Ksport review..the good the bad and the ugly.

[Oldblueaccord]

OK gang. Quick review!

Order a set of K sport coil overs for my Christmas present. I went right to the source K sport since they sell direct it seemed easiest.

They came in about 3 weeks and I put them on about 2 months ago. I got about 300 miles on them. Cold weather and my tire choice I don't drive much in the winter on this car anymore.

Coil over came boxed nice and the instructions pretty well written out.



I set them at the maximum height which is the threaded ends MUST have 30 mm of thread. I marked out 30mm on the threads just to remind me. When installed this got the ride height front and back right at stock ride height. The rear might have been 1/4" higher. I reset the rear to 25.5". Its pretty easy since you dont have to really unbolt anything just turn the shock body to get they height you want. NEVER mess with the spring perch to adjust the height.



The install went great front and back top hats fit great. The front 3 bolts hat is great fit pattern machined correctly.








The rear fit just as well but I felt like there may be an air gap that a gasket could help keep water out on raining days. I have not done anything to that part as of yet. The stock gasket may work but is big on the new top hat.





Ill post the ride part below....

[Oldblueaccord]

So ok on to the ride part which is most important

Few things about the setup on my car is a little bit from stock.

Suspension:


Camber is about -2.0 all around.

Front upper and lower control arms the bushing are replaced solid nylon. Sway bar bushings are poly. Strut rods are stock but poly.

Rear is stock bushings with Ingalls upper control arm adjustable with a poly end. rear sway bar has a solid bushing in the connecting arm. The sway bars are stock 24mm front 13mm rear.
Suspension is good and tight

the new springs rates are 13.5k front 11.5k rear. Yeah LOL. i did too when they recommended these rates.

Tires:

225/50/15 Hankoks sorry to say on a 6.5" rim.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...28Version+2%29


Mistake on may part the rim is too small for the tire width. I usually run Falken Aziens 615 at 205/50/15. running 35 psi front 25 psi rear my usually numbers.


Start testing the car of short slow trips and moved my way up just to get the feel of the car. Initial feeling was spring rate was higher but not crazy. Rear did not feel correct at all. I waited until a wet day and hit the parking lot of an old closed Food Lion to spin around a little and check that the rear would not step out on me. Happily the rear would not pivot on wet roads. I set the 32 way adjusters middle 16 clicks all the way around.

On road the front of the car is very firm but the shock valving is SO MUCH BETTER than stock! I am very surprised on this. Small bumps on the highway are no longer teeth rattling. Rides as nice or nicer than my SRT challenger with this high a spring rate.

As good as the front is the rear is JUST AS BAD. The rear of the car now feels like you are riding on a pogo stick. all uncontrolled. bumps at highway speeds are borderline dangerous. By only running the adjustments all the way soft can the car really be driven safely. I lowered the car another 1/4" just to see if maybe I had the suspension bound some how and it didnt change a thing.

Overall the car handles pretty damn well in the corners. I am currently just testing on highway clover leaf exit ramps to get the feel of the car etc.

[Oldblueaccord]

[Oldblueaccord]

OK so now on to the bad and possible ugly.

The kit they sent me is this.

https://ksportusa.com/product/honda-...da-accord-1988

Not sure why but thats what they sent.....18k front 8.7k rear thats 1008 fl bs front 487 rear for you,like me, who lack math. Possible the rear is spring TOO soft for the valving so I am upping the spring rate. Coils are 40$ so pretty reasonable.

[Oldblueaccord]

Not much update really more off topic.

You guys ever think what the engineers/designer were thinking about when they did our cars?

Dave Colmen is one of my heros from way back in the Sport compact car magazine days.
Its so cool all this info in out there now days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMyo...V9qvNZ9Zyf-5ni

just 9 mins.

[Oldblueaccord]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1JVX2VAcc4





well been getting some confidence in this set up starting at the 2:30 mark until the end I ran this run blind.never driven it before. I make a little mistake in the middle and lock the brakes for a second but the car tracks nice no weird stuff.

I bought new rear springs after calling K sport a few times. I think they sent me higher rate springs but at this point I didnt put them on yet. I might have a shop lined up to dyno the shocks,check the spring rates, for me after race season is over for them.

[Oldblueaccord]

Not alot to report my thoughts are just about the same other than I have confidence in the setup enough to pretty much tear up the Dragon tail late fall. The rear is still a pogo stick. I am thinking about lowering the rear like an inch just to see if maybe I am topping out the shocks. I notice on my vids the Ingalls arms are not squeaking at all were stock they squeaked like mad. When the weather gets better Ill start messing around with it. With 200 tread wear tires and few holes in the body I dont want to drive it on salt roads until I get it fixed.

[gp02a0083]

Not alot to report my thoughts are just about the same other than I have confidence in the setup enough to pretty much tear up the Dragon tail late fall. The rear is still a pogo stick. I am thinking about lowering the rear like an inch just to see if maybe I am topping out the shocks. I notice on my vids the Ingalls arms are not squeaking at all were stock they squeaked like mad. When the weather gets better Ill start messing around with it. With 200 tread wear tires and few holes in the body I dont want to drive it on salt roads until I get it fixed.

vaguely sounds similar to when i first installed my koni's and had the rebound dampening set to 75-80% max. sounds like you possibly may be over dampened on the rebound rate, try backing the rears to 8 clicks? what were the alternative rate springs they sent you? not sure about taking some camber out of the rear as well. I've been running up front -1.5* to -1.8* and near 0* in the rear. Handling is predictable being i daily my hatch.

