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What Size Springs ?

KrazyTurk
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GTSBoy Grand Master

GTSBoy

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Posted

Kings do standard replacement, low and superlow. They are all in different catalogues - superlow especially.

In general the only legal ones are standard replacement and low. The superlows are almost 100% illegally low across the whole range and in general are not good for handling anyway.

I don't know about Stageas specifically, but my recent experience (as in, this month) with Kings lows for R32 Skyline is that the KDFL-101 and KDRL-102 combo (being the normal low spring for most later R chassis cars) were far too low and I had to go to the equivalent GTR springs to get the ride height correct. When I say "far too low" I'm talking ~30mm lower than legal. I do not know if this is just a manufacturing batch problem, labelling problem or what it is. The result though is that I have ~5kg/mm springs in instead of ~3 kg/mm springs, and I actually damn well like it!

GTSBoy Grand Master

GTSBoy

Posted
Posted (edited)

I would have thought that you match the spring with the dampening of the shocks.

Yes but no. Unless you're talking about adjustable coilovers, or about adjustable dampers (Konis, KYB AGX and a few others) then what you get when you buy a damper (be it Bilstein, KYB, Monroe, Koni, whatever) is the damping that the guy at that factory thought best suited that car. Those off the shelf dampers are intended for stock springs or not much heavier than stock.

If you go buy a Kings spring, you can get either a pure stock replacement, a stock replacement with high rate (so, heavy duty) or the various lowered ones. The lowered ones have to have a higher rate than stockers simply because they're lower, so obviously that makes them the place where we all start looking. Anyway, the rates of Kings lows are not very much higher than stock springs, so when you bundle off the shelf springs with off the shelf dampers, they work OK together. Sure, they may not be the epitome of good matching or handling, but they work.

If you want to be able to match dampers to a particular spring - say you're putting really heavy stock format springs onto a car, then yes, you probably have little option to either buy fully adjustable dampers (not just rebound adjustable), or at that point you're better off looking at coilovers - just not cheap nasty coilovers. Cheap coilovers have cheap dampers....doesn't matter how many adjustments they have if their damping performance is gross.

I talk about "matching the damping to the springs" a lot in suspension threads because commonly the question is "I've bought these coilovers with 11ty bajillion kg springs and the're too stiff and I want to put some 6/4 springs on there." In some case they could get away with it (if they're starting at maybe 8/6) but then they'd probably not notice the change anyway. If the springs are like 10/8 or 12/10 like some of the Jap kits, then trying to halve the spring rates against the same dampers, even with "adjustments" in the dampers could lead to ugliness. Overdamping is not as bad as underdamping, but it's still not nice.

An alternative, if you can afford to pay someone to do it, would be to get dampers revalved to suit the springs. It's a lot of time and effort to get it right though. Look at the SK thread up the top about dampers (again, even if you already have) to see why brands like Bilstein are able to put good dampers out in the market, just from a fundamental design point off view, let alone the fact that they actually seem to care about quality of damping.

Edited by GTSBoy
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omnigear Proficient

omnigear

Posted
Posted

dont bother unless its a track only car, far too hard springs and will require re-valving if you go softer

Yeah, no. Had them, now don't. Good if you like your kidneys bruised.

Ohlins DFV then? Planning on street/track kinda ride , and maybe once in a blue moon take it on long trips.

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