I need to lower my car at least 3 inches, mabey more
 

I have an 86 sport model and its stripped and currently has about 9 inches of ride height above the ground.

When I had the older tires and stock rims it would break free before the body would even start to roll. I haven't tried it yet with my 255 kuhmo supra's but I think that the suspension will be stiff enough.

You guys have any recommendations on good shocks and springs that are cheap?
keyword: cheap

-Noah

KYB AGX shocks with (RSR, Swift, Tanabe) springs.

No springs will lower the car more than about 2". After about 1" below stock you need to buy more parts to compensate for the camber gain in the rear or you'll eat tires in no time.

^^^^ listen

Why do you NEED to lower the car 3 inches or more? :rolleyes:

I just want to lower it TO stock, mabey more later. Right now, as i said, I have about 9 inches of ride height because its stripped and the stock springs are holding it up there.

Its so high that I can grab the tranny tunnel and pull myself under the car when its sitting on the ground. These are stock springs remember.

I'm machining some camber adjusters so no worry there.

what do you think?

How much weight did you strip out of it? Even 200 lbs wouldn't raise the ride height more than 1/2" or so (if I recall n/a FC spring rates accurately).

i believe its 95 front 90 rear.

i'm also curious as to what was removed from the car.

are your tires taller than stock?
buying tires with a shorter sidewall ratio may be an answer for you and cheaper in the long run, once you buy shocks/springs and get an alignment are you stilll gonna want new tires?

and ewww, kumho supras..... hard as rocks.

you might be best off with kyb agx's and some ground control coilover sleeves so you can adjust the ride height and order specific spring rates, do some research and order the right ones first instead of ordering their off the shellf FC setup because you probably want a stiffer rate even if its 50 lbs more than off the shelf it will make a difference. I think 350 front and 275 rear is about what tein flex rates are and these are very friendly yet can be stiff enough at the shocks full stiff setting like you can achieve with kyb agx.

good luck

I read a lot of bad things about the kyb agx's. I plan to beat on this car and it might be worth it to get some koni yellows, they arent a ton more money.

I am running 255/40/17's on 35th anniversery mutsang rims. Tire is about an inch more in diameter.

I took out everything... I am planning on putting a small cage or roll bar in the car at a later date.

Ill take a pic for you guys

http://www.santachico.com/car/70.jpg
http://www.santachico.com/car/72.jpg
http://www.santachico.com/car/71.jpg

i would lower it if i was gonna rally

Wow, are you 100% sure those are OEM springs? Something is definitely wrong. Like I said, even removing 200 lbs of weight would only raise the car 1/2".

wow

Those are probably 245/45/17's in the pic? Those are taller than stock, so that'll contribute. Did you just lower it back on the ground? The suspension needs to settle back down. Roll it back and forth a bit and it should lower some.

It might be a 245/45 because its not a supra its a pilot sp. It does have a 100 percent tread though. I will measure the other side.

I dont see why the springs wouldnt be stock but they are VERY stiff compared to what I am used to. I figured it was because it was a sport model.

The shocks are very shot and this was shot days after it was lowered.

What have you heard about the AGXs? I've only heard good thing about KYB AGX, great adjustable shocks for the price. I have them and have no complaints with them, but i've only had them on for maybe half a year and only 1 autoX event so far. If you can afford the Koni Yellows though I would go with them, I hear they are real good shocks. Koni > KYB AGX > Tokico Illumina, from what I read.

theres no way those are oem FC springs in there.... some a-hole before you prolly put the wrong springs in somehow. ive never seen an fc anywhere near that high, even without drivetrain.

I heard that they blow out if tracked a lot, and that they only work with mildly increased spring rates.

I'd get them if I was a normal person, but I tend to abuse my cars. Like in my spare time I run up this mountain road and ramp the car over crests at high speeds at night. I really don't want to go off the cliff or something. How smart would I feel then?

Anyone know how to check if my springs are stock? I honestly think they are, I got the car for like 600 bucks and kept what was worth keeping, but you never know.

clean it off and take a look. aftermarket springs will tend to have some fancy shmancy color on the spring. some have a brand label and/or a serial number. stock springs will be plain looking and very rusty... at least out here.

i would guess a previous owner threw on some springs made for another car.

fronts:
the shocks are blue and the springs are black with a painted white dot on them

rears i dont know yet

Rears are black with a yellow dot, I am pretty sure they are stock. I think the big thing that made my stripped car so light is the fact that it has no exhaust.

