Bc Coils R34 - Mechanic Just Slammed My Research

[Little]

Hey all,

I've been looking through here as my shocks are stuffed, Figured it's about time to put some coil overs in there anyway.

Things i've learned from SAU:

*Get BC's - don't cheap out

* non track car like mine - 6/4 is the go.

Called up justjap to order, and the bloke has strongly advised me to go with 8/6 as with 6/4 it will be "Flopping all over the place"

He's also mentioned I need to confirm wether I have push rod or forks at the back - which is odd, i thought all R34s were the same. Anyway.

Is 8/6 Civilised on the road?

[GTSBoy]

8/6 is not civilised on the road. There are meny people on SAU who run those rates and swear that they're fine, but in reality they are more than double the original spring rate. it makes them very harsh on the road. Smooth roads - fine. Normal roads (manhole covers, rippled bitumen, tree roots, etc etc) - not nice. Even 6/4 is pretty stiff on the road. I wouldn't go any stiffer than that.

The Just Jap guy saying it will be "flopping all the place" needs an uppercut. That's the silliest thing I've ever heard. I have maybe 5.x kg springs at the front of my car, 4.x at the rear. It is very firm, almost unbouncable by hand on the front or rear guards.

My advice would be to not use BCs. In fact, not to use coilovers at all. Contact Sydneykid on here, buy a set of custom revalved Bilsteins and springs from him. Spend a bit more, sure, but get umpteen times better quality gear.

Edited August 19, 2014 by GTSBoy

[Little]

Ok, much appreciated man.

shit shit shit, running out of time to get this sorted - Not sure what I'm going to do. I think they want two weeks even if i went with 6/4's because noone has em.

[dyl33]

8/6 is very stiff for a road car unless you're on roads that are near perfect or you do a lot of Motorsport. Just jap guy probably only said that because he had 8/6 sitting on the shelf. No idea if 6/4 is any better but yes coilovers are pretty stiff.

[HR32GTS 4DOOR]

I have 8/6 in a 32 (lighter than a 34) and 90% of the time its fine. Hell I drove from Adelaide to Brisbane once with them and they were fine. I do prefer a stiff car though.

The other 10% of the time you will hate them eg. train tracks, speed humps, roads that are shit.

If you want to track it now and then go the 8/6, if its only street driven go softer.

Also I find cars with BCs in them are real bouncy and the damper in them doesn't seem to do the job. May just be how they are set up.

[MrStabby]

Just jap guy is a muppet. 6/4 is much more sensible than 8/6.

[RBrennan25]

Or if you're not going to go cheap buy tein superstreets and you can change the spring rates from the drivers seat via the built in electronic motor and hand controller. See this for details

[KiwiRS4T]

Or if you're not going to go cheap buy tein superstreets and you can change the spring rates from the drivers seat via the built in electronic motor and hand controller. See this for details

No you can't change the spring rates from the drivers seat (there is a remote damper adjustment). Note that the spring rates they have chosen for a road and part-time track car are 5/4

[owen1r]

Don't buy BCs.

I did a heap of research before buying my coilovers from Shockworks.. Best purchase I've made thus far PM me if you want more info

Or as GTSboy mentioned getting some bilsteins setup for the car, or have a look at MCA coilovers which I believe are about to release some coilovers for the skylines.

Edited August 19, 2014 by owen1r

[SS-]

Just putting in a +1 for bilsteins have mine for 10k now not harsh at all and only a little bit more then the bcs cost wise..

[GH05T]

BCs imo are the cheaper option... but great for the money ($1100 ish)
with any damper adjustable coil, 6ish are good rates, if you want harder just up the damper a bit but your not gaining anything really by ging to huge rates.

[sucram]

Ok, much appreciated man.

shit shit shit, running out of time to get this sorted - Not sure what I'm going to do. I think they want two weeks even if i went with 6/4's because noone has em.

This is why he is suggesting 8/6

8/6 is pretty hard for a road car, even worse with low profile tyres, worse again when you use sticky low profile road/track tyres

Flopping all over the place is usually a sign of shit shock valving if you have springs in the ball park

[niZmO_Man]

http://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/444999-hsd-coilover-kits-special/

Ask that person for the street (dualtech) ones (if he has any in stock).

