EJ9 suspention build


riki

New Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2010
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7
I'm building Ej9 with b16 and now I want to build up my suspension.
I have D2 coilovers, DC2 front calipers 282mm disc and master cylinder, rear disc swap , dc2 beam with p.s. rack, dc2 front sway bar and now i'm wondering what to do next?
Energy suspention bushings, rear sway bar... ???

Plan is to build daily drive car and at the weekend to go on track :drive:

P.s. sorry if my english is little bad :))
 
I'd honestly drop the D2 coils for something worth being used. Yup probably gonna get flames but whatever. D2 dampers SUCK. They are way over dampen for what springs they use. If you want something that will ride and perform better all around you should look into Koni's. Weather it be just there Sport Yellows or there 2800 Series. They will ride better than any cheap coilover could think of.
 
I have had no problem with D2's, it all about getting the right set up, the are not so good for street use, but for track use I cannot fault them. If mercedes used D2 for the suspension on their track cars, its good enough for my civic =]
 
I have had no problem with D2's, it all about getting the right set up, the are not so good for street use, but for track use I cannot fault them. If mercedes used D2 for the suspension on their track cars, its good enough for my civic =]

Mercedes track cars weight a ton more than a track civic. Very different...night and day to me.
 
riki,

What size front sway/anti roll bar are you running?
What size rear sway/anti roll bar are you running?
 
riki,

What size front sway/anti roll bar are you running?
What size rear sway/anti roll bar are you running?

Front is oem dc2 24mm sway bar.
I did not bought rear sway bar yet, I don't know what to buy, sway bar only or sway bar and subframe.
 
Front is oem dc2 24mm sway bar.
I did not bought rear sway bar yet, I don't know what to buy, sway bar only or sway bar and subframe.

You NEED a subframe brace like an ASR to run a decent sway bar go at least 22mm EK9/DC2 or 18mm adjustable starting off
 
d2's are fine for track days,road driving. Have them on my jordan and it handles great,yes could be better but the majority of us arnt pro drivers so little need for expensive coilovers to blast around a track in
 
Ye to run a half decent sized rear sway bar you need an asr/subframe brace. Get yourself a thick rear arb and some pulybushes for the droplinks. Also what rear trailing arm bushings have you got? maybe if there old replace them with some new oem ones or mugen ones. They reduce fish tailing slightly i found under heavy braking caused by having very worn out trailing arm bushings.

You have the choice is fitting front and rear lower tie bars, strut braces, ( id recomend a 3 point upper brace". Then there are c pillar braces/x braxes etc. These kind of items on there own dont generally make a massive difference.

I think for the most noticeable differnce fitting a rear arb and replacing worn bushings will be the best for the money and should be what you look at next.
 
d2's are fine for track days,road driving. Have them on my jordan and it handles great,yes could be better but the majority of us arnt pro drivers so little need for expensive coilovers to blast around a track in

It's not about needing pro suspension, it's about having suspension that doesn't suck balls and allows the wheels to actually stay in contact with the ground.
 
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It's not about needing pro suspension, it's about having suspension that doesn't suck balls and allows the wheels to actually stay in contact with the ground.

I'm know what your saying here but......

I had D2's and they werent that bad except for giving quite a harsh ride but they arent ment for street driving.

I never experieced any wheels coming off the ground.

The Spoon K20 EK9 cocks its back leg on nearly every turn !




Now - before you come back at me with the above said, I dont have any experience on track - never done a track day etc and therefore my opinion is somewhat only based on street driving.

I couldnt fault the D2's for the job i wanted them to do which was lower my car and to keep the car planted on corners - the guy who bought my car off me however found out that the rears were shot and to be honest I hadnt even noticed - and i think its because they must have offered no real feedback, the car always bounced around on them over bumps because there was no absorbsion on the imperfections of the road. I'm not saying the car was unpredictable in corners what I mean is I had no real input from the crashyness of the coils.

Being slightly older and wiser and having a sore back most of the time - my next set up (whenever i find the money to actually buy the 9) - i'll be lookiing at all the bushings to get replaced with OEM or Hardrace - and a Koni / Ground Control set up or similar.

I'd like a set up that can absorb the bumps and be stiff enough at the same time to keep the car in check but most of all I want proper feedback from the car.
 
The "leg cocking" is more to do with the anti roll bar pulling the unladen wheel up in the corner than the shock and spring combo.
 
I'm know what your saying here but......

I had D2's and they werent that bad except for giving quite a harsh ride but they arent ment for street driving.

You say except for the harsh ride but this is the exact reason why they (not D2s specifically, just the majority of generic budget coilovers) are crap on the road. On your typical crap British B road that harsh ride means you have to slow down, where someone with a softer setup is able to piss past you with ease because they aren't fighting to stay in control.

When I say wheel leaving the road, I do not mean the three wheeling thing, that's something else entirely. I'm talking about the tyre staying on the ground on a bumpy road in a straight line. A good setup should be able to keep the tyre pushed in to the tarmac fairly consistently over an uneven surface, so the grip and handling is consistent. A crap setup will not respond fast enough and the wheel will bounce, the grip and handling goes all over the place as individual wheels momentarily leave the ground and this is what makes stiff, overdamped suspension so skittish on crap roads.

I know a few people round here that have got cars that are uber stiff on shite like Jamex coilovers, on some of the fast coastal roads here they are limited to about 40mph because the car is so skittish. On the same road my car is quite happy well into triple figures because it is comparitely soft and well damped. It's always amusing to watch these guys catch up at the beach after about 15 minutes, and sit there and try and kid themselves all afternoon that their car handles amazingly, despite the fact they were late and got overtaken by an octogenarian in a Micra on the way.

I think the golden thing to remember is that 'handling' involves so much more than just how flat your car corners. :win:

Now - before you come back at me with the above said, I dont have any experience on track - never done a track day etc and therefore my opinion is somewhat only based on street driving.

I get you, however I'm sure they probably perform OK at the track because theres no bumps for them to deal with! :))
 
What setup do you run Kozy?

Also ive been reading into dampening and stuff but its hard to understand what i want, whats best and what to buy.

I read things like guys trying to get rid of suspension travel, would that not induce a harsher ride?

Also things like extended top hats to reduce suspension travel.

Its all confusing
 
I have Spoon progressive springs and fixed dampers, basically revalved slightly stiffer EK9 suspension. It is an absolutely superb fast road setup, feels planted even on the shittiest roads road here and means I don't have to slow down for anything. Well, aside from other cars, pedestrians, horses, police, etc etc...

The ride height is pretty high (maybe 10-15mm lower than an EK9) but again, loads of suspension travel means it never bottoms out, can cross speed bumps without resorting the creep-n-scrape approach and I haven't smashed my splitter getting on anyones driveway. :thumbs: My previous Koni/Tanabe setup, lowered about 45mm, was terrible for all this sort of thing!

As for getting rid of suspension travel, well you do that when you slam it and make it stiff, it's great for track or if you only ever drive on brilliant roads, not so good for the daily grind though. Extended top mounts mean you can run seriously low and still have reasonable damper stroke, where otherwise you'd bottom out on the slightest bump.

There's no denying that damper tech is a bit confusing took me a long while to get my head round it, I summed up what I know with these:

http://www.ek9.org/forum/suspension/29404-suspension-101-part-1-tyres-load-transfer.html

http://www.ek9.org/forum/suspension/29405-suspension-101-part-2-springs-dampers.html

I may do another one on geometry soon, currently building the models to show how it all works, I'll never explain it in words alone! :nono:
 
Cheers for that mate + Rep indeed.

Had never seen those threads of yours !
 
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