proctorsilex

I purchased KSport coilovers back in the winter and rode on them for about two weeks. The ride height incredibly low. It looked awesome, but the ride quality was abysmal on some roads. They even made my car creak. Anyway, I took them off and bought some Gold Lines and Konis. The Gold Lines were lower than my Progress springs, but I am not sure that the performance was as good. The Konis were pretty good, but when I took them off this week I found that they had started rusting in just a few months! Madness! My stock dampers were on for nearly two years and still have no signs of rust.

I finally found a good source for replacement coilover springs:
http://swiftsprings.com/

Swift was very helpful. They answered a lot of my questions.
I bought 4Kg 65mm ID 10" long springs for the front coilovers (the problem area). They came last week and I put them on immediately. I bought them through http://www.out-pace.com/ who was also very helpful and had them shipped out quickly. Swift recommended Kamispeed, but they did not return my call for over a week (they had some sort of voice mail problem).

I adjusted the height to be about 2" lower than stock and the camber to -1.5 degrees. I had toe out already, so it is probably around straight now. I will adjust the toe this week. If you have any suggestions for how much (in a duplicatable measurement), then please do.

I bought 10" springs over the 8" length that come with the KSports because I wanted to apply precload to compensate for the crush of the static load from the car's weight.
The KSports have about 3.5" of travel. I decided to allow 1.5" of compression from static load which leaves 2" of further compression. I had to compress the springs by about 1.25" to achieve said goal.

I also bought thrust sheets to alleviate the pinging problem when turning the steering.

I am happy to say that the ride so far has been pretty damn good!
I have the dampers set to the lowest setting, which makes the ride bouncy which means that the dampers are not too strong for the 4Kg springs. In fact, this suggests that they are too weak for the 6Kg springs.

The steering ping was there when I first tested, but I have not felt/heard it since that first test on Friday night. It appears that the thrust sheets really do work.

I took the caps off of the adjustment tools on the front end because they block access to the camber adjustment and the strut nuts. I really hate having to take off that cowl thing just to get at those parts. I am working on some tools to perform the adjustments. I will post pictures and info about the harder settings when I get it working.

When I went to install the rear spring perches, I found that they had actually rusted from the two to three weeks of use! WTF?
I am working on making them rust resistant and will install them by Tuesday.

I have an HPDE and an autocross coming up. I will write back with the performance results if anybody is interested.

The Swift spring part number is:
Z65-254-040

Boxer_Rebellion

Wow, that's pretty amazing. I didn't know one could completely re-engineer coilovers like that. Let us know how it affects your Auto-X times... it would be cool if there was some other xA's with standard setups for a baseline, I imagine there would be a considerable difference.

proctorsilex

i am hoping that the linear characteristics of the coilover springs will make the car more stable. the camber makes the car feel a little beter in the corners.

if you have the money to burn or the skills, you can also revalve dampers to suit your needs.

hotbox05

thrust sheets?

proctorsilex

washers, basically.
http://swiftsprings.com/products-thrust_sheets.html

proctorsilex

i installed the rear coilovers tonight. oddly enough, i think that it performed better with the stock dampers and goldlines in the rear.

after fooling around with it tonight, i think that the ksports are weak. the dampers do not have enough damping force for anything. ksport must be relying on ridiculously high spring rates that will not compress enough to need damping.

even at full damping on all four corners, the ride is bouncy at low speed. at high speed, it smooths out so maybe it will be good at the track this weekend.

it is late, i am tired, and i cannot change anything before the hpde now. i am doubtful that the ksports will perform well, but maybe i will have good news next week.

iheartzombies

iTrader: (1)

Hey I will buy them from you.

hotbox05

theyre stiff so if you have nice tires it'll handle on rails.

proctorsilex

i have been reading statements that the ksports dampen higher frequencies rather than low, therefore, it makes sense that it stopped bouncing at speed (over 25 mph or so).

time to get ready to travel.
feedback on sunday.

