The Project Pad

i still cant believe you are only 21!
you act so much more mature than that buddy. Congrats again, and get back to work!!!

haha just took a test today so now I can relax a bit and prepare for the trip home to get this suspension done!

sooo the rear struts and springs come out from under the car correct? Like you dont do anything inside the car...

I took the seat out and everything looking for the top lol (just so I knew where it was before starting the install friday).

Just want to clear it up.

the rear is friggin cake... esp if you pull the adjustable upper link like I did (I was replacing them anyway)... 3 nuts up top and the bottom through-bolt.

the front is a bit more involved.

I suggest:
raise the car (loosen the hub bolt first), remove the brake caliper and wire it up under the front, disconnect ABS sensors in engine bay and snake them through (you probably wont get them out of the housings, so dont even try, lol) removing the sway bar would prob make the last parts easier.
remove the ball-joint pinch bolt, unbolt the 3 outer nuts up top at the strut tower, pull the axle bolt and remove the housing.

then use your spring compressors and stuff to get it all apart

yeah, I've done the front before. I hated it lol.

By three nuts on top (in the rear) you mean still outside of the car correct?

loxxrider wrote:

I love your Carpet. I love berber, thinking about getting it for my house. So much easier to clean. Sorry, i miss home, so i miss random things like carpet.. :bashtard:

Happy Birthday man and nice collecton of parts and steaks... lol!

haha so random, but thanks Stephen. Its definitely easy to keep clean. We can have parties and spill stuff and never have to worry too much about stains and what not. Its great.

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes

I'm off to see about using the machine shop for my rings. Then I'll know if I can make those spacers for you too Stephen.

loxxrider wrote:haha so random, but thanks Stephen. Its definitely easy to keep clean. We can have parties and spill stuff and never have to worry too much about stains and what not. Its great.

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes

I'm off to see about using the machine shop for my rings. Then I'll know if I can make those spacers for you too Stephen.

GROOOVY BABY! :thanks:

Made the rings just now. They came out BEAUTIFULLY. Now just have to see if they work

...and have to get home first (4 hour drive)

Dude, thats radical! I cant wait to see those spacers!!!

yeah i talked to them about that. I can do it, I just need the material...and a way to mount it in the lathe when I cut it to the right thickness.

English dude, Englais!

lol basically i just need to buy the material at some point...then find a way to mount it in the lathe because 10mm too thin for it to grab onto properly. Ill have to make something to bolt it into.

OHHHH, okay. dude, watch the news for me. i CANT.

i would if i could but im headed out the door to go home!

BE SAFE.

So its FINALLY DONE.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped. I forget exactly who helped with little things here and there but Nuugen, Justin, and derrish_vulf helped the most and I can't thank you all enough.

I intended to bring my camera, but I forgot it when I left my house to go to my buddy's shop. Which reminds me, I have to give a big thanks to Tom Sewell for use of his shop, tools, lift, welder, and all of his help and skill to get everything figured out.

It definitely wasn't a walk in the park. This is my second time having the suspension off of the car, and it still took 8 hours to do everything. The backs were incredibly easy. It took like 20 minutes including taking the wheels off and putting them back on. Set the car on the ground and the tires tuck SO nicely in the back Its got about an inch of threads left still.

The front (as with most everything on this car) was a nightmare...but at least I knew what to expect.

I'll go though my issues before I forget everything.

The front sway bar is always a pain in the butt, but its doable...just takes patience. When we got the front strut assemblies out, we hit them with the impact and shot the springs off (hehe). When we got the strut inserts out (with the help of a pipe wrench), I felt them and they were ridiculously blown. I knew the car felt like a boat for a reason.

So then it was time to get the perches off. I just went at the welds with a grinder and then took a hammer to it and they cracked right off. It took a good 15 min of grinding for each one though probably. Then we tried to slide the sleeves from A1 on and they didn't fit. So a little more time with a sanding wheel did the trick to get them to slide down nicely. Basically it was just the layer of paint and a few high spots at the bottom of the threads that were causing the problems. They are a pretty perfect fit (thank you justin for suggesting those sleeves).

Next was getting the rings I made for the sleeves to sit on to fit. I got specs from Aaron's coupe coilover thread. They weren't quite the right dimensions for this car, so I had to open up the ID of the rings a bit. The correct measurement is the ID of the front sleeves of course. I'll try and put this in the DIY T44 coilover thread in more detail.

Then we welded them on which was fine. Then coated the outside of the strut housing with grease and slid the sleeves down, then put the strut in, tightened the stupid nut thing, and put the springs on. They look SO short on there. I was really worried that they'd be too short. We also had to figure out the top hat situation. The way they came from A1, the ID of the hats were too small to slide over the non-threaded portion of the bilsteins, so we had to widen that up to have it sit down further in order to have the stock perch sit above it so that the strut bearing could be functional and mount between it and the upper plate thingy that bolts into the strut towers. (sorry for the run-on.)

