Koni shocks

[quick35th]

I was curious as of what you guys think of the infinatly adjustable Konis? I would like to get a new set of shocks and struts on my bird for autocrossing this next season. How bad is it to do the front koni conversion reusing the old struts? Are the Bilstiens any beter or should I just stick with the Konis?

Thanks!
Shane

[fast Ed]

Shane, to be a nit-picker, you do not have struts on the front of your car, they are shocks as well ! Coil springs over a shock doesn't make them a strut. Our cars have upper control arms as the upper pivot point for the suspension, a strut front end uses the upper shock attachment as the upper susp. mount. ;)

OK, now that we have that out of the way, I'd recommend the Konis for your intended usage, mainly because of the adjustability. The Bilsteins are nice too, but they are non-adjustable. With the Konis you would be able to play with the front - to - rear handling balance of the car by using different shock settings. I haven't done any autocross in my SC yet, courses up here tend to be pretty tight. But I have done open-track lapping at a few tracks this summer, and the Konis have worked well for me, I have them with Eibach springs. At Mosport and Watkins Glen, two higher speed circuits, the shocks were set to full hard at all 4 corners for neutral handling. When I was at Shannonville a few weeks ago, a tighter course, I left the front shocks about 1/2 turn off full hard, and right to max. on the rear. Car was neutral there, even had the rear starting to come a bit on a few of the quicker corners.

You'll likely find your car understeering in an autocross environment, shock settings and tire pressure adjustments will be your friend. :)


cheers
Ed Nicholson
SCCoO

[MIKE 38sc]

Ed I have pretty much decided on the Koni's for my car but I have a couple of qeustions for you.
As I understand it the rebound dampening is the only part thats adjustable, Is that correct?
Assuming that is correct, if I was to set the front shocks to full light would that allow the front end to come up pretty quick if say I was launching the car from a startpad I.E. dragstrip?
I'm not sure how stiffly valved these shocks are so I'm not really sure if they will do what I want them to do when playing on a strip.
How much did your Eibach springs lower your car? I'm not big on the lowrider look and I want to be able to get a floor jack under the car. Funny thing is, with the stock springs I could barely get a jack under the K member and had to take tiny strokes with the handle just to get the car up enough to get a decent stroke. Sure does look to me that if I drop the car anymore I wont be able to get a floor jack under it. I already have that problem on the SVT, I have to use the factory jack on the front end (because a floor jack wont fit under it) to do a tire rotation. I do not like this.
Thanks for any info you have Ed.

[SCrazy]

Mike

I can't get a floor jack under my car with the Eibachs. I drive in up onto 2x8s and that extra 1.5" makes it work.

[fast Ed]

Mike, as I understand with the Konis, making an adjustment changes both compression and rebound settings. The trick versions they have for some more common applications have separate knobs for each adjustment.

I ran my car at the drags a few weeks ago ... with the front Konis on full soft, the nose of the car would come up fine.

The Eibach springs dropped my car about 1-1/2" as advertised, the rear is a bit soft when carrying weight, so I have a pair of AirLift bags in the rear springs.

Have a look at the pics on my member page to see how the car sits. The tires are a bit taller than stock, approx. 27.0" tall.


cheers
Ed N.

[MIKE 38sc]

Very nice looking car Ed. I do like the way it sets, yours is not too low for my likeing. Your comments on the Koni's made my mind up.
Koni's it will be!!!!!!:D

I couldnt help but notice that you have a 90 bend in front of your MAF pulling cool air into the intake. Do you not read the posts on this board? Alot of people say you cant do that ED without messing up your MAF reading, What are you thinking? LOL!!!!!!!

[fast Ed]

Yes, I've heard that can cause a problem. Ryan Harris up here has experimented on the dyno with clocking the MAF in different positions, he has seen some changes in HP with that. Next time I have mine on the chassis dyno I'll likely play with that myself. As it is, the car runs pretty well, the custom chip I have is calibrated to work with the Pro-M 75 mm MAF I'm running.


cheers
Ed N.

[MIKE 38sc]

I wasnt knocking what you done with the 90 Ed, I personaly do not beleive it to be a problem myself. I was just having alittle fun with ya!;)

[fast Ed]

Yup, no worries, I saw your "LOL". As I said, the car runs pretty strong, so I'm not overly concerned with it. From my list of mods, you can probably tell I lean more toward handling / braking improvements than straight line performance. ;)


cheers
Ed N.