Gavins all out suspension mods

[Urethane]

You know I did the very same thing. I was on the last of the four wheels when I realized to use the extra jack. One's better than none I suppose.

[anarchyx34]

I think i decided that I'm going to go with 2ndgen tokico blues. Cant wait to have all that suspension travel back! I've got an odd question though. With getting shorter struts, and trimming bump stops and everything. what actually prevents the tire from crashing into the top of the wheel well on hard bumps where the suspension bottoms out?

[AusMX6]

heres something you could be interested in having a read of gav - for the next round os suspension mods perhaps?

http://www.mx6.com/forums/showthread...threadid=63881 (Suspension Suggestions)

[gavin]

anarchyx34... The 2nd gen front blues are a great idea to get more available travel to the front. As to tire going to the top of the wheelwell, I dont think this would be a problem. I think youll run out of shock travel before you run out of wheelwell room. Right now I have about 2.25" of shaft and there is about 3" of space in the wheelwell so theres a little room to work with.

AusMX6...those "real handling " articles are nice. Ive seen a few of them. I would like a bit more castor also. Right now I am at 1.7" of castor. No castor adjustment on the cusco plates. it'll do for now though.

Gavin

[gavin]

That is IT! All that this suspension project has had to be done..well...is done. Over the past months i have installed:

-Ground contoll coilovers
-2nd gen Tokico illumina 5-way adjustable struts
-superpro front suspension and swaybar urethane bushings
-noltec rear urethane suspension bushings
-Adamturbos B-pillar bar
-cusco adjustable front camber plates(from FC3S/2nd gen RX7)
-Adamturbo custom rear adjustable camber plates
-new front control arms
-urethane filled front and rear transmission mounts
-a host of other miscellanious items(2nd gen bump stops, 2nd gen strut bearings)
-and finally...whiteline swaybars (20mm front/20mm rear)


Over the weekend the swaybars went on and it was pretty interesting goings.



Taking out the front swaybar was a bit difficult. I had heard tales of people giving up and getting it done by a shop, but i had to give it a try. As it turns out is difficult but not impossible

heres what i did.
Remove endlinks> shift rod> shift stabilizer> DRIVERS SIDE tie rod endlink> swaybar mounts .
The swaybar comes out of the drivers side of things. It seems that there is a lot in the way, like the transmission, but you will get a better angle on things. Also , the swaybar mounts are a bear to remove. There is little room as the steering rack is in the way. Grrr. After the mounts are off its a bit of a chinese finger puzzle routine. Youll fight with it for a bit and then the swaybar will pop out as if there was never any resistance The rear bar removal is painless(just be sure you arent directly underneath it when it drops out).

Then its on to the installation of the new bars. Hmm...."some assembly is required". I had to modify the urethane swaybar mounts for them to work properly. The front bar requires that you reuse the stock brackets. Mine had an indented groove that I had to make provisions for on the whiteline mounts(@ 20mm wide x2mm deep). I didnt have to do that with the rears because whiteline supplys new rear brackets. I did have to remove @4mm off the back of the both front and rear mounts though, as they were a bit too tall and just about impossible to bolt down correctly. All in all, slight inconveniences.

I wrapped the areas that were to be clamped onto by the mounts in plumbers teflon tape(a trick I got from the Hans swaybar posts on PT. Keeps the squeaking down), used the included grease, bolt up and torque down. Ready to go

Now that all the pieces are together at last, theres just one thing left to do. A performance alignment by the folks at Custom Alignment in Mountain view, Ca because the car is simply awful to drive now

Gavin

[gavin]

its so good....no I mean it. Its sooooooo good

If you can afford to do it, find a shop that does full race alignments(I didnt have a choice, Wheelworks arent going to touch my car in the state its in). Final cost was a bit less than 400$(yes thats US dollars)

Custom Alignment in Mountain View Ca. specializes in..er, custom alignments. they do track and autocross vehicles. Its a barrage of questions when you ask for the race alignment/cornerweighting. "how much do you weigh?", "track vehicle only?", "will you be driving this vehicle TO the track?", "what settings do YOU want to be put on it?", "do you want to compensate for the crown of the road?", and so on and so on. They go through the whole car optimising all the settings for track usage.

