Ksport 2g coilover impressions

[pboglio]

Finally got my 2g Ksport Kontrol Pro coilovers from JNZ. I Intalled them on my 97 GSX without too much trouble. Tried to accurately install them to the exact drop I wanted, but it didn't work out that way so I had to remove each strut once to dial in the drop after the initial install. The rears are a treat to install since the rear lower strut mounting shaft on the suspension requires the rear strut itself to slide in dead coaxial. This is hard to do unless the rear strut coilover is shortened and is free to slide in without the top strut mounting studs sticking into the strut tower. Took me a few tries but it went in easy after that.

Still waiting on the springs to take a set, then I'll readjust the drop and finally do a full wheel alignment. Looks like my 1.75" drop has produced some serious "toe out" in the front, and some "toe in" at the rear. I guess I'll be buying a camber adjustment setup for the front and rears. Good thing is that the negative camber tucked my wheels in nicely

I think 1.75" drop isn't working out for me though. From an aesthetic standpoint it looks nasty from a rear quarter shot but I "feel" like I'm bottoming out something fierce going over railroad tracks etc. I can't figure out if I'm bottoming the tire into the wheel well, if I'm hitting the bump stop, or if the strut compression setting is still way too stiff to absorb a large rapid impact. Any suspension experts welcome to pose a theory on this one.

Initial impression on full stiff took me by surprise, or more like horror. I drive an 05 Sti and that thing is "stiff" but yet fully compliant over things like railroad tracks etc. You can lean on that car, sit on it, jump on it and the springs won't compress one millimeter. Yet it drives stiff, flat in the corners, but fully compliant over the hard stuff.

On my 97 GSX with the Ksports you can still compress the springs a little if you lean on the fender, much less then stock though. This tells me its something in the strut setup. Full stiff setting on the Ksports struts felt like all 4 wheels were going to fall of the car, not good. It felt so bad I turned around, pulled the car back in the drive way, and retightened my lug nuts just to make sure the wheels weren't falling off the car.

Readjusted the struts to level 17 out of 36 and the car felt just about right. Before the install I was getting good traction around corners thanks to my 225/40/18 Falken Azenis but I had WAY too much roll. Now the car corners flat, which is nice. At this point I don't see a big need for sway bars until I get more seat time on these coilovers.

Steering response is improved no doubt, but it wasn't as telepathic as I'd have liked. The Azenis just can't compare to the Bridgestone RE040 in terms of sidewall stiffness and I think that is where the steering response is being lost. I think I'm going to have to go to urethane suspension bushings to get that razor like steering response I get from my 05 Sti.

Overall not what I totally expected, yet definitely a major improvement. I'm definitely going to have to play with the settings a little more before I'm satisified. This whole turning left and right thing is still new to me

 

[pboglio]

Figured out the bottoming out problem. Had the front right strut set at 36, which is full stiff, and the rear right set at about 26, which is still pretty stiff, others were set at 17. I was in a hurry to get the struts on and half assed the adjustment apparantly.

Readjusted all 4 struts to a setting of 10, which ended up being moderately soft. This setting produces a little bit of "springiness" to the suspension, but overall the affect is minor. Flew over a set of railroad tracks on the latest setting and my lowered suspension absorbed it extremely well. Stiff but almost OEM like.

This problem makes me think about the durability issues people have had with the Ksports coilovers. If you adjust all 4 struts at max stiffness, I have no doubt repeated hits over large uneven road surfaces could eventually blow out the struts since there is almost no give at the max setting.

On another note, the front "toe out" due to the suspension drop is scrubbing rubber off my front tires at an alarming rateWTF Time for a wheel alignment. Overall, not a bad deal for $725 shipped.

 

[psycho]

Thanks for the detailed impression. Any pictures of the product and install?

 

[gsxAWDdsm692]

How are they now?

 

[pboglio]

Here's a few picks with the drop and my new rims.

 

[KiNg MaRtY]

Good luck with them. I blew 3 K-Sports within 1000 miles on my 89 MX-6 GT 4WS Turbo. First one blew at 150miles or so. Nice looking car

 

[trunks]

I've got ksports too and was just curius were you get the adjustment numbers from. I thought my manual said like two full counterclockwise turns on the adjustment knob and that's as soft as they go.

My ride is pretty rough and on the interstate it can be really bouncy at high speed. It's sweet if you got a girly next to you - but gets annoying quickly.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[pboglio]

Bouncy means soft. It takes me about 10 turns in from full soft (i.e. unscrew completely counterclockwise and screw back in 10 turns clockwise) to get rid of that bounce, which is a perfect daily driving setting but I like it a little stiffer at a setting of 17. I still think I could go stiffer on the springs though. I can still compress the springs by leaning on the front of the car and there is still some lean in during cornering. Maybe its the stock swaybars.

I need a suspension guru to dial these things in. I got it where I pretty much like it but its still a level below my Sti in terms of stiffness & nice daily driveability.

 

[meliketoball]

Lower it some more!

 

[pboglio]

Its' already at 2 finger widths. That's about as low as I want to go.

 

[gsxitement]

hey...nice car. I just picked up these same coilovers for my 2g and I had one question. In the front, Where the strut body goes into the strut fork, did you have a problem with lining up the notch for the bolt. See, when I put these in the car, I bottom the strut into the fork. I like the idea of having my strut very solidly mounted to the car (imagine that). But when I have it setup like this, the notch in the strut is to high. When I line up the notch, I get a gap between 1/16" and 1/8" at the top of the fork. Did you have any problems with this?

