Got everything buttoned up (hard-s, 4-inch collar, 550/400, NB tophat, stock wheels on an NA) and was screwing around with the ride-height. With the perch completely on the bottom with maybe a thread or two left, the center-hub to fender is about 12.5 inches on all corners. Is this right? Not that I want to go lower, but if I did, I'm guessing I'd have to lathe a slot to make the circlip lower? Also, it was 13 inches before I drove around, and settled to 12.5. Is this also expected?

 

Sounds about right. On my NB, with the collar at the last full thread (with MSM Bilsteins) I could barely get to the 949 heights.

Don't know why you want to go lower anyway. Lower wouldn't be a very comfortable ride height.

 

I’ve got a 96 I AutoX with and take the occasional run through the country twisties. I had koni yellows front & rear, FCM bumps and the eibach pro-kit springs, didn’t like the combo at all, the springs were way too soft and ended up blowing the valve adjuster on one of my rears. Sent it to Koni and they denied the warranty on it so I decided to change the setup all together…

I went with this:
NA Bilstein HD’s – 24-014885/24-014892
QA1 7” Springs- 450F/300R
ISC Top Hats 1”F/1.5”R
AllStar 5” Sleeves & Nuts
Energy Isolators 9.6103G
I reused my FCM bumps for now 36/46

Overall the setup feels great, the 450F/300R is ok for AutoX and ok for street but not perfect at either imo. I'm going to a stiffer 550F/350R or 700F/400R before next season.

 

I'm surprised all of you are looking at rates highter than 450 for street cars and without a re-valve. I think it's kind of pushing them at that point. They are just not valved right to ride well at those rates.

 

I'm hitting the bumpstops frequently with 550/350 on 225 Rivals. Ride-height is 4.75/4.5. My options are stiffer springs or increase ride-height. I'll try 700/450 and if the shocks don't agree with that, I may have to find me some revalves. Or figure out how to revalve myself....

 

Nope, NB Hard S billies past 450 or so suck IMO. Nowhere near enough damping, a corrugated or washboard surface at moderate speed and you'll be going for a ride. There's one particular clover leaf near me with really badly patched concrete expansion joints that my old miata couldn't handle at all.

It's a right pain in the *** to get OEM billies revalved, too.

 

The Hard S felt awesome at 400. They felt much less awesome at 550. The HD would be even worse since it has lower damping rates. The Mazdapeed shocks I just installed are better with the 550's, which makes sense because they have the best valving of the three.

 

Yea, it's the washboard surface that feels really bad, not even big holes or bumps.

I'm around 4.75 and 5 right now if i remember correctly and I'm sure i hit bumps, but i don't bottom out. I do have extended hats though.

 

Hmmm... Well that's a little disheartening, was hoping to get a little stiffer feel. Guess I'll sit tight for a little bit, maybe research a revalve? Not sure a what point it's better/financially smarter to go the xida route?

 

NBs are easy, they have the easier top seal. Just buy the shims and shock oil you think you need, put the right stuff in, and bring it to your local circle track shock shop who'll fill em with N2 and dyno em for $10 bucks.

 

I don't think there's much circle track around here, I tried to find someplace local to recharge them for me but came up empty. Making a filling tool and buying a regulator and bottle would only cost around $400 or so, last I checked. It was something on my list of things to mess with.

I need a new old NB hard S, if anyone has an extra they don't need. Mine got squished, bottom eye torn clean off...

 

With Hard-S 550/400 is a bit stiff for me. It's not punishing usually.... Now I'm thinking about going to 400/300(?) to try it out. Thoughts? Anyone have some 300s they can sell me?

Also, the adage of "just get Xidas" is becoming very true to me.

 

Well Mr. Deezums, I've got one good Hard S front shock. The other one had an issue and failed. About 10k miles on it.

 

My MSM 550/400 setup was only "ok" at monster truck heights. Below 5" it was pretty bad on the street. The only track it saw, Mid Ohio, is pretty smooth, so they were great there.

If I did it again I think my max would be 450/300.

 

I'm 550/350 with bigger sways front and rear.

 

Woohoo, that was quick!

PM sent!

 

I've got 450/300 on an NB HD shock. Stock sway bars at the moment but I'll upgrade to the RB 54103 front bar and keep my 12mm rear bar pretty soon. No track days so far but for daily driving the setup does exceedingly well. Big bumps are handled very well by the shock and only do a select few bumps blow through suspension travel and contact bumpstops. At higher speeds things feel particularly composed. Expansion joints in highways are actually fun, not scary like it was on my stockish suspension.

That being said because I am a ricer and I wanted super wide wheels and tires I'm probably going to upgrade my springs to a 550/350 setup like most of you guys. I have no doubts that the MSM shocks are much better for those type of spring rates but I'm curious to see how the NB HD's handle things. I knew the NA HD shock was pretty bad in the damping department, but is the NB HD really that bad as well?

 

I really want to run stiffer springs, so I just scored another set of hard NBs from Ebay which I would like to re-valve. I know circle-track guys in this area, so I'm confident getting them refilled and dynoed won't be much of a problem.
In order to get this right however, I need some guidance. Bilstein's online documentation is quite confusing to me. Can anybody point me in the right direction, which shim-set I need to buy and where I can find a chart that tells me the expected effects of my changes?
Now if anybody would go so far as suggesting exactly how to adjust things for running 800/450 that would be totally awesome

 

NB bilstein HDs are just about the same as NB hard S shocks.





I wonder, Poway won't touch NB hard S shocks but I never asked them about selling me shim stacks before. I wonder if I can call and ask for the "fast mike" shim stack and just do it myself.

 

I'm eager to hear if they can sell you a good shim stack right out the gate. If I had some blown up shocks laying around and a shop nearby I'd love to experiment with different shim stacks and whatnot. Some google fu brought up quite a few threads but not a lot really ended up anywhere interesting. Maybe it's time to join the FSAE team at school?