Remote reservoir shocks

[alloydix]

I see what you are saying now. There is about 1in of strut tube above stock spring perch that could be removed. So you would use a shortened koni insert with a 1in spacer or so below it and then stock or long coilovers? Do the inserts actually have 3.5in of travel though?

[nando]

They should - it's really based on where in the strut tube you place them relative to your final compression height at rest.

[alloydix]

How much length do stock springs take up fully compressed? Seems that the springs may become the limiting factor. I guess you could lower the spring perch and run long springs on a coilover setup.

[The Dark Side of Will]

You'll bottom out the strut LONG before you coil bind the springs.

[Kershaw]

My ground control coilover conversion came in today. I will post pics of the set up when it's done. I ordered 10" 250lb circle track XT (extreme travel) barrel springs for the front and 350lb springs for the rear. I'll cut the bump stop down for the front.

Hopefully that fixes the bottoming out issue. Maybe I'll even gain a bit of travel. If not, I might go with 275lb 12" springs.

[Kershaw]

Anyone have any ideas for reinforcing the threads? Wrap steelstik around the top and hope for the best?

Before anyone says anything, yes the spring perch was completely removed.

[nando]

Cut it off and section another tube in there or move the threads down (I thought you wanted to shorten the strut tube?). Those threads are hosed. I'm amazed that perch could still support the car!

IIRC the ix strut tube is thicker than the RWD models, but the same as the E36 M3 (not sure about other E36 models).

That strut looks like mine before I sent them out (actually, mine may have been a little worse). I even have the same engine stand, lol.

[Kershaw]

I cut half the bump stop off, travel is nearly 5". I think that's good enough.

I think they're hosed too, they may hold initially, but I'm not sure how long. I'll take them to a machine shop this week and see what they can do.

[alloydix]

If the Koni race shock bodies are 2in shorter than the the standard ones with the same travel, why can't they make a standard koni shock with 2in of extra travel?

[nando]

huh? Who said they have the same travel?

It's not really about absolute travel. It's about how far the struts compress before they bottom out. And in the ix's case since the struts are directly above the front CV shafts, we are limited in how much they can compress. So to gain extra compression, you can shorten the tubes or cut the bump stops (which works in the case of Bilsteins as the factory bump stops are quite long).

[alloydix]

My understanding was that the race shocks had the same travel as the standard ones, just with shorter shock bodies. That is what allows you maintain decent travel when you shorten the strut housings. Otherwise it would be same thing as just using lowering springs or cutting the stock ones. Is this not correct?

[fiftytakedowns]

I tried searching and found that having coil-overs was somewhat useless in IX's because the lowered car destroys the front half shafts. Are you doing coils for the increased travel and ride comfort? I'm trying to catch up here...

[nando]

Who says it destroys front half shafts?

That's ridiculous. My front CV shafts have almost 300,000 miles on them.

[Kershaw]

Ended up having rwd strut tubes with good threads welded onto the struts. Rwd tubes are definitely thinner. The GC adjuster barely fits onto the ix tubes, needs help with a mallet.

[nando]

heh, I ended up using Civic adjusters from ebay that were trimmed down - GC springs and camber plates though.

They must have made one that fit the ix, because that's the original kit I got and they fit fine, but I'm sure they don't sell to a ton of ix owners these days.