SPOautos

Hey guys, I'm thinking of going with some Koni yellows with the Ground Control coilover setup.

How does everyone like this set up? Is it pretty decent? I daily drive my car, drag race, and hopefully will be doing some road racing pretty soon.

Would this be a fairly decent set up? Would I keep the yellows on thier highest setting then somehow adjust the ride height with the GC???

I'm suspension stupid, how does this set up work? How do you adjust the height with it? Does the compression still adjust with the Koni **** on top just like normal???

Any help will be great!!!!
STEPHEN

DamonB

I feel it's the best bang for the buck out there.

The threaded collars GC supplies rest on the stock perches but allow you to adjust the ride height any where you want.

Yes.



The bottom of the threaded sleeve will rest on the stock Koni perch while the nuts will allow you to adjust ride height. These also use common 2.5" diameter springs so nearly any spring rate you could want is available.

SPOautos

By nuts are you refering to the hole in the "adjustable spring seat" shown in the pic? Do you basically just loosed that bolt or what ever and the "threaded sleeve" moves up and down giving you height changes?

From the looks of it you would have to pull the wheels off to make that adjustment IF I'm understanding you right.

Thanks for the help,
STEPHEN

DamonB

The threaded sleeve rests on the Koni perch and never moves. The "adjustable spring seat" is just a nut that goes up and down the sleeve and therefore adjusts the ride height. A set screw is there so the nut won't move once it's set. Most cars you can adjust the ride height with the wheels on, worst case jacking up the car to extend the suspension and give access to the collar. That doesn't mean the tire won't get you dirty though

redrotorR1

Unless you have re-valved Koni's or the Koni 2812's, the **** only adjusts rebound. And even then, the compression **** is usually on the side of the shock body.

At any rate, that's the setup I plan on running in the near future. I'm just waiting for a decent deal on a used set of GC coilovers. There's a lot of debate on what the best spring rate combo is ... just decide on what you want.

And like any other suspension work, it's always easier to make adjustments with the wheel off. (and if you find a deal on the GC coilovers, let me know!)

SPOautos

I might be wrong but I'm about 99% sure that the stiffness **** on the Koni Yellows is at the very top and you adjust it from the engine bay at the strut tower where the shock bolt up at.

I'll let you know if I see some. I'm going to get a used set from someone. If you dont mind used I'll let you know if I see another set for sale.

Thanks for the help guys!!!
STEPHEN

redrotorR1

You're right about the location. It adjusts rebound for the Koni Yellows. The compression remains constant for the most part ... although Koni does claim that compression changes slightly when the shock is set to full stiff. The 2812's and re-valved Koni Yellows get another adjustment ****, usually on the side of the shock body, for the compression adjustments. Don't worry about getting it though ... if you're stiffening the spring rates, you won't need to worry about adjusting compression.

And no, I don't mind used. Lemme know what you find ....

HedgeHog

not enough damping on rebound from the konis resulting poor transition. the GC's are well built though. u can always send those konis to truechoice or proparts and get them revalved.

i sold mine for the very reasons above...but it gets spendy to better the koni/gc/eibach combo tho.

SPOautos

Well, hopefully it will be a big improvement over the stock suspension.....especially since my struts a totally gone haha

STEPHEN

redrotorR1

Yup. It's probably more economical to buy the AD struts with the GC coilovers so that they're matched and then sell your old Konis. I'm thinking about doing that .... pricey, indeed. I don't think GC cuts you any slack for buying the whole package either.

SPOautos

Unless I'm reading the ground control web site wrong they sell those AD struts for $399 EACH....thats $1600 plus the coilover kit which is another $599 for a grand total of $2200 plus any other misc stuff you might need. If you sell a set of used Koni Yellows they go for about $300-$350 so your still going to lay out $1800-$1900 event after selling your yellows.

Thats not very economical....it might be a bad *** set up but I think there are probably some other very good options when you get into that price range.

Am I reading thier site wrong? What is so good about them that they would be worth $1600 JUST for struts??? Thats over $1000 MORE than the yellows

STEPHEN

redrotorR1

Generally, re-valving your Konis costs about $150 per corner. If you want to make them double-adjustable (like the AD shocks), it costs about $300 per corner. Add in the initial cost of the Konis, and you've already paid off the AD shocks and then some. If you buy the whole package together, you don't have to fork over the extra cash for re-valving and matching to your spring rates. So like I said, more economical ...

SPOautos

Ahhhhh, ok your talking about as compared to having the Koni's revalved at a cost of $300 per corner. Then yea, they would be very similar in cost. I guess it would just come down which ones are better....and I have no idea

STEPHEN

rynberg

Unless you are a regular track junkie, I don't see the need to spend that much cash on a double-adjustable set-up.

Stephen, just get the Koni Sports. They are less than $600 shipped from Tire Rack right now. You can always upgrade to a coil-over set-up with the Ground Control package for $600 more.

Since you are just getting into road racing, it doesn't make sense to me for you to spend a lot of money for adjustability you don't want or need at this point.

That's my viewpoint from someone just getting into racing....

DamonB

I agree with rynberg. I hear all the time that "I can't come to the track, I don't have my new super-duper-tricked-out-suspension" or wheels or tires or turbo kit or whatever. Makes no sense.

