E28 Coilover suspension DIY (in progress)

[Hibbard]

The shortest dampers you can get without shortening housings are the spax adjustables. They are shorter than the koni's that are a direct bolt on. They will lower the car plenty IMO. I can lower mine lower than the car will drive on my wheels. The ground control kit for 1600 uses stock housings but they will shorten them and use the appropriate struts for 200 bucks extra. Expensive but it also comes with the nice camber plates and heavy duty rear strut mounts which youll want to replace anyways.

If you are interested in building your own shortened housing setup then you can run vw mk1 front inserts(there are others that will work too i believe.. You will have to make a custom spacer for the bottom of the housing because they are so short. A lot of e21 guys do the setup and they share a very similar suspension setups. You can also cut some cost on the the coilover part and by the conversion ireland engineering sells and just buy springs seperately to suit your needs.

E34 and e28 suspension can be swapped around for the most part. People have fitted the NEX coilvers designed for an e34 to an e28 no problem. If you can cut and weld its not hard to make something work

[Hibbard]

I have even tossed around the idea before of modifying 240sx coilovers to fit. Stance sells a weld on threaded tube that replaces the factory strut tube on old datsuns to run an s13 coilover.


My idea was to cut the strut tube at the bottom and weld that on. Then i would run the s13 coilover with either a modified strut tower or just fit and e28 camber plate to the coilover.

[iamsam]

Good info. I have heard that E30 iX front inserts work too, and require spacers, or the strut tube chopped and shortened.

[hotballs]

Or instead of DIYing something we can just get a cheap company to make them. I just emailed BC racing to see if they would make a coilover for the e28. They say they need to see the demand. Let's get a list going, they make coilovers for about $899. Sound interesting?

[iamsam]

Or instead of DIYing something we can just get a cheap company to make them. I just emailed BC racing to see if they would make a coilover for the e28. They say they need to see the demand. Let's get a list going, they make coilovers for about $899. Sound interesting?

BC Racing, eh? What components do they use? What is their process?

[hotballs]

They are on the "cheap" end of the spectrum. http://www.bcracing-na.com/index.php

For a street car I could care less. I just want height adjustability and a decent street ride. I wouldn't exactly expect them to lay down hot laps on the track, but who's doing that with their e28 anyway? Having said that though, I've seen some e36's at the track with the fully adjustable versions. So it's up to you really, but they are the "affordable" coilover.

[iamsam]

I looked on their website, and in their "applications" pdf they list an E34, which can be easily converted to an E28, as someone mentioned above I think, and their listed price is $1250, but that may not be retail.

Right here: http://www.bcracing-na.com/downloads...ATION_LIST.pdf

[hotballs]

Cutting and welding are great and all, but I would love something bolt on. Not to derail your thread, you can get back to the DIY solutions, but I started a thread over at mye28 to gauge interest on the BC coils. So far it's just people mainly saying it won't/can't happen. But my thought is anything is possible especially if it's made in China for dirt cheap.

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?p=963673#963673

[iamsam]

whoa this is an awesome link that was in your thread, I am going to put it here. http://www.teamdfl.com/bmw/e28/e28home.html

Also, your thread on myE28 sort of showcases why I am so interested in a solid DIY writeup and a comprehensive list of part options, because

1. I have fab capabilities
2. I am a cheapass (I want a complete coilover suspension for $800)
3. I still want something that performs well

[Manimal]

I'm not too familiar with the E28 suspension, but was talking coilovers with a guy sticking an LS1 in his right now. Sounds like they're struts front/rear like the E21s in which case you could do coilovers with 2.5" springs for ~$300 if you have basic fab skills and intelligence.

My setup for my two '02s(so enough for one e28 )
2x A1 racing 7" bilstein threaded sleeve kits + two extra hats and threaded adjusting collars = $130
4x QA1 springs from summit racing @ $38/ea = 152
a bit of scrap steel, specifically I had a 2"OD 0.065 wall tube which I welded to the strut tube to sleeve between the strut tube OD(1.74" on an '02) and 2.13" on the aluminum collars.

Buy the 7" kit, you'll only have room for 3.5" or less of it on the strut tube so you can cut it in half.

For the support ring I was able to find a few 10gauge 1 7/8" ID 2 3/8" OD steel rings at my local fastener supply store(not the hardware store, the industrial district fastener supply store), welded those on as supports for the adjusting aluminum collars.

All said and done I had about $140 into each setup, vs $260 for the Ireland Engineering setup.

http://shop.a1racing.com/cok12429.aspx

[iamsam]

ok whoa springs from Summit are $38 a piece? score!!!!

[hotballs]

whoa this is an awesome link that was in your thread, I am going to put it here. http://www.teamdfl.com/bmw/e28/e28home.html

Also, your thread on myE28 sort of showcases why I am so interested in a solid DIY writeup and a comprehensive list of part options, because

1. I have fab capabilities
2. I am a cheapass (I want a complete coilover suspension for $800)
3. I still want something that performs well

Yep, it's defintely been done before, and that link is good, but mye28 isn't really known for Step 1, 2 and 3 DIYs. I think I've found more of that kind of thing around r3v. I think this is the beginnings of a definitive guide to doing your own e28 coilovers. Seems like the information is out there just scattered. If you go ahead and tackle this, a dummies DIY to doing your own e28 coilovers would be sweet.

[iamsam]

Yep, it's defintely been done before, and that link is good, but mye28 isn't really known for Step 1, 2 and 3 DIYs. I think I've found more of that kind of thing around r3v. I think this is the beginnings of a definitive guide to doing your own e28 coilovers. Seems like the information is out there just scattered. If you go ahead and tackle this, a dummies DIY to doing your own e28 coilovers would be sweet.

You have pretty much just summarized exactly what I want to do with this thread.

[Manimal]

It goes kinda like this.

Order parts
Pull strut from car
Remove spring/top hat(ratchet strap or spring compressors are helpful if springs are stock)
Pull strut tube from strut
cut lower spring perch off
grind paint off metal
weld on shim between strut tube and coilover sleeve if necessary(not sure on e28 diameter)
slide sleeve on and locate where you want the bottom sleeve support to be
weld on sleeve support, just add 5-6 1/2" beads around the housing, doesn't need to be fully welded on.
paint
reassemble with 2.5" adjustable coilover parts
done.

Seriously it's stupid easy. Just make sure you don't warp the strut housing welding it, if you've welded much you should know what to do and if not you probably shouldn't do this.

My shim.


shim welded on


Sleeve support welded on/assembled. I pulled it apart for paint after the pic. Mine is cut like that because the '02 doesn't have much room between the tire and strut...like a mm or two with 195/50R15 on 15x6.5 et33. Going to switch to some 225x45R15 on 15x8 kosei's w/10mm spacers later when I flare the car.

[iamsam]

Good info, In general that is the same procedure I had in mind, but I am mostly curious as to what shocks can be used in an E28 with regards to different lengths and hoe much the strut tubes need to be shortened.

For example, can E30 iX struts work in an E28 after shortening the E28 tubes?