J.T.P.,

It's a shame that a lot of us have been ripped off by "mechanics" and shops. Too many people - and not just in the "tuning" business - are nothing but talk, with no sense of urgency and with little to no integrity. The last time I needed to take my car to a shop - for use of the lift - I stayed there and actually worked on the car myself.

It's good to put that person on blast so no one ever has the misfortune of doing business with that person. It's the law of the universe that everything balances out, and everyone eventually gets what's coming to them....

Peace, and represent in 2011!!

 

notice when i quoted digi i left out azrr

 

yeah i picked up on that.. it also got me thinking..

 

Before I took out my Streetported N/A engine, I got some drifting in using 500lbs/in(9kgish) front and 400kg(7kgish) rear springs on Bilsteins struts that are valved to perform under 400lbs/in(7kgish) front and 375lbs/in rear(5kgish). My camber was set for Road Racing(Front -2.8, rear -2.1), as well as my toe(+1/8" front I think). I rebuilt my S4 GXL LSD.

Earlier I mentioned that my drift line was a total mess, and my vehicle would kinda dip in, well this time it didn't; and with the conservative camber adjustments I was able to keep proper contact to the pavement and steady throttle/steering control. My line became more "predictable" if that makes sense. After my transition, which are violent and quick, I felt as though my room for error drastically decreases as I try to re-gain speed and "control over chaos".

Keep in mind though, a streetported N/A S4 isn't a very powerful engine, so how can I improve upon this dilemma of making my transitions smooth?

Current setup:
Suspension:
Ground Control camber kit
Eibach 500lbs/in, 400lbs/in, 375lbs/in springs
Bilstein struts
Rear camber bar
Derlin Bushings
Mazdaspeed mounts
Corksport front strut bar
Racing Beat front Sway bar
Stock rear sway bar
Aluminum DTSS eliminator bushings
Stock steering wheel
Stock angle
Stock brakes
16x8 wheels

Engine:
S4 N/A streetported(S4 internals) Modified RB header, custom exhaust, stock intake
Godspeed radiator

Drivetrain:
Rebuilt transmission
Rebuilt S4 Diff
Re-balanced shaft(waste of time)

Future Upgrades:
Suspension:
Cage
Steering wheel

Engine:
N/A S4 Irons and housings with better ports
S5 rotating assembly
Port match intake and customize intake
Increase exhaust flow
Tunable ECU
Re-make harness

Drivetrain:
1.5 way diff instead of promised 2 way


I lack the lingo of a drifter, but I hope someone can understand. Maybe?

 

Anodized parts give you like +10 angle.

It's like sticker tuned but color tuned is style points, not power points.

Edit: 2011 stuff may or may not include the following

Single turbo V6. Ghetto fabo indestructolabo lets run 15 pounds on 87 octane with beer injection bitches. BIS, son.
19's all the way around as "street wheels". I want my aero back and 19's are incentive to throw it back on. Ground clearance with 235 35F and 245 40 F would merit it.
**** no they will not be jdm or forged. I dont give a **** bout that **** no more. I just wanna drive my *** off.
Some paint.
Some new wiring.
Better coils
Finish up subframe and diff ****, replace all arm bushings with solid or delrin.....

That's about it. I need a ******* clutch for my vg and it has to be cheap as **** on the dirty.

I've read of people using 350z pp's and oem nissan pp's with sprung six pucks with good results. Anyone care to add to that?


Lonetlan, what tires are you running? Sways, no sways? I'm having trouble making smooth trasitions too. I think it's not enough tire and not enough power. It really does sound like a grip issue if your transitions seem that violent. From the looks of your posts you see alot more track time than i do (which is none. I'm doing my **** closed course guerrilla.)


I find the setup that worked best for me was a shimmed two way that utilized stock disks (just has two way ramps...some fancy **** re-a did), close to zero camber in the rear, maxed fronts and my coilovers at half stroke. IIRC, i had both sways removed. Transitions felt smooth BUT i had to work a hell of alot harder than i do now to initiate. These are NOT easy cars to set up to be well balanced for your own preferences sometimes. I wanted to set my car up for oversteer but once i break, it oversteers violently. It's got the same snap it would have with a rear sway and dtss. I'm able to catch it but i'm reacting too slow to do much with it because the car is faster than I am. Gotta work on that.