But Sydneykid's Bilstein setup would be awesome.

[34GeeTeeTee]

This is why he is suggesting 8/6

8/6 is pretty hard for a road car, even worse with low profile tyres, worse again when you use sticky low profile road/track tyres

Flopping all over the place is usually a sign of shit shock valving if you have springs in the ball park

Actually the shock tests on the dyno for the BCs came up surprisingly well!

[Touge Kyousou]

I'm using bcs and am really happy with them.. Car's not bouncy at all? With dampers on softest it's actually really comfortable to me.

Have also been impressed with their on track performance.

Oh, and I basically threw away a full set of bilstein shocks and hks springs before installing the bcs. Granted the shocks were nearing rebuild time though.

[Kinkstaah]

I recently bought a GTT which had some kind of hard jap coilover on them. Nfi what they are, never heard of them.

They are hard.

My previous car has Bilsteins which is the "I WANT EVERY OPTION POSSIBLE" from Sydneykid which I spent over $4000 on for everything.

Pretty much best mod I've made.

After driving the standard GTT with these (conceivably cheap?) hard coils on them, I can immediately feel the difference in trying to drive from what was probably the 'best' (or at least better?) setup vs a cheap set of hard coils.

It's just night and day.

I can also attest Shockworks stuff is good too - Housemate has a S15 with a set and the attention they put in for valving and drivability and most importantly the real question which is

'what do you want the car to be good for?'

'what are you planning to do with the car, please provide percentages'

Which really is the answer as to how good your 'budget' suspension will be.

IMO, save up and buy it once, properly, and you won't regret doing so

(PS, N/A R34's have eyelet rears. Turbos have fork rears)

[XGTRX]

Wheel diameter and tyre profile has a lot to do with it to... My 2 cents

[V28VX37]

...

Called up justjap to order, and the bloke has strongly advised me to go with 8/6 as with 6/4 it will be "Flopping all over the place"

...

BS.

I'm running 6/5 on an R34 sedan and the rates are perfect, very happy I didn't go the standard rates. I've got uprated sways at both ends too.

Don't buy BCs.

I did a heap of research before buying my coilovers from Shockworks.. Best purchase I've made thus far PM me if you want more info

Or as GTSboy mentioned getting some bilsteins setup for the car, or have a look at MCA coilovers which I believe are about to release some coilovers for the skylines.

Have you driven a with BCs vs. another one with Shockworks? Hard to compare two setups otherwise...

I had yellow Konis, King Springs and bigger swaybars in my Monaro and the ride quality was excellent. In my experience the ride on the BCs on the Skyline are equivalent.

[Kinkstaah]

My ride quality in the Bilsteins vs 'whats on there' was pretty similar, enough that people were saying 'dude just leave these in there and save the trouble!'

Except you could drift the car around quite easily with stock power. Which is great, it was consistent and smooth, but stock power, vs having CONSIDERABLY more actual grip under power... with near on 400rwkw.

Honestly, you have to have your suspension fit your need. If you are only ever going to have 260rwkw in a punchy setup, you prob don't need or want to spend 4k on getting it to hold onto the road, because you don't need it. See housemate's shockworks S15, with 250rwkw it juuussst loses grip on power, but add 100RWKW on it and it'd be undrivable in a straight line.

Srsly the best cars no matter what level they are, are the ones where everything is matched up properly to what you're doing with it.

[V28VX37]

...

Honestly, you have to have your suspension fit your need. If you are only ever going to have 260rwkw in a punchy setup, you prob don't need or want to spend 4k on getting it to hold onto the road, because you don't need it. See housemate's shockworks S15, with 250rwkw it juuussst loses grip on power, but add 100RWKW on it and it'd be undrivable in a straight line.

...

Back in my LS1 days a lot of people with decent power 300-400rwkw who wanted good straight line traction (read: drags) ended up going back to the stock FE2 suspension in the rear. More travel + softer springs + less inflated tyres = better traction off the line. Your typical coilover has a lot less travel and is much harder than factory suspension, a lot of the Jap stuff I've seen comes with completely outrageous 10 or 12 kg/mm rated springs that have no place on our roads.

Totally agree that you should get your suspension to fit you need. In my case BC + softer springs is a happy balance between ride quality, handling and budget.