 

[pboglio]

Finally got an alignment done due to the suspension drop, not good news though. Results are:

Front left Camber: -1.4*
Front right Camber: -2.3*
Rear left Camber: -.8*
Rear right Camber: -.9*

Front left Toe: -0.00*
Front right Toe: -0.01*
Rear left Toe: -.84* (spec is 0.00* to +.24*)
Rear right Toe: -.33*(spec is 0.00* to +.24*)

I've got some work to do to get the front left and right equal in camber and the rear toe is way the hell out. Rear toe adjustment was limited on the rear left due to a corroded cam bolt. Looks like I'm going to be replacing both rear left & right toe control arms or replace the bushings to get some range back on rear toe adjustment.

I used an Ingalls rear alignment kit to bring camber back in about 1.25* before I went to the alignment shop. I digged the look of big negative camber in the rear but I wanted to bring it back closer to stock.

The difference in handling is big. I wouldn't say there is more traction, but bringing the camber closer to stock in the rear and leaving the front camber much more negative seemed to loosen up the rear alot. Now I own a WRX STi and get that thing sideways at least once daily so I'm used to sliding the car around a corner, but the GSX is on a whole other level of scary. My GSX I'd almost prefer more understeer as the throttle modulation is nearly impossible once the boost hits you basically have to floor the throttle and just countersteer and let it sort itself out.

I really can't believe how much of a hassle its been to lower this car.

 

[Apeximprt2nr]

Updates on these coilovers? I have Tein Basics on my car which are just ride height adjustable and I'm looking to swtich to the KSports.

Do you suggest?

My Tein's are very stiff going over bumps, railroad tracks, etc. I feel like I almost have no shocks, just metal rods it's so stiff.

Yet when I'm driving it's a bit bouncy sometimes and and there's some minor roll in the body, more than I'd like. Possibly due to my 16 wheels and stock sway bars and bushings.

 

[gsxAWDdsm692]

Idk but I like your car, very clean.

 

[pboglio]

Updates on these coilovers? I have Tein Basics on my car which are just ride height adjustable and I'm looking to swtich to the KSports.

Do you suggest?

My Tein's are very stiff going over bumps, railroad tracks, etc. I feel like I almost have no shocks, just metal rods it's so stiff.

Yet when I'm driving it's a bit bouncy sometimes and and there's some minor roll in the body, more than I'd like. Possibly due to my 16 wheels and stock sway bars and bushings.

They can be adjusted so that you can still fly over railroad tracks, and still be firm and not roll during cornering. I don't like my suspension too firm as I've had a situation where the car hit a few bumps mid corner and the car just gets airborn and you have zero lateral traction at that point. I'd rather be rolling and sliding then just being launched in the air.

My car is not the best case sample, since I'm running stock sway bars and 120,000 mile beatup bushings, but the roll improvement is impressive. The only thing I need to work on is the initial steering response when yanking on the steering wheel.
Having to stiffen up the dampening helps, up to a point, but it is a bad way to do it. I think the RM sway bars and new polyurethane bushings will improve that while still allowing a very compliant suspension setting.

I have a neighbor who is running an EVO IX and he is doing something different. He's running 255 tires vs. my 225's, a less aggressive shock/spring combo, but bigger sway bars. So driving down the road there is zero bounce and a somewhat softer suspension than mine, but cornering is flat as a pancake with zero roll. This is what I'd like to try, and the K-sports have enough adjustment in the dampening/rebound to probably allow the same type of handling characteristics.

 

[Apeximprt2nr]

It looks like you and I are looking for the same type of setup. Little- No body roll, yet forgiving on bumps and daily drivig. Knowing that, do you suggest me going with these or going with a spring/shock combo? My Tein coilovers are starting to get on my nerves DD'ing.

 

[pboglio]

Well, my neighbor ditched his Megan coilovers (K sport equivalents) and went with a dedicated shock and performance spring with the mentioned stiff swaybar combo that I described earlier. I've ridden in his EVO IX and I liked it alot alot, it is much more a dual purpose setup, perfect sport feeling in the straight aways with minimal squat and dive but no harmonic bouncing when driving on the expressway like the K-sports, yet cornering is completely stiff and flat. I may try this myself if I ever get more serious about roadracing, but I had to try coilovers first just to satisfy my curiosity. I still likem though.

 

[pboglio]

A little update. I've decided a 1.75" drop on my 2g is a bad thing. Countless times dragging the front bumper on curbs, mid-muffler getting dragged on speed bumps, car launching air-born when rebounding off of dips in the road at high speed.

I decided to bite the bullet, buy new rear control arms, eccentric bolts, some new sticky Falken Azenis 615K tires, and a fresh alignment. I also raised the car up another 0.5" all around. Car is now sitting at about a 1.25" drop from factory.

Results: The increase in ride height took the edge off small road impacts while maitaining good dampening characteristics. I think adjusting the ride height by screwing the strut assembly in or out seriously affects the dampening characteristics and I believe RRE mentioned on their coil-overs there being a sweetspot for this in terms of shock performance.

In terms of rear toe adjustment with the 1.25" drop, the left rear has about another 1/3 of adjustability to bring the toe more positive, and the right rear has about 1/4 of adjustability left. As it stands I'm at 0 toe in the front and rear, but something like 1.75" drop puts you close if not beyond the adjustment range on the rear control arms. I definitely don't recommend anything near 1.75" drop, the 1.25" seems to be a good compromise for safety, driveability, tire wear, and comfort.

 

[pneumo]

I appreciate your observations, always a good read. Did you modify the bumpstops at all? I went through a similar experience when I put coilovers on my Laser. If it was too low it would hit the bumpstops and bounce the car. If I raised the ride height it rode nicer. I tried to keep the car as low as possible without bottoming on mid corner bumps. Trimming the bumpstops to 1.25" tall seems to work good.