stiff enough, try to get in on the $65 group buy for the dropzone's. Keep their stiff springs and get revalved bilsteins for $630, that would be what I'd do. That'd be a pretty kick ass setup if ya ask me. It would be stiff, I'll tell ya right now.

BTW, remember with coilovers you'd be able to pick you drop amount. And if you changed your mind and wanted it lower, you not stuck, just drop it.

If you have any more/other questions, just ask.

[Scorpion88LX]

thanx, always good stuff from you.
Btw where can i get the revalved bilstiens, and what a about sway bars.
Some of the people here have a prelude control arm what is that good for.

[Jims 86LXI HB]

Originally posted by Scorpion88LX
thanx, always good stuff from you.
Btw where can i get the revalved bilstiens, and what a about sway bars.
Some of the people here have a prelude control arm what is that good for.

Thanks, I try to deliver a point that doesn't leave a person wondering what I ment.

The Bilsteins are ava. from www.shox.com. You would call Bilstein and ask to speak to a tech named Jack, they will know who your talking about. Tell him you will be sending him some H.D. model struts for a 86-89 honda accord to be revalved. Tell him that you want them revalved for these spring rates. Then write down what ever compression and rebound rates he mentions. Tell him to exspect the struts to come from shox. Then call shox and order the struts and tell them you want them to sent them to Bilstein to be revalved(they do this all the time). Tell them you have the desired settings you want after speaking to jack (they will know who jack is), make sure they write those settting down as part of the order to bilsten.

You can install sway bars, they will almost certainly help. They will offer a slight improvement with body roll in the front since the Suspension Techniques front bar is only 1/16" thicker. The rear bar is better at 1/8" thicker. www.nopionline.com has the best price's on them. If it was me I'd find a way to convert the stock front bar to urathane mounts and end links and get the S/T rear sway bar only. Or I'd send out the stock front and rear bars and all the links and mounting hardware to a place called
http://www.sanerperffab.com/products.htm they can bend thicker custom copies to your specs. Cost would be $180 per end.

Prelude arms are used for camber correction on drops below 1.5"
They do nothing for performance other than camber correction when needed.

[Scorpion88LX]

thanx again.
BTW: do you mind if I PM you for anymore ques.?

[Jims 86LXI HB]

Originally posted by Scorpion88LX
thanx again.
BTW: do you mind if I PM you for anymore ques.?
Sure go ahead, allot of people do.

I'm sighning off now, so I'll answer them latter tonight.

[luvmy89LXi]

I'm confused, the springs in the dropzones are too stiff for koni's? Oh, and is $107 with free freight a good price for the adjustable dropzones? Cause that's what they are on 2fastparts.com

Thx,
Drew

[Mantis88LX]

you DONT need new struts but the car will ride a bit rouf and boucy, im still on stock struts and lowered 2 inchs and i like the way it rides, sometimes it can get bumpy on rough roads tho.
my cousin has a eclipse with coilovers sit at lowest setting and he is still on stock struts and it actually rides pretty good aside from the bouncy on rough roads.

[Jims 86LXI HB]

Originally posted by luvmy89LXi
I'm confused, the springs in the dropzones are too stiff for koni's? Oh, and is $107 with free freight a good price for the adjustable dropzones? Cause that's what they are on 2fastparts.com

Thx,
Drew

Yes, they are. The drop zone's are 213% stiffer in the front and 300% stiffer in the rear. That's allot stiffer than stock. I've run the koni's on my car and I know how they feel. And I've talked with members that are running koni's with even stiffer spring rates than what I was running. The dropzone's are alone in being to stiff for the koni's, no other avaliable coilover or spring is as stiff. I also know that going that much stiffer, you will have bounce and the car won't feel right. If you think about what it would ride and drive with even weaker struts, like tokico's of the oem replacement's from KYB, your talking about a bucking bronco rodeo ride with those. Keep in mind that Koni only offer's their "special" model of strut, we're not talking about their "sport" model, which you can't get, unless your willing to pay $1200 for custom one's from opmMotorSports.com

[Jims 86LXI HB]

Originally posted by Mantis88LX
you DONT need new struts but the car will ride a bit rouf and boucy, im still on stock struts and lowered 2 inchs and i like the way it rides, sometimes it can get bumpy on rough roads tho.
my cousin has a eclipse with coilovers sit at lowest setting and he is still on stock struts and it actually rides pretty good aside from the bouncy on rough roads.

Any time you install stiffer lower springs you need to also install stiffer struts that have the power to deal with the stiffer springs. Failure to do that will give you a car that will ride and drive like crap on anything other than smooth roads and in a straight line. Saying you don't need to, is totally ignoring the consiquences for doing so as if their aren't any. I think anyone that has gotten used to that kind of ride, need's to understand that how their car rides and drives is not how things are surposed to be. Getting the proper sturts on a car like that would transmore how it ride's and drives to the point that the car has been transformed, because that's what they do.

How a car ride's and drives will be effected when stiffer springs are installed. It will be effected if the struts aren't upgraded to match. If you can't afford to up grade the struts than you should save the money you need to, to do it right. Why anyone would think, that kind of ride is ok is beyond me. If you drove a new car that rode and drove that way, you'd think something was wrong with it. Why would you be willing to accept that with the car we all know is a awesome car, you deserve better. Remember, I got my suspension wrong the first time, I inform our members on how NOT to make the same mistake.