Weird, wonder what could have caused it to happen? Just as well it didn't happen at high rpm or something, would have crunched a few things pretty quick

My X-mas was pretty good actually, had an awesome X-mas lunch with my extended family, and had a drink-up starting at like 1.30pm and finished at just after midnight lol - I was stuffed but still managed to get up at 6am the next morning for no good reason. New year's day is up in a few more days so it'll probably be 'round 2'

Still haven't started on any work yet.. Hopefully I'll get to Repco today and be able to get some hub seals so I can fit these rotors later on..

sounds like a normal nz xmas haha. i didn't drink much this year, but will make up for it on newyrs eve

what did the cam cost ya? i'm not sure who to go through now, to many to choose from

Hahaha, pretty much!! Yeah, New Year's eve will probably be epic as always

The cam set me back $150 for the regrind plus post both ways so about $160~ all up so a bit cheaper than Franklin Cam's.

This particular grind needs an extra 2.5mm of shim to make up for the amount ground off. Bit of b**ch trying to find shim's in that size though .

I ended up getting some 1mm thick shims (316 stainless steel washers, lol) and will double them up so it becomes 2mm. The valve seat re-cut I got done on the head usually takes enough material off the seat to allow the valve to sit higher in the head so I'm hoping it'll make up for most of the extra 0.5mm I need to shim for and then let the hydraulic lifter take up the rest. I'll have to check clearances when it all goes in anyway.

so 3 shims all up? hope all goes well. be good to hear the results, the price is pretty good

Yeah, 3 shims including the standard one - fingers crossed it'll be okay

I'll definitely get results up once the car is back up and running with the new cam and head. I've just picked up some hub seals from Repco so now I can go put these rotors, pads and possibly even put my Koni's in today

Well, got as far as getting the old struts/springs out, springs and top mounts swapped over to the Koni's, and then bolted them back in. Started working on the damn thing to late, so I'll do the brake swap tomorrow morning.




The Koni's seem to be functioning nice and smoothly. Spring seat is currently set to the 2nd lowest groove and the springs are just trapped which is good. The spring seat sits a good 15-20mm lower (at least) than the seat on the Pedders struts so hopefully this will drop my front ride height enough to make the tyre about level with the wheel arch.

Lol, I can't believe how shagged the poor Pedders GSR struts were. From full extension, pushing the rod down into the shock body, all you can feel is crunching for the first inch or so, and then a weird noise all the way down to full compression. Very weird since the car still drove very smoothly. Anyways, off to the bin they go!


Will get pic's of everything fitted up tomorrow when the brakes are done

I did suspension yesterday too! Lowered the EL. Funny thing. Is that oil on the old struts all from the struts?

I thought it was just my family that liked to get tanked, must be a Kiwi thing?

We are waiting for those pics. Hopefully those brakes will work really well, they would be the next best thing to a big brake upgrade? Even just normal slotteds and QFM pads made a good improvement on our cars, so those should be awesome. Let us know how they go for dust too.

Maybe I should do a thread for the EL. Looks great lowered!

Hey Slo,

Yeah mate, all that crud over the struts is from them leaking and then all the brake dust etc sticking to it. Messy s**t, glad it's all gone now

Lol, I think it's almost mandatory that every Kiwi gets absolutely hammered on special occasions, as well as other occasions with no special meaning

Brakes were swapped over early this morning and they went on perfectly and look great. Dropped the car back down to the ground and the front is over an 1" lower now, sad thing is the rear looks high . Rides mint though, a lot more firmer overall and the turn-in feels excellent, sits so flat taking bends at speed etc. It also has a fair bit of negative camber which is going to have to be sorted quick smart as I'm a bit strapped for cash and in need of new tyres for the rear already, so I really don't want to be wearing the front tyres out too quickly as they are almost brand new. Will probably have to take it to a proper suspension place for an alignment so they can fix up the camber and add more shim's if needed.

Haven't really had a chance to test the brakes out properly, only took the car for a lap around the block to bed the pads in, but everything feels smooth and I no longer have this gay sounding 'creak' from the front end when lightly braking and turning at very low speeds.

Anyway's, I will get pic's up very soon.

