LS1Porch

I'm in the process of finishing installing some 28mm rear torsion bars in the back, and then i'll get started on the front.

I have some Weltmeister 250# spring that i was planning to use, and my car already has Koni Yellows on all 4 corners.

I searched a while ago and someone mentioned that with the Koni's and the Weltmeister springs they were having issues with the strut bottoming out. Is that common??

I currently have Mookeh camber plates installed, which raised the car 1". The weltmeister springs drop 1.5", so that would get me back in the ballpark i'd like to be in.

If the Koni's won't handle the shorter spring, what are my options? I saw there is a 1" spacer for the welts, but would i be better off just re-selling the welts and getting a correctly-sized spring? If so, any suggestions (~250#)?
I'm willing to re-install the stock strut hats to return the ride height if necessary.

To sum it all up, i have:
-Weltmeister 250# 1.5" drop springs
-Mookeh plates (+1") (and i can't bolt them to the top as some have done because i have a strut brace)
-Koni yellows

And i'd like to fit some 18" turbo twist wheels nicely. I'm all ears

vt951

My car currently has 28mm torsion bars and 250# welt springs in front, and koni yellows all around. I have not noticed any problems with the struts bottoming out on street, track, or autocross. With the 968 m030 sways, it is a nice balanced setup. A little too soft to be really fast on track, but a nice compromise for a dual use car, IMHO.

I use the racer's edge camber plates, which puts the strut mount in the same location as stock (effectively getting the whole 1.5" drop from the weltmeisters). I would recommend those rather than the Mookeh's, but that's just for aesthetic reasons. You will have the same amount of room for strut compression with those as with the racer's edge ones (assuming the tire doesn't hit the fender first).

LS1Porch

That's great news! I also have the 968 M030 sways and was planning a "dual use" car...so that's perfect!

What kind of a situation did the lowering put your ball joints in? I'm guessing you have those nice control arms in your signature, but for now i was hoping to get away with just rebuilding my ball joints on the stock 951 arms (longer pins will probably be necessary, i'm guessing?).

vt951

I used the stock control arms for a couple years and a few DE's without any issues. I went with the "High Strung" control arms more as a preventative thing, because I've heard about control arm failures. With your setup, I wouldn't think you'll have problems. I think the failures usually occur when the car is lowered so extremely that the ball joints are pushed beyond their range of motion, which will cause any of a few things to happen... pop the ball out of joint, break the pin, break the control arm in half, or nothing.

The ball joints in my arms are from early 944's (3 bolts onto steel arms). They appear to be the same moog style ball joints that are in later aluminum arms, but the way they are mounted gives them a wider range of motion. There is also an option with the High Strung arms to bend the ball joint mounting plate down about 7 degrees to realign it to a horizontal plane (assuming the car is lowered 2", this is about right).

EDIT: Sorry, should have mentioned, the High Strung arms are my design, and are fabbed by a relative... so those would be the other reasons why I "went with them"

schip43

Yep I think the general rule of thumb is that as long as your lower arms are still parallel to the ground your ok?

CPR

If it is not too late I would recommend 300# Welts in the front with this set-up.

Just my .02

superloaf

or switch to the ground control/paragon kit so you can use the 2.5" springs which are also linear (IIRC the welts are progressive?) then you can select your ideal spring rate with some advice from jason at paragon and others.

schip43

I have the welt 250 on my 85.5 N/A with camber plates, the documentation I got with them said they are linear but they sure look like progressive springs. Yep I would go with the 300's if you still can. The 250's are great on the street and ride very well.

I have 300,s on my 951 S (MO30 Double Adjustable Koni Yellows) and it rides firmer but not bad... course we have glass smooth roads in NV.
On my forays into to Ca. around Sacramento I was pretty much hating my life but I like my setup 95% of the time :

pontifex4

Does the LS1 the OP has in front require much heavier springs? I've heard a number of claims that it's <100lbs heavier than a turbo engine and intercooler, but even so, would that require heavier springs to match?

LS1Porch

Thanks for the advice, everyone!
I've seen various claims on both ends of the scale, but i think the LS-motors end up being almost exactly the same weight as the turbo motor.

One question...where is everyone finding these 300# weltmeisters? I can only find 250#. I did find the paragon coil-over kit though....slightly tempting.... :/

vt951

From what I've read, I think my car may actually lose some weight with the LS1 swap. The fully dressed LS1 engine only weighs about 350 lb. A buddy and I were able to remove it from the bed of his pickup truck and lower it to the ground by hand, so I believe it. Not sure what the complete turbo engine weighs, though, including turbo, intercooler, plumbing, ps pump, a/c compressor, alternator, intake, etc. I bet it's heavier than 350 lb.

2bridges

for what it is worth the 250lb are a waste of effort...... way to soft even for street duty...... I would go no less than 325# front, of course that will require rear attention but will be a night and day transformation from stock

m73m95

+1

I'd like to find some #300 welts as well....

savvas944

are there any 300 weltmeisters ?

superloaf

yeah, i thought welts were either 200 or 250.

also, i asked this some time ago but got no response but i also have a vw scirocco 16v which i just converted over to 2.5" linear springs and after playing with several different rates i settled on 400# front and slightly less in rear. but the thing is that this car weighs 2400 lbs. and even with 400# springs, it rides quite nicely. and it goes around corners like you would not believe! so my question is how can i use 400# springs on a much lighter car and people are claiming that 250 is a sport spring for a 944 turbo? i would think you would need at least 400 before it would start to get stiff. (and this is with bilstein sport shocks which i've found are waaaaayyyyyyy better than konis for the vw A1 chassis.)

and just for sake of general knowledge: i've spent lots of time and effort playing with many different springs on the scirocco and i finally found what makes the car feel right and that was linear springs at a higher rate than you would expect but just DO NOT lower it too much. and that is what makes a great handling car out of a chassis which has about 4 inches of travel stock. basically all "sport" springs for that car are garbage because they are progressive and there is no wheel travel for progressive springs.

obviously with the 951 we have a better chassis with more travel but still, wheel travel is your friend. (anyone know how much the 951 has exactly?) but still i have my doubts that progressive is ever a good choice. it's kind of like wasting precious wheel travel.

anyways, just a little bit of what may or may not be of any help to anyone. your mileage may differ. but damn if my scirocco won't out corner my 951 easily ....