I dunno how you drive or how your car is set up in depth wise but i'd just thought i'd share. My current set up is day and night over the last setup. Ride height plays a HUGE role in it because when you shift your weight fully as hard as you ******* can, if your coils bind, the suspension stops doing it's job and it's all on the tire and chassis. Running toe out makes the response of the front end alot quicker and seems to make the rear a hell of alot more *** happy during transitions. Maybe an alignment is in order for both of us? Haha. Well, good luck and hope you get it sorted.

 

Dk inspired me to chop my hood up. Slide is working on some cool **** too.

Mine is very unfinished. It got cold. I lost motivation

[[[[ I cut my hood like that and just bent the flaps down. I was going to do an "airfoil" surround to create a low pressure area to cause the air traveling through the front be pushed through the vents but if i had to do it all over again, i would have bought a uras or knock vent. I tried to be cheap and ended up wasting a whole quart of resin and a few sheets of glass.



You can kinda see what it looks like with my car in it's natural habitat. In my driveway on jackstands.




Worked out better in my head but looked sick like mocked up. Really angular and in your face.

 

NICO club, you may have to be patient and get a response from a knowledgeable representative of that club to achieve a definite answer to which will be the holy grail to the engine swap of badassary. Maybe leaving the realm of JDM could aid in finding the correct pressure plate for this V6 that has arisen from ghetto luxury to be relentlessly harassed by the hand and mind of the driver, and constantly tormented by the ever increasing pressure that has derived from the turbo. Alas I digress into solitude, that one day we may see this African Engineered goddess and tremble upon its force induced ottocycle that atomizes 87 octane at which makes man as we know it coward in fear. But all triumph lies on finding this wonder that holds progression in its tracks.

I wish you good luck and god speed! May you walk through the valley of pick n pull, and show no fear.

Nopistons- I can't drift at the track because its "disrespectful", so I'm on the streets. But I may try shimming. I thought to myself, and It must be power issue, because my useable powerband is 6,500 to 8,500. The GC coils don't allow for a totally awesome drop, so its the same height as the Tanabe's. I actually put my sways back on because it just didn't "feel" right. I guess my style now compared to the last setup is that I prefer less aggression, and more technicality. My tires are Yokohama Avid V4s 205/55/16, they are alright. I still consider myself a beginner.

 

try pulling your rear swaybar. also what tire pressure, tire size, tire brand and rear toe are you running?

also looks like the suspension setup (springs/shocks) u have is probably you're problem. we just switched out a similar setup on a customers car to some DG-5's and it was night and day..

 

I was thinking about changing up coilovers as I have a set of ancient TEIN HE's 6/8. Can someone explain the difference one would notice between say a PSM coilover, and a set of DG 5's? Is it worth spending the extra thousand dollars?

What is a good recommended spring rate for FC's ?

 

I use Tein Superdrifts which have the same spring rate as the DG5's: 8/6. But i'm sure the two coilovers are very different due to valving and so forth. I like the Teins I run. I have never been in an FC with PSM coilovers. I have only been in S13s with them and the s13 guys love em. If you do a search you can find all kinds of info on the PSM coils.

p.s. Justing does the mustang use Teins? how do you like them in there? (I have a friend with a mustang looking for some new coilovers)

 

I'm more interested in what makes a 2500 dollar coilover 1500 dollars better then a 1000 dollar option.

 

Pulling off my rear swaybar has worked very well in the past. My drifting feels more precise if I keep it on though, I don't have a 3rd person perspective because I'm lonely out here.

I guess re-valving my struts to accommodate the springs is a big deal. I can agree to the decision to change them; this is why I got a customizable setup, I can re-valve my struts and swap my springs to improve the performance of my suspension "in-house".

The tires I use are Yokohama Avids 205/55/16 as stated earlier(sorta). My tires take a bit to warm-up when I'm at the track; I know drifting doesn't necessarily use the same pressures though. The fronts cold are 28psi, they warm up at or near 32psi, the rears are 26psi and warm up at or near 30psi. Assuming that the weather is a sunny day, the temperature is 70-80*F and the pavement has the ability to absorb some of the suns rays. I've read that bumping these up help increase "slideability", but for the layout I slide at, I need to be able to get grip at the turn of a hat; I guess its more gymkana than drifting.

My rear toe is almost at 0, its barely positive, maybe 1/32", or even 1/64".