I dont really want coilovers, but I might have to do it...

Why not shrink the springs you have? If the spring rate is OK for now, I'd go that route.

You'll need a couple pieces of 1/2" or 3/8" thick steel and some 5/8" threaded rod with nuts. Double nut one end plate on the rod and put the spring on and then the other end plate. Compress the spring to coil bind using cooking oil on the threads, throw it in the oven at about 450F for an hour and then let cool. You should lose about an inch or a little more. Do the other spring for the same amount of time and you'll be done.

i have kyb agxs and so does my friend who ran up a curb at 60mph with them. They bent and the top of the shock casing is domed by the force. His brake rotor shattered, sway bar mount, broke, the lower control arm right angled, etc. But the shock didnt leak and still responded to adjustments. We tested a good agx with the bad one and both extended at the same speed on every adjustment, it acted as if it didnt suffer a huge blow, but since it was visually tweaked we still tossed it. If a kyb agx is a weak shock, id like to see a strong one.

i searched here and found a few examples of failures, the only reason i leaned toward konis is because they are so well known

It will probably come down to whatever I can find cheaper.


So basically deforming the springs from heat? That seems really dangerous to me.

The other tire is a 245/40 and the other 3 are 255/40. They are all about an inch in diameter larger than the stock tires

The only dangerous part is when your wife or mother comes home and sees a coil spring at full compression in her oven. I first did this when still living with my parents, I found out how good my mom was at math when she did a quick calculation in her head and told me how much energy was stored up in that spring in her oven.

Other than that, just use the size materials I listed and you won't have a problem.

i searched here and found a few examples of failures, the only reason i leaned toward konis is because they are so well known

It will probably come down to whatever I can find cheaper.


So basically deforming the springs from heat? That seems really dangerous to me.

The other tire is a 245/40 and the other 3 are 255/40. They are all about an inch in diameter larger than the stock tires

well the benefit of FC suspension is on your side when you choose to use something like a kyb agx shock/strut.

because honda boys need spring rates higher than 550 to keep their cars plated stiffly, the FC only needs 350 front and 275 rear and maybe a little more if you want to keep ti as flat as a board for track duty. these lower rates are perfectly within the range that a kyb agx can handle over and over without chancing failure like so many honda boys run into when running overly stiff springs for the kyb agx. its all a result of suspension geometry so you shouldnt fear the kyb agx on an FC, theyre a nice setup and paired with the best rates for your use they will probably be the best choice for the cost.

DAMN YOUR CAR IS JACKED!
hahha I agree you may have some non-stock springs in there. even when my FC had no engine the front didnt lift up that high.

good luck on the project!

lol It was much much higher when there was no engine.

I have been looking at coil overs and it looks like they only lower a max of two inches. If this is from stock than they will help me, but I don't really want to spend money or put heavy coil overs on my car.

I looked at pics of stock springs and they seem identical, but what do I know.

Mabey I'll just put in a really heavy cage... heh

how low it goes depends on which model coilover you go with.

but generally full coilovers will go much lower than your typical pre-packaged spring kits.

Are you sure it's a sport? The Sports had T2 springs which sat about an inch lower than the base or GXL springs. When I got my 86 Sport, it had a cracked rear spring. I couldnt find a wrecked turbo or Sport and I didnt have the cash for new springs so I put GXL springs on it. My pass. side rode about an inch higer and looked like crap. With the interior stripped and no exhaust, I could believe those are stock springs.

IMO, you do not need a super lowering, I think just replacing those springs with stiffer lowering springs or coilovers will solve the problem. You could always pick up a used set of whatever springs are popular for FCs and give those a try. You won't really lose any money on the deal to experiment that way.

Im 100 percent sure its a sport model. I think it says on the title. It had the black rubber spoiler on it and I spent a long time matching up all the options in the sticky.

I am going to try camber caster plates first, I think that will solve 1-2 inches of the problem. If its still bad I may buy some tannabe gf210s or something.

I will probably get kyb agx's on sleepyheads reccomendation.

you might be able to pickup a set of coilovers from megan racing or similar for under a grand and brand new that will give you loads and loads of adjustability and only end up being a few hundred bucks more than if you went with kyb's and some springs.

man oh man I love the FC sport, rock on!