I didnt have a baseline setup to work with(esp with the rear camber plates. where do you start??) so I had them recomend a starting setup. Front, camber:-1.9", castor:1.7" toe: .5deg. Rear, -.5" camber, toe:0deg. cornerbalanced L/R, F/R and diagonally.

Before the car was so tweaked. Every bump was an obstacle to be feared. The car would be tossed this and that way, steering wheel jerked out of your hands. The toe out was so bad it was like doing constant powerslides in a RWD car, just eating the tires alive. And now.....its so good

Now the car tracks straight, but more than that it does everything you want it to do RIGHT NOW!!. Turn here? It does it ...RIGHT NOW. Its so immediate, so sharp, so much more willing(and so much more capable) Its a totally different machine. I'll tell you what, although its an absolute pleasure to drive the car now, its also a bit scary. It has so much more potential/ability. Ive been likening it to the difference between a butter knife and a samurai sword. Both are knives but one is much better honed and If you arent paying attention, if you arent on top of things, you could hurt yourself. I'll be taking it easy while exploring its new limits for sure.

Now Ive got to start looking for events in the local area.

[Urethane]

I am soooo jealous

for racing try here:
http://www.sdr-scca.com/rr/schedule/
or here
http://www.scca.com/

[gavin]

for racing try here:
http://www.sdr-scca.com/rr/schedule/
or here
http://www.scca.com/

Oh yeeeah!

Gavin

[GT40man]

but, nowthat you finally have the suspentsion right. you will notice that you are lacking in power and torque. now i am not saying you dont have a lot now, but the car will easily handle much more and still be in the safe zone.

[gavin]

No rain here

But I do know what you mean. I have ideas about some mild engine work. Alter-ego is helping me with an upgraded turbocharger, slightly larger piping, improved fuel pump, ECU mappings, new O2 housing(which I think is a must), less restrictive exahust.

My general plan is to gain power while making it easier for the engine to produce that power. A larger turbo can push the same volume of air at a lower psi than a smaller turbo while heating it less. The intercooler then has less work to do to lower the air charge to an acceptable level. Backpressure in a turbo lowers spool up time as the gasses are not able to expand at a fast enough rate (I think the O2 housing needs a serious looking into). Backpressure also retains heat and excessive heat...well there are a host of heat related issues that could be lessened with rapid excavation of heat.

Thats the general plan though. I wont be going for any records, just mild power gains. Besides, what would I do with excessive power? Torque would just go through the roof and with an open diff, its just pointless. I so wish I had the scratch for the Aussie Torsen, but its not looking good

Gavin

[Manifest]

That torsen could be one of the single most important mods to these cars we have seen yet. These cars have always had gobs of torque, but never and efficient way to deliver it to the ground. The only thing better in my opinion would be all wheel drive.

Speakingof AWD, picked up a Subaru WRX yesterday, 237hp with no problems being able to deliver power. Very interesting how restrictive its exhaust and intake is and it still able to deliver all this power.

[gavin]

Everyone who speaks of horsepower should be lining up to buy into the aussie Torsen, but I dont see much of a line being generated

2WD or 4WD, it doesnt matter much if everthing is going through open diffs. I need a job now so I can buy that torsen. I just hope that there may be a second run.

Gavin

[Manifest]

I agree and don't understand what the deal is. Too many think that their car is worth less than 2k, why put $$ into it.

[Manifest]

Any word on the BMR59 18mm rear bar? Will it work on the MX6?

[gavin]

I dont see why not.

When I first got my suspension bushings they were listed only for the 626GD and not the MX6. Did they fit? Of course. We all know how this works. 626/MX6/Probe/Telstar/Capella, whatever you want to call it, parts are interchangable within similar model years. If I didnt get the 20mm rear bar I would have bought it

Gavin