 

that would be the $1500 worth of engineering in the valving of the shock, and a better quality spring. i.e. Stance XR's or DG-5's that come stock with swift springs compared to china brand coilovers that who knows did the development on the springs and valving.

I've used tein superdrifts, megans, psm, jic's, DG-5's and will be trying the new stance XR's soon.

tein and jic's are comparable as a mid level coilover.

megans and psm are comparable as a entry level imo.

the dg-5's are a high level coilover and i'm hoping the new stance xr's are very close to the dg-5's as they're made in the same place from what i've heard.

the difference is definitely worth the money if you can afford it. the dampening is really dialed in on the dg-5's and the springs are swift springs... very true to the actual spring rate that's printed on the spring, unlike the china brand springs.

the mustang does use tein's but they're modified from other applications to make work. they're the two way (both bump and rebound seperate) we also use the edfc to make adjustments on the fly..

JR uses the tein flex's on his demo car and they work out pretty good..

hope this sheads a little light on the differences of coilovers out there... personally i believe if you can afford good coilovers it's very much worth it. but don't spend the money on them if it's going to keep you off the track for 6 months due to blowing your drift budget for the year... get what i mean..!

 

sorry man, i don't have time to look back at every post to find your settings.. that's why i ask!!

the sidewall you're running is part of the problem.. running a smaller sidewall will create less sidewall flex, making the tire "stiffer" at any pressure. to get the same effect you'd have to bump up your tire pressure but then you'll lose grip. also throw some rear toe at it... start with 1/4 total toe IN, toe out is probably another part of your problem. you'll want to be at around 3/8 total toe in eventually... we run more toe with the more power the engine makes..

 

That makes sense! I'm going to remeber this, and give it a go! Thank you.

 

we need more white car photos!
get me pumped on having BN, and baller wheels again so i can start wasting money on my car instead of booze, and chicks

 

those ones get down.... too scared to rail some drugged out chicks... burning dong after scares the **** out of me.... strippers are the ones though.
my car would've been on DG5's, and fresh aero/widefenders by now if i only i were able to resist temptation with these fraudulent females....

 

^^ Just wondering what makes them so good. I have seen that their build quality is excellent, but I'm just wondering from an in car perspective what did you think they do better than other coilovers.

 

they do everything better. the valving of the shock is the main difference. it also helps that they come stock with swift springs.

 

Quick Tire size questions....

I'm not looking to run any stretch and maybe even a little bubbly in front.

I'm Going to use 17x8 in front and 17x9 in back. I'm thinking about going with Falken 615 in a 215/40/17 in front and maybe some Federal 595 out back in 235/40/17 or 225/45/17.

Opinions please.



p.s. What about mounting your own tires? How important is balancing the tire before using it to drift?

 

Drift cars don't need balancing. You can balance your fronts, but then when you lock em coming into a turn or spin out, they ain't balanced anymore.

 

honestly i haven't balanced my fronts in years.. but, if you'll be driving the car on the street i WOULD suggest it.

215/40 235/40 sounds like a good starting point for you Rxilver7

 

My stick on weights fell off. **** shakes. I had snow melt and freeze inside my wheels and i guess all the shuddering removed whatever **** the tire shop stuck those things on with. Um, alot of guys use a rim with no tire attacked to it and just lay that on their tire to break the bead. I saw that harbor freight tire changer thingy but it wont work on cool wheels. Just steelies. Mounting and de-mounting tires with hand tools is doable and you can put that $10-20 in your gas tank instead but from what i've seen, it's a pain in the ***. I wish my stepdad still worked for goodyear.


Lonetlan: thanks. I'll see what i can cook up. Right now i've got three choices. My hearts set on doing what i want to do to my fc but i have to "sell out" and get a clean title shell 240 daily in order to do it.

 

if you buy new tires, i wouldnt ballance them for fronts... if theyre super annoying when you drive, maybe do it, if you dont mind spending $20 to try and see if it helps a little...
i balanced my fronts in the beginning of the year, but havent since, and dont really notice anything...
never balance the rears... and i'd honestly say dont even do the fronts...
new front tires like once a year, and call it a day.
my federal's lasted all season up front, but are starting to cord in spots from my spindles being weird/spinning out/left foot braking/locking up the fronts. or a combination of the bunch.

 

If you match the red dot on the tire (point of highest RFV) to the white dot on the wheel (lowest point of the wheel, usually where they put the valve stem) you will usually get a decently balanced wheel that doesn't vibrate at speed.