I have a chance to upgrade my suspension to coilovers and other suspension pieces... but I need a new engine as well. So here are my thoughts and plans.

For sure BASIC PLANS Swap in FC front subframe, suspension and powersteering R&P plus five lug axels, and Turbo2 Brakes, Weld/fix rust issues. And swap Series 3 Rear end, KAAZ LSD and Re-Speed Moser five lug axles.

Now...
-Buy HKS Hipermax Coilovers for front suspension and wait on the engine for now
OR
-Buy a Turbo engine and run stock suspension... FC front FB rear for now?

 

For me, such stuff is usually based on availability of funds, then availability of parts - - so much of the stuff I'd want for my car isn't always able to be found, even if I have cash in hand.

If you have the cash for either but not both, base the decision on if you can find a good deal for the motor (which is non-production parts).

The coilovers will be probably available for a while; a good deal on an engine can come and go in a few days. You want to be ready to act when the opportunity comes around.

Scarcity always governs urgency.

 

Buy the turbo engine, trust

 

Great advice thanks!

 

id definately prefer a car that is running than a car that is lowered and doesn't moved..

definately get the car running before you start spending money on suspension

 

if you have tonnes of power and no suspension / brakes, you will probably end up with a crashed car. just my $.02

I just finished my suspension... finishing up my brakes. of course my suspension isn't as nice as the one you stated. but after i am done with the rest of the brakes i'm going for turb0

 

Get tons of power, get a good brake setup, worry about suspension later.

 

Maybe someone should say get tons of power + be responsible, get good suspension later. I agree that a car with awesome suspension and no engine would suck.

 

I would say the opposite. Do suspension and brakes and everything else needed to "prep" the car for high horsepower first. But that's just my view on it.

Curious about your choice of coilovers. Why those, and what kind of info do you have on them?



.

 

Well first off I'm building the car to drift. Might as well get that out of the way. I'm tired of only FCs and a few FDs drifting and think and love that the 1st Gen is a great chasis. However the steering is lacking for angle and aftermarket support is greater. Plus easier to find parts for FC suspension. SO...

I'm swapping a FC front subframe from a turbo FC that way I'll have Turbo front Brakes, Power Rack and Pinion Steering (even though i like the feed back of non-powered steering better) and the ability to easily increase the steering angle of the wheels.

So a local FC drifter here in CO is offering to sell me his HKS Hipermax coilovers from his FC because he's upgrading to Stance. He's making me a good deal The coilovers are 5/5 spring rates which is light for a FC... should be pretty good for a FB... or so I think.

As for the rearend I'm swaping to 84-85 rearmember, kaaz LSD (once I wear out the stock LSD) and Moser better than stock axles (5 lug) from ReSpeed and upgrade to the big brake kit they have for the rear. So the coilovers... I'm not positive yet what i'm going to do on them. I've been searching the forums and have been reading mixed views. I know the reason (from my understanding) that you can't have a macpherson strut combo/coilover is that the top strut and possibly the lower strut mounts wouldn't be strong enough. So I have to do some welding on my wheel wells and think I would just reinforce the top mounts to the chassis much better and once I get a cage tie that into it... So I think I'm gonna try to run the coilovers in the rear but if it doesn't work I'll just go with the ReSpeed Rear coil spring adjusters.

The only downside i've read on the Hipermax coilovers is that HKS doesn't offer a rebuild on them... But many pros are using them for drifting so I figure if I can get them to work why not?

Thanks everyone for your advice. It's really hard for me to decide but I have a lot of respect for many of you which makes the differing opinions harder to decide.

 

I'm with Ken on this, my outlook on car tuning is: Get the suspension and brakes tuned first, then worry about tuning the engine.

In my opinion it makes more sense to fix up the suspension first before you start throwing extra power in it. The logic behind it is that you're starting with a 20 year old car that has a ton of won suspension bits that affect handling. If just restoring the vehicle to stock specs bring handling that much better, what happens when you substitute small things like Poly bushings instead of rubber, new tie rods, stiffer springs and shocks, ect.

Its nice to have a powerful engine... but if you don't have the rest of the car dialed in to turn that engine power into cornering power; you might as well buy a Dodge Viper, because that's most likely how it will act when you try and take it for drifting.

 

In that case, why don't you just wrap it around a tree now, and save a bunch of time and money?

 

believe me, you don't want to drift with a stock suspension. you will probably wrap it around something, perhaps a tree

 

Well I'm not a fan of street racing or street drifting or anything like that. And last I few times I've been at the tracks in the area there's no trees at the track so I don't think that'll be a problem.

Also this is my 2nd 1st gen and I've had fast fun little cars majority of my driving experience so I know how to drive... this is just my first car build so it's taking some planning. I want to do it right.

 

just put it into the wall and save yourself the money on parts.



If you MUST do this tho, do suspension (ignore the HiperMax coilovers and go with ReSpeed, your life will be easier) and brakes before power. I want new suspension already (RB Springs w/ tokico illuminas in front, blues in the rear) and I only have MSD ignition and a full RB SP exhaust.

 

Billy could definitely offer some advice on the setup details like spring rates and such. I heard a rumor that he might even be able to make modified steering arms that offer a reduced steering ratio (or is that increased?), well fewer turns lock to lock if you know what I mean.

Is drifting all that you plan to do? Reason I ask is, you're building the car already so maybe you'd be competing in more than just one type of racing. If done right, you could easily swap from drift to autocross with little more than a rear spring swap (five minute job if you're using the Respeed stuff). And once the car is prepped for autocross then you're just a hair away from having a nice track car. All just a matter of making minor changes to the car to set it up for the different types of racing. So it kind of makes sense to keep some things in mind, like what's legal in the different classes and stuff like that.

Putting the fc subframe in will definitely take you out of any of the realistic classes and put you right into SM or something like that where you'll get eaten alive by the monster cars. So maybe it would make sense to take another route. Just a thought, I don't really know where your interests lie....



.

 

I've talked with Billy a little bit. I'm pretty set on the FC subframe. My main goal is to drift it. I'd like to run it in other types of stuff but probably won't compete in anything else to seriously.

If the rear coilovers end up not working I'll be getting ReSpeed adjustable ones for sure.

 

I havn't seen anyone running a rear coilover system. many people who have switched over to some other rear end use real coilovers, everyone else, including me, run respeed / gforce style adjustable rears.

 

I know that's why I'd like to try it...

 

I say buy someone else's finished project, usually way cheaper than doing it yourself!

 

The economy sucks down there, so there's bound to be someone starving, out of money and without a job,,,..........

 

I'd rather build it myself.