suspension

[steve]

Hi all. Just finished months of cleaning, welding and painting the underside of my 84 Elford Turbo and hoping to spend the next few months on mechanical bits before a
re-spray and interiea next year so could with some advice from the experts.
I need to replace all shocks and springs, not race/rally just a good standard road holding setup and was looking to source them in the uk from one manufacture rather than abroad with high shipping costs. Up to now have only been able to find GAZ suspension that can supply all parts and they only do them In coilovers. Has any one used them, if so do they bolt straight in and how do they handle, or would I be better will separate spring and shockers set up. I have replaced all the rear bushes with poly's and new ones to go in the front.
Also, as I have the engine and box out I was looking at replacing the rad and installing a new rad with electric fan and doing away with the viscos fan . Also installing an additional oil cooler, any comments/improvements would be very helpful.

This is a 1984 Elford Turbo in tencher blue, Registration RXI 7426, in Lincolnshire.( Just for your records)

many thanks

steve

[ian65]

My personal view Steve is that coil overs are overkill on a roadcar.... if you are planning on using it for motorsport, then fair enough otherwise the extra cost is hard to justify.

I'm doing my suspension next year and I'm going for Racing Beat springs ( direct from the USA, I'll have to pay the shipping and maybe cop for a bit of duty but that's life, still cheaper than buying them from the UK reseller) and Tokico Illuminas for shocks.
I've already done the front with Energy Suspension polys and will do the back with the same when I fit my lsd.
On the cooling side of things, are you currently running a series 2 rad with an air cooled oil cooler directly underneath it or a larger series 3 rad with the beehive oil cooler?
The best set up and combination is the larger series 3 rad with a turbo 2 air cooled oil cooler slung in front of it and either a 16" electric fan or twin electric fans depending how much flexibility you want in the cooling setup.
This is the system I'm running on my Elford and the temperature stays rock solid, even when I've been caning it.

[TOOL]

I swear by KONI shocks. They are adjustable damper and are infintely rebuildable. I hade some original 1972 units rebuilt this year and they were like new inside apparently.

Here's a link: http://classicgarage.com/rx72.html

The price is right imo.

People have bought the RB shocks but iirc they didn't lower the car the inch they claim. People put it down to sag in their current old springs.

The only way you can buy shocks and get the ride height you want is to have custom springs made. I did this for my RX2 (yeah, good luck finding anything for one of those in the UK) and it was about £200 a set. I provided the old ones and had them stiffened, ride height lowered and full extension lengthened all at the same time.
They came out like this:





I agree with Ian about coilovers. Unnecessary on the street, unless youre trying to get the ride height exactly right with no guess work.

Steve-A built a S2 with GAZ coilovers and it was fantastic to be fair. It'll cost about £1k and he had to trim the chassis to get them to fit in the rear iirc, but he's a wizard so was easy for him.

[Lucky]

Coilovers generally struggle to clear the lip of the monocoque on the rear due to the angle they sit at and the extra diameter over plain shocks. IIRC Steve had to re-locate the bottom mounts on the axle to get the right angle on his coilovers. OK if you can weld to a chassis-component level! I installed pretty much the exact setup Ian describes on my S3 a couple of years back. It's transformed the handling and ride quality, although on thew downside the Tokico shocks were a total pain in the arse to get to fit as the top ends didn't match the struts properly... and Tokico aftercare and customer service is to treat you with utter contempt and be no help at all. In fact, they wouldn't even talk to me cos I bought them off eBAy rather than direct from the company And as MR TOOL says, you don't get quite enough drop out of the RB springs (you can see my build thread for before and after pics). I could have done with a bit lower, really, but in their defense they do give an excellent ride.

I've had a few different coilover setups on my FD and go so far as to say nothing ruins a decent car like badly setup or specced coilovers. Too hard a spring rate will turn it into a tooth-breaking rodeo ride, and insufficient or inadequate damping will leave you with no control or confidence, or you'll end up pissing blood after a long drive and hating the car! Best thing I ever did was get Ohlins coilovers on the FD, it made me love the car all over again and remind me what a well-handling car should feel like. But then, you need a small mortgage or a good deal on one of your kidneys to afford going down that route. And that's kinda the equation for me on an FB: a few hundred quid for shocks and springs that fit in a couple of hours or over a grand and a lot of faffing around with fitment for a (probably bespoke) coilover setup... the sums just don't add up for investment vs reward. Unless, as previously stated, you're heading to the track