Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffblue
Thanks s30z, you're helping out this thread a lot. so from a longevity perspective, closest to stock will make the shocks last the longest?
if you are like me and looking for a nice drop just for looks, you basically want the closest to OEM spring rate, correct? is it better to go higher or lower than oem? it seems H&R doesn't release their spring rate. i'm really interested in theirs.
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I did a little bit of research on Swift Spec R springs, and it seems fairly promising. Their are many different factors that come into play when decreasing the life span of a shock. Obviously lowering it to a point will blow them out rather quick. but then I really do not see spring rate affecting the dampers as much as people would think. I mean if you think about it the seals used in a shock valved for a 20kg spring and the seals used in a shock valved for a 6kg spring is the exact same seal. They do not make different reinforced seal for different rates. One of the main reasons why I believe shocks tend to blow with lowering springs is because of the general progressiveness of the spring. Inconsistenties in the rate throughout its stroke. This generally happens with cheaper springs. If you stick a spring like most of the brands out there on a dyno you will see several spikes in the spring rate curve. If I ha to choose something that decreases the lifespan of the shock with lowering not being a part of the factor I believe it is inconsistencies. A shock is a pressurized system and the only way I can imagine a seal leaking is from sudden spikes that the high speed valving cannot quite catch so the low speed valving has to take that impact, affecting the seals.
Now with a little bit of research just right now I have found that even the Spec R for the EVO is very popular as well as the springs for s2000, and because Swift designed them around the OEM shock the springs even though the rates are much stiffer than competitors they are within damping range, and it doesnt seem like anyone is having any problems. And the general consensus is that it is even more comfortable than stock.
http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=813701
http://forums.evolutionm.net/evo-tir...g-springs.html
http://forums.evolutionm.net/evo-tir...-comments.html
Obviously even this I would just take with a grain of salt.
Again as I said the Swift race springs are extremely linnear, in fact I can even post up a dyno of one of the springs I have tested for one of the chassis Im building. It almost looks like someone drew this graph out with a ruler.
I hope this helps of if you can even understand it, I am not too much of a writer.