[Oldblueaccord]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KofQWhckvs&t=10s

One thing is there is no FRONT wheel hop except in very extreme circumstances like couple turns in the video. Other than that you can just stab the gas anywhere in a turn and put the power down. Pretty much eliminated all the "one wheel peels" on tight turns.

They 32 adjustment is really a bit of a joke. The style of adjuster its really just the middle maybe 8 clicks that do anything its not a linear curve at all.

Edited post for clarity.

[Oldblueaccord]

I think you guys know by now im a bit nuts about shocks....I have nearly talked myself into a Chevy Camaro just because the use those Multimatic DSSV shocks.

These are even more interesting

https://tractivesuspension.com

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...uspension.html

[Oldblueaccord]

Forgot to add on to this.

About a year ago I decided to store Oldblue for a while to clear some space in my garage. In the week before I decided to lower the rear about an inch just on a hunch I was topping out the struts.

WOW big difference on what the rear was doing no more pogo stick bouncing. I never really ran much anymore. I just pulled the car out of storage last week and it reminded me how much better the suspension is working now in the rear now.

I do feel the suspension is fast but there seems to be some added understeer. This is now on what is old 200 TW tires that been in the cold on/off for several months so they have lost some of there grip.

[Fixedit]

I'm glad you figured out what was going on with the rear shocks. What is the rear lowered by now, in total inches? Also, do you happen to know the factory preload these springs are supposed to be set at? I recently purchased a used set and to fit them in the box the previous owner loosened the spring perches on the rears

[Oldblueaccord]

I'm glad you figured out what was going on with the rear shocks. What is the rear lowered by now, in total inches? Also, do you happen to know the factory preload these springs are supposed to be set at? I recently purchased a used set and to fit them in the box the previous owner loosened the spring perches on the rears

I started at my factory ride height so it was an inch lower that that.

I just set the preload where the spring was tight so it would not rattle aroundEDIT: I meant the shocks OFF the car.. I just checked them last week and with alot of effort you can turn the spring by hand if there is no weight on it.

I would make your setting /measurements with them off the car its way way easier to do then on the car installed.

[Hauntd ca3]

Every set of coil overs i've seen have had the pre-load set wrong .
A wise man told me that the correct way is to back the spring perch off until the spring is loose , wind the perch up until it touches the spring and then add 2 turns .
Every car i've done like this has been completely transformed .

[Fixedit]

Awesome, thank you both for the advice, I appreciate it greatly.

[Oldblueaccord]

Awesome, thank you both for the advice, I appreciate it greatly.

in this case of the rear I moved the shock BODY threaded part since I was lowering the car one inch which I feel is a lot so I did not adjust the spring at all. I dont think I would ever adjust the height one inch buy compressing the springs alone. I would buy new springs one inch shorter.

On car you can do it it kinda sucks I had too loosen the spring perch nuts enough to spin the body where I wanted it. The tighten everything up lower it on the ground recheck the height compared to the otherside etc etc.

I still havn't found anyone to corner weight the car. Im to the point I might look into buying the scales doing it myself and offering the service to others.

[Dr_Snooz]

Wut dese "corner weights" of wich you speek?

[Oldblueaccord]

Wut dese "corner weights" of wich you speek?

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/ar...orner-weights/

Balancing the weight of the car equal on each wheel.

[Hauntd ca3]

in this case of the rear I moved the shock BODY threaded part since I was lowering the car one inch which I feel is a lot so I did not adjust the spring at all. I dont think I would ever adjust the height one inch buy compressing the springs alone. I would buy new springs one inch shorter.

On car you can do it it kinda sucks I had too loosen the spring perch nuts enough to spin the body where I wanted it. The tighten everything up lower it on the ground recheck the height compared to the otherside etc etc.

I still havn't found anyone to corner weight the car. Im to the point I might look into buying the scales doing it myself and offering the service to others.

Did you disconnect the sway bars ? Found leaving them connected can screw things up a bit when measuring ride height side to side .

[Oldblueaccord]

Did you disconnect the sway bars ? Found leaving them connected can screw things up a bit when measuring ride height side to side .

No I did not. Certainly possible.

[Dr_Snooz]

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/ar...orner-weights/

Balancing the weight of the car equal on each wheel.

Do you find that it makes a big difference?

[Oldblueaccord]

Do you find that it makes a big difference?

Well since i havent had it done I say I dunno. My gut tells me "not much".

But curiosity killed the cat as they say I wont know until I try it. Im still not to old to learn something just gets a lot harder to learn.

Plus with our cars the motor is on the driver side so with the weight of the driver doubt it can be balanced much.

There is a whole nother discussion on what I call "wedge" the front to back weights relation. I think Honda,Acura sport type cars always have used this to make a front driver to work.

[Dr_Snooz]

I'm curious about it. Let us know how it goes.

[Dr_Snooz]

Any updates on these? Are they worthy? I'm in the market, you might say.

[Oldblueaccord]

Any updates on these? Are they worthy? I'm in the market, you might say.

Nothing really good or bad to add.

Now comparing to say Multimatic DSSV shocks....there actually not bad no joke.

I would go with alot lower spring rates for a more daily driver.