Question for those on full coilovers (D2, Ksport, etc)

[Savin]

How far is the adjustability on them? By that, I mean, can you raise the car higher than stock along with lower? I'd like to RAISE the car about an inch or two over stock height. Before you guys get your panties in a bunch, I have my reasons. No, I don't want to put 22's or any of that crap on the car. I want the extra ground clearance.

Before you flame me on what I'm about to say, yes, I do love Cavaliers and Sunfires. I just do. Within the past year an interesting old concept Cavalier had been brought to my attention. Its neat! It's called the ZR-24 Moab. It's a lifted Z24 cavalier. For me to copy that car with a cavalier, it'd cost too much money. I'd do it a bit different. Swap the torsion beam rear end with Grand Am GT IRS, Swap the front suspension to Grand Am GT with Corvette brakes, and swap the engine to a 3800 supercharged. All in all, at least $5k plus a rust free car. (I need rust free frame rails to mount the IRS)

Anyway, since none of that is in the budget, I'd like to lift the mx. Why? Because I want to. That's the only reason. I want to be different. I don't want to lower it.

...Soooo how much LIFT is possible out of the coilover options we have, if any? And on that note, what's the tallest tire (not widest) that we can fit before we have clearance issues. I know on stock struts there's not much room for too much bigger of a tire, but I'm hoping that can be alleviated with coilvers. If this is not possible on coilovers, I remember reading a while back that Ryan had installed complete factory strut assemblies from a ZX2 onto his mx-3 and it raised it about an inch. That might be my alternative. I'm hoping this will help my slight automotive funk/depression I've been having.

Here's some pictures of the ZR-24 so you get an idea as to what I'm on about.

[AaronTietje]

I took my d2's out of the box and promptly lowered them. I will be taking them off the car soon, so I can check.

[Savin]

That'd be fantastic if you could find out!

My SE in storage has coilover sleeves on it. I haven't had a chance to get that car off the ground and check the adjustability on them or clearances. I'd much rather have full coilovers, though. That way I can adjust for the positive camber that lifting the car would cause.

[crazycanadian]

You wont get much lift becauae the coil overs use a shorter then stock strut shaft for the purpose of lowering. You are better off looking into making lift blocks that would go between the upper shock mount and body.

In a note about the cavalier I say go for it. I have done a couple irs swaps on them and helped a friend do a 3800sc swap on his.

[Nd4SpdSe]

The one idea which I jokingly mentioned a while back was to do a subframe drop. I've helped do it on an R50 (unibody) Pathfinder, but the concept would close to be the same. Basically we unbolted and dropped the front subframe and struts. From there, spacers (4") were put in for the motor mounts (the Mx-3 would be the front and rear), between the subframe and frame, and on top of the struts. Also a steering shaft extension was needed. The benefit to this is that you don't change or are limited by your balljoint or control arm angle, your only limit would be axle/cv joint angle (the Pathfinder the front diff and axles were on the subframe if I remember right). More expensive than just throwing in cranked coilovers, but still a fraction of the $5000 for what it costs to do on a Cavy.







It may not what you want do to, but just throwing ideas out there if the coilovers don't give you what you want...

[Josh]

You should be able to get at least 2" out of most coilovers. The AST's I had were barely under stock height all the way lowered, they would have probably gone up at least 2-4" above factory.

On the RS I ran 195/70/16's they were burly and burly mud tires, was like riding in a truck. I could roll under the car, almost, while being jacked up.

[Savin]

Nd4SpdSe: I've thought about strut spacers, but unless I can find some from another car to work, I'm pretty much screwed. I really don't have the resources to make custom parts. I've seen that there are spring spacers on ebay (for the mx-3 even), but I'm unsure of them because they are universal fit parts.

I'll check the the coilovers on the SE. I'm pretty sure 93SOHC used stock struts for them. So if I am able to use them, that would alleviate the shorter strut rod issue.

Josh: Did you have any rubbing issues with those tires? The tires I'm looking at are 215/60-16 which are about a half inch shorter overall than what you had. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp ... mpare1=yes <-- I can get those cheaper from work since the Subaru dealership I work at uses Yoko's for oem tires.

crazycanadian: Is the person with the cavalier you helped do all the swaps on John Lenko? He's the only person on j-body.org that I know that's done IRS and 3800 supercharged swaps on his cavalier.

[crazycanadian]

crazycanadian: Is the person with the cavalier you helped do all the swaps on John Lenko? He's the only person on j-body.org that I know that's done IRS and 3800 supercharged swaps on his cavalier.

Yes... I have been good friends with Lenko for about 10 years now, back when he had his silver bottle fed cavalier running 13.8's in the 1/4 mile..

Lenko is contemplating selling his 3800SC car these days...

I used to be pretty big into cavaliers back when I had my 90 Z24... I was one of very few people to do a first gen front clip swap, even went as far as doing a 2.3L HO swap, after I melted a piston in my V6...

[RS_OBD'oh_2]

out of the box, I had to drop the ksports a fair ammount to equal the drop from my eibachs... that being said, I would agree with the 2-4 inch raise estimate. I purchased my ksports to raise my MX in the winter to pick up my girl from day care. I have since picked up a winter/dd car. It can be done. I do have to laugh at the 3800 (non sc) engine though. IIRC 3.8l and 165 whp is simply sad. I know little about the SC model aside from it coming with a HUD in the (grand prix gtp) In a light car, it would be fun, but it cannot hold a candle to a J-series engine.

Your style is your style, if you want to jack your ride height - more power to ya. You will have speedo issues and it will not handle as well, but I am sure you know that already. Coils are the safe way to do it. Please remember that if you up the mass of your wheels, you should find a stopping kit to match.

[Josh]

Josh: Did you have any rubbing issues with those tires? The tires I'm looking at are 215/60-16 which are about a half inch shorter overall than what you had. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp ... mpare1=yes <-- I can get those cheaper from work since the Subaru dealership I work at uses Yoko's for oem tires.

Only on tight turning. I had eibachs on the car so had I been OE height or above probably would have been fine.