How about you go to the track first, get some seat time and at least an inkling of what the car does around the course and then worry about what you want to improve? For all you know we make this crap up

rynberg

Stephen: As another prod, if you get the Koni's, you can tell me about the ride and handling differences between them and the stock suspension.

I'm about ready to pull the trigger on the Koni's myself -- rear shocks are toast.

xchaos

I have the Koni Yellows and GC with 500/450lb front/rear springs. On the street, I turn then to full soft in the rear and about 1 notch stiffer in front. It is not a bad ride at all and ALOT better to toss into the corners with.

I have tracked then 2 times on a road course and I generally stiffen them up quite a bit when doing that.

I have never been in a car with a setup such as the JICs etc., but I think this set up is just fine. I say go for it.

SPOautos

Well believe me after all the money I've spent on drivetrain in the past year I wouldnt be buying this stuff unless I had to. My stock struts are blown to hell and back after my car was on jacks for 6 months.

I'm getting a good deal on some used yellows with the gc conversion already done to them. If it wasnt for me finding these particular ones used I would just be getting the yellows, throwing on my Eibachs, and calling it a day. But this is a good deal and I'm sure I'll end up going down that path one day anyway so I might as well do it now since I can get them for a decent price.

Thanks for all the advice though guys.
STEPHEN

sk8world

iTrader: (5)

Stephen, Are you wanting to sell the GC's?

SPOautos

Nah, I'll keep them. But I still might have a set of H&R's to sell you in a week or so lol

STEPHEN

jimlab

It pains me, but I'm going to have to disagree with you...

It might be the best bang for the buck if you already happen to own a set of Koni yellow "sport" shocks, but if you're buying everything new, it's an entirely different story in my opinion.

If you already have the Koni shocks, then $550-600 for the GC/M2 Kit (could be more or less, I haven't kept up on pricing) to convert to adjustable ride height isn't that bad a deal. But if you're laying out the $700-800+ for the Koni shocks also, you'd be better off looking at "purpose-built" coilovers in the $1,000-1,500 range, which includes the Tein HA ($1,025), Tein Flex ($1,330), Tanabe Sustec Pro ($1,235), and JIC FLT-A2 ($1,550). (RX-7 Store pricing as of today)

The reason being that the GC kit is a band-aid, in my opinion. The sleeves fit poorly on some shocks but a little better on Konis, in my experience, and people have complained of noise after installing this setup. The springs that came with my kit weren't long enough to stay fixed in place with everything installed, even with the adjustment collar all the way up the sleeve. That means they'd be able to flop around with the suspension unloaded. Sort of a pain in the *** if you ever want to jack your car up, because you'll have to re-align the springs before you let it down, and you sure as hell shouldn't have to buy another set of springs to replace the ones in your kit. I immediately sold the kit and my Konis and bought a set of JIC FLT-A2s instead.

Coilovers designed that way from the ground up don't have the cheesy sleeve, they have threaded bodies. One less potential source of noise. They also usually have more range of adjustment. In addition, the JICs have two collars, one for preload on the springs, and a separate collar for adjusting ride height without affecting preload. Only $1,550? What more can you ask for? Not everyone needs Penske shocks with remote reservoirs.

So yes, the GC kit is a good bang for your buck if you've already got shocks that it will work with. If you're buying shocks too, don't bother with the conversion junk.

SPOautos

Jim, what are you trying to do to me man haha

So whats the deal with the "noise" and rattle.....does anyone else have this???

I dont need any more noise, I've got enough already

STEPHEN

jimlab

I wasn't able to find a specific thread in a quick search, but I've read about several people complaining about noise from the Ground Control system, and some of that could possibly have been from posts on the RX-7 mailing list.

The sleeve is not a particularly tight fit on the body of the shock, so if you do get the Ground Control kit, I'd recommend using some silicone or something in between the sleeve and the body of the shock to make sure it doesn't rattle.

Make sure you get the correct spring lengths. Eibach springs come in several different lengths in the same spring rate. I talked with Mark Valskis about his GC kit after I'd bought mine, and he said that he had to send his springs back and get longer ones. I tried TrueChoice helper springs and collars, but they interfered with the GC collar, so I sent those back and then just got rid of the whole mess and started over.

DamonB

My reasoning is you can buy a set of Konis all day long for less than $600 (I got mine $550 shipped a couple years ago) and then add the coilover conversion of your choice. What keeps me on that side is that the Koni has tremendous backing behind it here in the states and there are no fewer than three shops that can custom valve or rebuild your Koni for very reasonable fees (read as less than buying a new damper). This comes in handy in the future when you wish to further tune the damper.

To my knowledge Tein, JIC and Tanabe have nothing approaching that kind of service, although they are good products.

redrotorR1

Add in the fact that the turnaround time from most of the reknown rebuilders (Truechoice, ProParts) is very quick ... typically 1-2 weeks, with many instances of less than a week delivery. Very handy for us weekend racers, who don't want to be down for weeks to months waiting for a re-valve job.

Tein has established a US location, but I have heard nothing about services. As far as I know, Tanabe and JiC have yet to follow suit.