outlaw944

Hello,

I have an oil pan gasket leak on my 86 turbo, and I wanted to take this as an opportunity to do a full front suspension refresh, as almost all of the bushings are original an have exceeded their lifespan. I'm planning on replacing every rubber component in the front of the car, as you basically need to take them all apart anyway to get at the oil pan. While I'm doing this I want to stiffen up the suspension as it is also original and rather soft, it will bottom out on hard right handers. I like to auto cross and plan on the occasional track day when everything is said and done, and am looking for a suspension that is stiff enough but not harsh, and able to be setup well with the aid of camber plates.

I will also be addressing the rear suspension eventually as well to match it to the increased stiffness in the front. My question is twofold:

1. Should I go with coil-overs in the rear? Is the Koni Cup kit a good choice?

https://www.paragon-products.com/Coi...ni_cup_kit.htm

2. What spring rates should I use? I was thinking 250-300 in the front but wouldn't know what that corresponds to in the back (600? 28mm torsion?)


The car currently tends to oversteer at the limit, which I enjoy, but I think it is due to the mismatched rear tires. I will be getting some nice sticky rubber when these wear out.

Thanks!

jeffro951

I like my ground control setup, I have 250 or 300's upfront and 400's in the rear with torsion bar delete. Car handle better than it ever has. Call ground control and tell them your intended use and they will suggest the proper spring rates.

951and944S

Don't Ground Control just build a strut housing and use Koni inserts..?

T

951and944S

The Koni 30 series are fine for your goals.

You could keep the rear torsion bar and still do the rear coilover with a milder spring as another option.

For F/R coilover with t-bar delete, 250#F, you need 425Rr to match, 450-500 towards oversteer.

For F/R coilover keeping your stock 23.5 t-bar, 250#F, you need 225Rr to match, 250-300 towards oversteer.

If just front coilover @ 250# with convention Koni sport shock and increasing rear t-bar to match, yes, 28mm would put you sweet, 28.5-29mm increasing towards oversteer.

Call the 1-800 Paragon # and talk to Jason personally and tell him your goals.
He'll steer you right (pun intended). Texas hurricane might have them down some portion of next week though.

T

951and944S

Jason d@mn it, if you catch up with this thread and decide to use,

"Paragon Products - We'll steer you right" as a web page header or new company motto, I want compensation......!



T

jeffro951

This is true Jason can set you up proper, he has all the goods to convert any strut housing to coil-over and koni inserts.

Widerstandsfahig

This is great advise ^. Pay attention to your spring rates, it makes ALL the difference. Both Paragon and Ground Control offer great adjustable Koni set-ups.
Best of luck!

Endoman

On my S2 I run Koni coil over kit at the front from Paragon with 250 springs, rear is std 968 torsion bar. Lindsey M030 arbs lowered 30 mm. Firm on normal roads, sublime on the track.

MAGK944

That's good set-up for a road car, if it feels "sublime" on the track you are not going fast enough

outlaw944

Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely call Paragon for some spring rate discussion. I talked to someone at elephant racing the other day but they were more of a sales person and didn't have some of the more technical answers I was looking for.

I wouldn't really want to do T-bars and helper coils due to the added weight, I'd rather stick with one or the other. I've heard that re indexing the t-bars can be a real pain to get right, requiring multiple tries to get ride height proper. I wouldn't mind doing the work too much, but don't have a garage to do it in. I'd be doing this at a local fabricators who builds NASA TT cars, he lets me use some of his tools but charges hourly when I inevitably need help

Does paragon sell just the fronts? Then I could get this done and see how my wallet feels about going for coil-overs in the back a little later.

Thanks!

Bonus autocross pic! http://imgur.com/a/b1rj0

Jason @ Paragon Products

Sorry, just now checking in! Harvey had our attention, power, AC, trees and fences. Getting back to semi-normal now. Let me know if we can help!

outlaw944

Thanks for the advice! I will probably be going with the Konis, but it's going to take a while to get all the parts together as I'm planning on new bushings and the oil pan fix so it's a good number of parts.

I'll update with pictures as they come in. Does anybody have experience with the lindsey oil pan baffle? Since Im taking the pan out this would be a good time to do it. Do you think it's necessary for tracking the car? I'll likely be running on R comps when I get new tires.