Topic: KW V3 - instalation and impressions

[HAMMER DOWN]

Distance from ground to the fender       Distance from center of the wheel to the fender
Front      69.67cm   ........................................................38.89cm
Rear      70.94cm ............................................................40.16cm

Tires are 245-40-18 @ 32psi (2.2068 Bar)

Mike

[Kelu]

Thank you HD, my tires are 245-45-18 @ 30 psi (2bar)
I appreciated your help especially you marked in cm

[NormSky]

Just divide or multiple by 25.5 to convert. 

[Kelu]

After one month of the installation, went to service with the KW files to set up my coilovers.

Height
First of all, front was lower than minimum KW was mentioning. Raised the front to 150mm (5,9inch) between final of mauve nut and center of shock joint, as KW instruction and no more scrapping for me!!!  
I have marked the dimensions which I used.
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After putting it to the ground the new height values became:

Distance from center of the wheel to the fender	Before this adjusment	After this adjusment
Front	34cm	35cm
Rear	33.5cm	35,5cm

Now I realize that I didn't touched the height of rear ones but the dimension between center of the wheel to fender has modified  

After I went to set up the bump and the rebound. The one from rear, one was almost full soft and the other one was almost full hard   I set up them all, almost to KW values, car feels almost same as stock in comfort, damn.

I had the feeling that DA shocks are above my head to set them up, now looks like I was right   how in the world I should set them up except using KW values?  

[kwtoxman]

Why do people think DA is some scary monster. Talk to your friendly motorcycle guys. They have been on high end sport bikes for years, and now have even more adjustability than DA. Set them up to stock and use the KW instructions on what compression and rebound adjustments do to see for yourself. It isn't hard to adjust and try if you want to see.

FWIW, the suspension will settle on the car with time so it isn't at all surprising to see some distance measurements drift a bit. I also found that if your installer torques the spring on too hard (the nut torque values are pretty low in the KW specs and many installers are too lazy to even read these spec's, they just use a air wrench to put them on) then it will over-compress the spring and can lead to different measurements on the thread distance between coilovers.

[Kelu]

Because they are monsters for me, to change their settings I have to lift the car or remove the wheels, don't have a garage nor a jack.
Costs me 30$ to lift the car and adjust the settings to the service.

Don't have a space where I can drive and test the suspension, doing it on streets is pretty PITA because I have to be careful about water/dust, police, traffic, in the night when I can do that easier the sound of my exhaust attracts way too much.

Went with KW specs, I will reinspect them after some time to see if everything is still on same values.

[Kelu]

Has been one week since I was using KW recommended settings for the shocks. The comfort was almost as stock, my girlfriend actually felt right after I made KW setting "you made the suspension softer?"  
I have tested the car on short/long turns, low/high speed cornering and normal daily driving in the city. I loved it but I didn't knew what else I could get from these coilovers.

Decided to go hard, almost full hard, now the car has been transformed, I have the feeling is same as my drifter friends' cars, I feel every imperfection of the road, responds far better on switching direction but also on braking too. After only 1 day since I have these settings the review is: the new settings are great, feels almost like a kart but I wouldn't recommend as daily driving because (except the comfort) it looses traction far often on every imperfection of the road while cornering, I bet this will not happen on a track or in a perfect road and the performance would be great. I see ESP going on a lot sooner and a lot more often, it could be because of Romanian crappy roads and my almost gone front tires. I will keep these settings until I will change my tires so I can say better.

Suspension tuning to be continued  

[kennysabarese]

Be careful. Too stiff and you will not have traction regardless of the tires.

[Kelu]

I think i'm there Kenny, but I want to test it on my own, ESP ON so I don't have surprises

[kennysabarese]

Only way to know what the limits are, is to go there

[Gentleman Jack]

Kelu,

If you are going to be testing the limits, be sure to have someone taking video!  And be sure to be someplace safe when you do it.  Watching you slide out of control is great, but you crashing and getting hurt is BAD.

GJ

[Kelu]

Finally I can state a proper decision about this. I'm very skeptical person and suspension mods are very hard to be measured in performance but I think I nailed.

Benchmark: Mistubishi EVO X, no mods other than a turbo-back exhaust and a tune, 12.2s at the drag strip which shows clearly his high power. I consider this car an overall street masterpiece for that kind of money.

Before KW V3 and Z0K bars I couldn't keep with this car on mountain very curvy and inclined roads, last weekend we did same trip which we did before my mods and half of the road I was ahead!! I could see him in rear mirror that he is not pushing me anymore in the curves, he got me on straight lines and than I stocked to his tail without a problem even now my front tires are out.

THANK YOU GUYS FOR HELPING ME AND SUGGESTING THESE MODS.

GJ: Sorry sir, no video but believe me after that curvy mountain part we stopped for a break and I was happy like a child who got a new great toy.

[kennysabarese]

Sweet!

did the stiffer suspension help prevent squat in drag racing?

[Kelu]

I can't tell 100%, yes it is better I don't feel so much squat but I raced on 2 improper track races (one with weak traction and one on rain) and I don't have any videos so I can't tell clearly. I will report back when I will know something for sure.

Now I'm mad about suspension mods

[LatinVenom]

The proper suspension pieces on our cars make a whole lot of difference in how it handles.

[Sol Asylum]

Are you sure its the suspension and not that new spoiler that you added giving you the improved handling?