New Coil Over Kit Released Today!!!!!

[ccextra1976]

Originally Posted by bpitas

A few points here. I spent a while chatting with Jerry this morning and based on that discussion, Jerry suggested I post here to save other people the trouble.
So here's the deal - I bought VetteThret's original set of these "coilovers". Coilovers is in quotes because they aren't really coilovers at all in the rear, just an adjustable spring perch and an adjustable shock. I didn't get installation instructions. (more on that later)
I was supposed to get them with the springs they come with (stock rate, just shorter) and then VetteThret had bought a set of Eibach 650lb (I think) for the rears. I think during shipping, one of the rear 540lb springs busted out of the box, so I only really got the Eibachs. That's was fine, I don't think I would have used the stock-rate rears anyway...

The feature I liked most about the shocks before I got them is that they are effectively a threaded shock body threaded into a mount, so you can adjust the height of the shock body to match the height of the car and maintain the "sweet spot" of the shock regardless of the ride-height you choose. In practice, the fronts work perfectly, but the shock body for the rears are too long, and bottom out in the mount, so you can't go quite as low as I would prefer. I don't know the "official" way to measure ride height, but since I was just trying to make my car level, what I did was measure from the ground to the highest point of the wheel well, and right now if memory serves I'm at 26.5". I think it was around 28" stock, maybe 27.75".

So since I didn't have any instructions, but they had been installed on VetteThret's car previously, I just literally put everything in the way it arrived - same shock settings, same spring heights, everything. I think my car was at around 26.25" at that point. That was a mistake - I'm not sure if VetteThret actually ran them that way with no problem (we have tons of potholes around here) or they changed settings in transit, but either way, those settings weren't right for my car. Turns out that the instructions clearly tell you that the shock body should be set up such that 1/3rd of the travel of the piston is inside the shock body at rest. I didn't know this, though, and in fact there was more than 1/2 of the travel inside the shock, effectively limiting the amount of travel the shocks have before they bottom out. This resulted in me blowing out my left rear shock relatively quickly, at a very easy take-off from a light. I put everything back to stock FE4 (big pain in the ass) and then sent it back to k-sport for rebuilding. They were super helpful, and sent me the instructions. The rebuild was $100 plus shipping. My fault for not making sure they were set up right - I made an assumption that they were already set up right and that assumption was wrong.

So when I got it back and put everything back in, I went up to 26.5" ride height, and that's still a little over 1/3rd of the piston in the shock body, but the guys from k-sport said it should be fine. They also said that the shock was brand-new, they had obsoleted the design I had originally and this was the new design.

Then about a month ago, the other rear shock went. k-sport was great and sent me a new one for another $100 plus shipping, and this time didn't even ask for the core back. So now I have two new design rear shocks...

So how happy am I with the setup?

Well, there are a couple of things:

1) it's NOT a true coilover - it's the stock configuration in the rear, just with a height-adjustable spring perch
2) I don't know if you can fit the hotchkis sways in the front with these but I'll take some pics and post them this weekend so you guys can make your own guess.
3) It might just be me, but I don't think the shocks have enough of a nitrogen charge. If you push it down by hand, it comes up pretty slowly, and I wonder if that's where some of the acceleration squat comes from. Our Nivomat stock shocks would resist squat like that, so maybe I'm just spoiled, but it seems to squat too much on acceleration, which messes up the rear alignment and makes the car feel a bit squirrelly.
4) I don't know if I have them set up right in terms of front-to-back damping, etc, but it's very possible that some of the issues I feel are due to me just setting them up wrong. Does anyone know of a good free guide to setting up damping?

Anyway, I figured I'd throw out my experiences with these, since it seems there's been renewed interest in them lately. If anyone has specific questions or wants pics or anything let me know.

-B

stupid question here but I'm on the hunt for my future purchase...

when you say damping....are they adjustable shocks??? can you adjust the compression and rebound seperate like the KW V3 shocks???

[bpitas]

You can adjust the damping, but compression and rebound aren't separate, so you're adjusting both simultaneously.

[bpitas]

A couple of people asked me for pictures of the amount of clearance between the swaybars and the k-sport shocks. I thought we were only talking about the front here (as I had heard someone talk about fatter shocks hitting the Hotchkis sways), but another person mentioned potential interference in the rear too, so I took pictures of both.
In the rear, the sways aren't anywhere near the shock, so I took a pic of the spring-to-swaybar clearance. Doesn't look like it would be a problem.



In the front, it looks like the sway *could* interfere if you put in a fatter front strut, but there's plenty of clearance on the k-sports.



I have stock anti-roll bars, so you'll have to know how the fitment of the Hotchkis stuff is different.

Is this what you guys were looking for?

[atdeneve]

K-Sports aren't stainless?

[bpitas]

I don't think that's rust, I think I ran over something nasty and brown. It was all over the inside of that rim too, which is why I had to clean it. At first I was scared it was brake fluid or shock oil, but didn't seem to be either when I cleaned it off...