This! I'll never put coilovers on any street car ever again. I've seen many members here complain about them on Cobra's with or without a k-member. I run a AJE which has the option of retaining OE suspension including A-arms, which is what I did. Doing so kept the stock ride while reducing weight and allowing more access to the bottom of the motor.
Tubular K member on a daily driven street car..
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This! I'll never put coilovers on any street car ever again. I've seen many members here complain about them on Cobra's with or without a k-member. I run a AJE which has the option of retaining OE suspension including A-arms, which is what I did. Doing so kept the stock ride while reducing weight and allowing more access to the bottom of the motor.
full maximum motorsports suspension and built irs with coilovers.... drives and handles like a dream!!!! You have to know how many lbs to put in front on coilovers and how many on back, or yeah it will ride rough and shitty!!!
Best setup for street... Call maximum motorsports and talk to them... they know their shit and make the best suspension parts hence pricey!
Best setup for street... Call maximum motorsports and talk to them... they know their shit and make the best suspension parts hence pricey!
You guys are all over the place on this. Given all the positive comments, I am wondering if the crapy ride and noises have to do with parts that have not been chosen or setup correctly.
I completely understand that there is more flex in the factory piece and so it may absorb more of the road.
This may be same theory as a tune. Get a good tune and love your car, or get a 'not quite right' tune and hate everything about it.
I completely understand that there is more flex in the factory piece and so it may absorb more of the road.
This may be same theory as a tune. Get a good tune and love your car, or get a 'not quite right' tune and hate everything about it.
Always best to err on the side of caution.
For the street swapping out the factory K-member for any other reason than installing a turbo has its fair share of downside. The real light weight drag K-members being the worst offenders (the MM unit is the only one I would consider for the street). Years ago a member posted about how his cobra jumped and actually ripped the curb away from the asphalt with pics of the damage which was minimal. The factory K-member took the brunt of it while protecting the rack and the oil pan with a spinning crank inside. Had that been an aftermarket tubular K-member something tells me he would have not driven away from that episode and would have been writing big checks. Nothing will beat the factory k-member for toughness and stiffness on the street which matters.
Don't dismiss the warnings about what coilovers do to the chassis structure. The shock towers were never designed to carry that load which now includes the weight of the engine and tranny (the factory springs place that load on the K-member and front suspension only). The shock towers are thin sheet metal spot welded to the chassis.
Coilovers make for a nice suspension upgrade but without reinforcing the shock towers it will fatigue the metal which will only aggravate the SN95 chassis flex problems :nonono:
No hacking is needed I don't think. Metal plate welded on is what I have seen done.
I have also read that the factory towers are not as flimsy as some would say. Has anyone here seen a strut tower fail due to coil overs?
I have also read that the factory towers are not as flimsy as some would say. Has anyone here seen a strut tower fail due to coil overs?
+1 on all of this. As I said and did get an AJE member, keep your OE a-arms, which retains the OE spring perches and keeps the weight off the shock towers. You still get a huge weight deduction between the OE K-member and AJE unit, but retain the from suspension architecture.
I pulled a 1.51 60' time with this setup by my 7th track pass ever in the car, weighing 3700# w/driver. Accomplished launching at only 3k rpm on a ported eaton! There's easily a 1.4x in it, doubt CO's are gong to net much better. Plus mine rides like a dream.
There ya go. I hear Racecraft is quite spendy.
on a shitty road it is definitely harsher, i have been cruising some nice mountain roads the last couple days and the ride is great IMO and i like the wider stance. i have no issues with rattle or anything kind of noise or anything like that....i drive my car more on the street than anything it has only been to the track once.
One guy's wife punched a hole in the shock tower with coilovers when she jumped a curb :nonono:
Have you ever actually looked at how the shock towers are supported including the fender aprons? If you did you would have a whole new perspective on coilovers.
Running coilovers on the SN95 stock shock towers for the lack of a better term is "OK". The problem is it's "marginal" and over time will fatigue the metal structure compromising the chassis integrity. I wanted run coilovers but after pulling the fenders and examining the support (lack of) :uh oh: I said "no way without reinforcement".
Here is a pic of the early stages of that reinforcement.
Note the boxed column extending up the center of the inside of the shock tower (this helps to transfer more of the load back down to the frame rail). There is also a doubler welded over the top of shock tower which will quell any "oil canning" and the top frame rail surface where the K-member mounting bolts seat. Gussets were welded to critical location. The rest of the shock tower was seam welded. Chromoly sheet steel between .050 and .090 thick was used.
This is before that nasty hole in the fender apron was plugged as well as the one on the inside you can't see. Later a layer of sheet was wrapped over the outside of the fender apron. This is now a coilover "ready" shock tower that is even stronger then the S197 towers which are designed for them :rockon:
This is not for you average Joe six pack and is very involved so you better know what your doing. If you go overboard here you will start to stress other areas downstream of the shock towers creating other problems. When reinforcing a chassis it always best to try to maintain a consistent level of stiffness between the axles.
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