Good work getting the suspension sorted on the EL mate, definitely get a thread up on it when you get a chance

Have just seen the forecast for Auckland's weather up till New Year's day and it's supposedly to be raining tomorrow with chances of a storm Friday and Saturday . The plan was to get cracking on the head and cam swap first thing tomorrow, but since I'm working in the carport which gets flooded every fkn time it rains, the chances of work commencing will be slim

Don't know WTF is wrong here, but I try rotate this picture then upload it to Photobucket and even tried rotating it using Photobucket and it still turns out on the side - but anyways, that's what it all looks like bolted up.

So basic run down of the front end suspension/brake setup..
- Pedder's 'low' springs
- Koni struts with seat set on 2nd lowest groove
- 30mm whiteline swaybar with Nolathane mount and link bushes
- Znoelli DDS slotted and dimpled rotors
- Znoelli SP500 performance road pads
- Camber kit (currently with 6 shims fitted on both sides)

Here's some more showing ride height etc..




It's a damn nuisance trying to take photo's of the ride height as the shadow from the guards over the tyres makes the car look higher than it really is. The front wheel arches are about in line with the tread of the tyre, with me in the car it tucks the tread of the tyre nicely.

The rear wheel arch is about 20mm above the top of the tyre. Not sure what I'll do here, possibly King Ultralow's may get it evened out nicely, don't really think Superlow's will give me the ride height I'm after. It'll be better to judge once the matching wheels are back on the rear, I'm currently rolling around with Concorde's on the rear since they actually have some tread left which is more than I can say for my tyres on the other wheels lol.

What springs are in the back? Could just get them reset or adjust them with the grinder.

Looks to me like the Concordes need to go back on.

All the gear in the front looks good. Its nice having new stuff in there. Couldn't you flatten the camber out by adding more shims? As long as the front and rear bolts get the same thickness added all the rest should stay the same? Mines definitely running some extra camber now. I'm wondering if I can just add some like that and straighten it back up. Saves paying for it.

It's got Pedder's 'low's in the rear at the moment, minus a coil already though . I'm pretty reluctant to cut anymore off though, mainly for safety reasons as the springs are pretty damn short considering . Right now, the rear springs are just trapped once jacked up and at full drop, and the Bilsteins in the rear are a shorter stroke shock. I guess that comes down to the Pedder's springs being static wound, and not a progressive rate spring, so they don't have the closely wound coils at the top of the spring, therefore it's much shorter in length than a typical progressive wound spring.

It's funny, when I put the Bilstein's in and chopped the rear springs, the rear end sat down about an 1" and the front lifted up a bit. Now that the front is lower with the Koni's, the rear has lifted up what looks to be about half an 1" easily. I think Ultralow rear's will drop the rear nicely, and possibly bring the front up a touch which should have it pretty even. Lol, I'm looking around for Ultralow springs right now, looks like I'll be up for around $230~ for a pair.

To counter the camber for now, I might have to just buy a couple more shims per side and pop them in. As you said, as long as both sides get the same amount of 'shim' on both bolts, theoretically, everything should remain the same apart from the upper control arm being spaced out. Will probably have to do that sooner rather than later

Not sure if the Concorde's will go back on, but they just might one day

Theoretically being the key word.

I'm guessing to "adjust" springs one would remove a full or half coil from the bottom?

I put superlows in the EL. The front is good, back will hopefully settle more otherwise I'll fix them up. Definitely have some rake happening.

Yep, I removed mine from the bottom of the spring. I took out half a coil way back when I first got the Concordes and removed the spoiler, then took out another half coil when the Bilstein's went in. Would have been about an 1" drop from cutting out one full coil in total.

Weird how some people get an even stance with superlow's all round, other's get a level stance with superlow front and ultralow rear, and then there's the odd few I've seen on here with ultralow front and superlow rear

I'd say give the rear a week or 2 to settle and see if it levels out at all.

the front looks very damn close to ultralow height that ive seen on other E-series, and the rear is superlow height

the front needs to go up a tad, and the rear down a little

^^

Yeah, I'd say the height would be somewhere between superlow and ultralow at the front right now. Not bad considering it's just a 'low' spring in there at the moment - gotta love the adjustable spring seat platform

If I don't invest in a new slimline jack, I may just have to raise the front back up eventually. I went to let the car down from being jacked up along the chassis rail near the front passenger side door and the rail sat down on top of the jack when the car touched the ground, had to jack it back up, put some blocks of wood under the tyre to get a bit more space to get the jack out lol.

I love the look of the front though, so I want the back a little lower, or as low to match