1epoXyBox

Wow, good info. I just put my ksports in, and still learning about them. Can't wait to see your results.

arizonaturbo

iTrader: (1)

I have been adjusting the K Sports non stop since I purchased them a month ago. I do not particularly care for the amount of adjustment; I know it sounds weird, but I think there is too much adjustment and can cause confusion when trying to install. I feel that the strut body on the front should be stationary so that you would only be able to adjust the spring perch height and the dampening. I also think that the rear shocks should be one length with the ability to only adjust dampening and the actual coilover to adjust the height. I really like the Tein or Progress Coilover design now that I look at it more closely.

RTon20s

Arizonaturbo, it sounds like you purchased the wrong coilovers. If you feel that the KSports have too much adjustment, I would look into something like the Tein SS coilovers. These provide you with only spring perch adjustment and 16 level dempening adjustment. You can also purchase upper pillowball mounts as an option.

They won't go quite as low, but they seem to be more up your alley.

hotbox05

too much adjustability? lol. it's just difficult , you one is for ride height the other is for spring preload.

1epoXyBox

^^^^Did you preload the front spring at all? The directions said move the bottom perch up until its snug...thats what I did. But Im curious if other ksport people preloaded the spring more and what effect it had.

hotbox05

ha ha . i just helped use them to acheive the "right" ride height.

so yeah it is actually more preloaded then I would like but it's set up pretty well as far as ride height so i'll leave it be , don't really want to pay to have my car aligned again.

i need to get a friend that can do and has the availability to do free alignments.


i ended up snugging it up about 4 turns over how they were shipped to me. i'll have to measure the struts when i paint my calipers for the third time next week.

proctorsilex

in my view, the rear damper length is adjustable for safety. the rear springs require some compression to remain seated. the dampers should not extend to the point that the springs are not compressed enough. they CAN pop out. the lower you go, the shorter the damper has to be to keep the springs compressed. you should ask autoline/ksport about it to verify. their manual is rather deficient.

proctorsilex

as i said before, the ksports with the 4kg springs are somewhat bouncy on the street. i was rather worried until mid friday that they would, in fact, be dangerously bouncing all over the track. however, they performed sufficiently. they were not incredible, but they handled well at speed and were very predictable. they were by no means a limiting factor for me (i serve that purpose myself).

perhaps, with the stock 6kg springs, they would have been better for the track, but, like i said, i need some balance between performance and comfort.

the ksports have very adequate damping for road racing, but not enough for autocrossing which is what i do more. yes, the 6kg springs would definitely do well for autrocrossing, but i think that the rear would also have to go up. with 4kg in the front, my car feels very balanced with the ksport coilover rear springs. hardening just the front springs will push more towards under steering.

my opinion of these coilovers has vascillated violently since i bought them, but i have finally reached my conclusion: they are decent coilovers that are mainly oriented towards the lowering crowd, but they can perform well enough in an HPDE.

unfortunately, i do not think that they are for me. i will be sellling them soon.
i am looking into ground control sleeves in the front, my own choice of front springs (4kg most likely), progress or gold line in the rear, and tokico d-spec dampers.

iheartzombies

iTrader: (1)

so how much can you bite for? 500?

BeQuietAndDrive

Why not run the GC's all around? I'm looking into running GC's with Koni shocks. I don't do HPDE's, only autocrosses. Let mw know what you think.

nerdsports

You didnt change out the rear springs??

I have D2 coilovers which are like the KSports, but I find the rear too soft. At 3kg/mm, it's only 169lbs/in. It sags too much with rear passengers and is too floaty when compared to the front.

I'm planning on ordering Eibach springs for the rear. The stock springs are 2.5" ID, so I'm guessing that the D2 (and KSport aswell) springs are 2.5" ID (rear).

Sorry to hear about your problems, but good thing you tried to adapt them to your needs before tossing them. You have provided other members with useful information to base their decisions on. Although it sucks being the guinea pig. hehe