Anyway, with that widened they were able to sit the correct way and then we just assembled and installed everything on the car like normal. Like usual, everything was a huge pain in the ass.

So the collars sit about half way down the sleeves in the front for the current ride height (thank you derrish_vulf and nuugen for verifying that 6" springs are the way to go). I didn't want to go any lower yet because my exhaust hangs down pretty low due to the downpipe configuration. I'll probably drop it all the way down for fixxfest though. Right now there is just a little wheel gap in the front. It looks great though. I'll get pics first thing in the morning tomorrow after I wash it. Its way too late for that right now!

So my impressions:

I thought this was going to be a really stiff setup. I also thought it would go really low.

Well, it definitely goes really low. I LOVE IT.

When we put the car on the ground, I pushed on it and was like holy ef this is so stiff. I can barely even more the car in the front lol. When I took it for the first drive however, I was very pleasantly surprised. The ride is relatively docile! I've ridden in much, much harsher riding cars. I have to say I am really quite surprised.

It corners so flat now and feels very confident compared to before. No more squatting when accelerating or nose diving when braking or even just letting off of the gas like before :-D I even got the famed VAG lifter tick after taking some hard corners.

So overall, I am extremely happy with this setup. I couldn't ask for more.

Pics tomorrow!!

and now that that is all out of the way, I'd like to outline my plan for the car from here on out. read if you are bored...if not, then just ignore


Now the only thing left to do is a ridiculous amount of power handling mods. This is going to come along slowly, but I might still be able to get the holset on in the next year...who knows. The good thing is that every mod I have to do to fit the holset will carry over to the next turbo setup (except the exhaust manifold...which is only like $200 so I'm not worried about it).

First up to the plate is the intercooler. Everything from here out is go big or go home for the most part. Thats why the intercooler will be the 1200 CFM side in side out 3" in and out unit from Treadstone. That will cover my power goals up until about 800bhp or thereabouts. Piping will all be 3". I've done the calculations and there is good reasoning for this size (mach number stays below .4). Then its hargett clamps to top it all off. Should be interesting fitting it in there... :/

At the same time I'll have to do motor mounts (hockey pucks ) so that I can eliminate the snub mount in order to fit the intercooler core.

Then gotta buy oil lines, injectors (Bosch 870's?), ebay cast manifold, modify the downpipe a little, and a tune from my buddy Tom, and we are good to go as far as fitting the Holset. That should end up costing a little over $1k...pretty sweet if you ask me. BTW those Bosch 870's can make like 1400cc on higher fuel pressure...and they do it nicely.

Gotta buy a clutch at that time, but this is where I run into a brick wall for a minute. I dont want to buy a ridiculous clutch setup to hold a lot of power because this tranny wont hold it, and if/when I do switch to an 01E, it wont be able to use this clutch. So I'll be wasting my money. I figure it might take me a few years to finish the final build though, so losing say $400 in that time to a clutch (keep stock fw) wouldn't be so bad. I'll be going to southbend for one of their stg III setups for the relatively tame Holset build. I think the end result I want from the Holset is a solid 350awhp. That way I can keep it stock bottom end for now and just be able to beat on it pretty reliably. (again, my tuner is awesome)

For the next phase of the build, 01E will be necessary, and I'm not sure what I might have to do with it to "reliably" hold the power. I'll probably be asking a LOT of questions relevant to fitting the 01E in a 200 20v, so beware

Then I'll just be chillin with that setup for a while until I finish with the final build. The basic plan from there is BW S372, 4088, or similar, solid lifter head good to 9k+, completely built bottom end as nice as they come (but with SCATs), maybe custom set of really crazy solid lifter cams in that head, tube exhaust manifold, probably one of those fancy IM's by our good friend on this forum , and then the rest is minor details!

I know this was probably boring, but I have a dream and a plan, and I intend to carry it out...slowly but surely.

awesome, cant wait for pics.

now I want to sell my 1000 mile old H&R's... Kuma werent you looking for lowering springs?

$200 shipped. lol.

Fo sho! No monies though.... :(
Pm me.

Chris, you are Gangsta!

first of all, I cleaned that exhaust mark off of the bumper after these pics lol

second of all, these pics kinda suck until I can get my other lens fixed (my friend was an idiot and broke it when he was borrowing it). I have to stand really far away with the lens I have now just to get the car in the shot. It looks a little reverse raked in the one pano, but its not really at all. Remember, the front can come down another 2.5 inches, but I'm not for now because my exhaust hangs too low and I dont want to have to worry about it.

Better pics later

low and dirty i love it!!!!!

Don't go any lower I think it looks real nice as is!

:heart: my SB clutch kit..
I didn't see any mention of the "Igor" mod, did you do that as well?
Love the stance in the rear, I would bring the front down a tad after you get your dp situation corrected..
The Bilstein Sports really control the ride well, it is kind of deceiving--you think it's going to be really harsh, but it turns out firm and controlled and very much unlike your buddy's civic with the ebay coilovers on stock struts :bump: