a shock and spring combo is too soft for some of us on r-comps

 

What are you talking about? Springs + struts are exactly what coilovers are; I just made everything to my preference with spring rates, spring length, and valving..... Gives you more customizability than ANY single OTS coilover, independent of tire compound. If you're trying to say for track only use, get higher rate springs, which come with the GC coilover conversion at any rate you want, and valve to your spec.

 

I am talking about a stock style strut (kyb/bilsetin). None of the springs rates for those on the market are high enough for r compounds.

 

Okay... so not to sound like a ******** but did you read what I said? Bilstein rebuilds are cheap if you don't know how to do it yourself. You revalve the strut/shock to your spec, then get the spring rates you wish. Want 800lb springs? How about 900? Or 1000? Go for it; GC will get them to you... Unless you want 900000 way adjustable struts, then bilsteins are probably not in your best interest and you probably don't know wtf you're doing.

 

I read it right and then checked their site and didn't see where they sell custom rates for our struts. What kind of drop are we looking at? I have yet to read any good reviews from eibach springs on an evo.

 

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...-comments.html

 

I run a coilover setup, so it's 100% adjustable; I use GC coilover sleeves and they come with Eibach springs at whatever length of a spring you want, whatever ID you want, and whatever spring rate you want. I custom built a front housing to fit the bilstein I wanted, welded on perches for the sleeve to rest against, then added the sleeve, torrington bearings, spring, bearing upper spring perch, and camber plate. Rears I did the same except you don't need housings for that since they're not an insert AND you don't need a bearing upper spring perch; you will, however, have to cut off the tab/nipple thing used to keep the OEM type lower spring perch in place which a drill, grinder, and file work wonders.
Custom valving ranges to the builder; if you go through Bilstein themselves, it's $60ea which is cheap when comparing to Koni who charges $125ea IIRC and Bilsteins a monotube invert which I prefer over the twintube design of Koni.

BTW, these are NOT the stock evo Bilsteins but rather the OEM "aftermarket" replacement bilsteins.

 

I am talking to Smike as we speak about this

 

too bad no struts for the X

 

Figured I'd post my answer(s) to your PM here.

I have a bunch of pics... to clarify though, and I didn't write it earlier but probably shoud, I built my housings from OEM S14's, cut it up, did a few things, and used the 3kgt insert since I already had it valved. The bilstein replacements for the Evo fronts I believe are 100% ready to use from factory; so you will only have to cut off stock lower spring perch and probably do some welding to get the GC sleeve to work. The problem lies with the GC setup since they solely deal with Eibach and their price includes the springs. I would search ebay or any forums for sleeves as, after all, sleeves are just sleeves; a lot of people seem to have ease in getting used circle track and dirt track coilover sleeves.... whatever works for you and is proper fit. If you're frustrated in searching, check out summit; they sell bnib coilover sleeves for something like $60 each that come with both perches and they're black, which is cooler than red/gold scheme of GC, IMO, then use your own springs from where ever. You will need some rubber o-rings to throw around the shock/strut housing and jam down the sleeve over top of the o-ring to keep it from just rattling around on the housing.
Keep in mind, this is just a baller budget coilover system that is quite cheap and very effective, especially when you valve the B6 bilsteins, like I did. You can go all the way down the bilstein line to the threaded body, rod-end shocks if you want.

Separate info though: GC did all the work for me when using their coilover sleeve; I called them with my measurements, they sent me what would work. I also used their camber plate that comes with the bearing upper spring perch; Vorschlag doesn't sell the bearing upper spring perch separately anymore but do include them with their camber plates so you have a choice in camber plates when looking to run something with a bearing upper spring perch... IDK what car you drive, but the biggest problem, IMO, is the Vorschlag evo 8/9 plates do not have caster adjustment but are setup to have +0.5* caster more than OEM, whereas the Vorschlag evo 10 plates do have both camber and caster adjustment... Alternatively, both evo 8/9 and evo 10 GC plates have camber and caster adjustment.

If you want me to post up a little guide/pictorial thing, I can but I have quite a bit of pics of the assembly and don't know if it would be proper to post in here since I already feel like I'm thread jacking...

 

There is a bushing that fits around the top of the fronts that allow you to use the stock tophats...Not sure if it comes with the coilovers or not. Good to know about the price. I was estimating based on what I was told a little while back. I actually bought a set of the first released ones last year but have been waiting to try them out as I have been very happy with the Robispecs (now that I know how to adjust them) which were pretty close to the Ohlins with similar spring rates on another car. Eventually, I will probably try them out when I send the the KWs back to Robi for a refresh. Will probably wait until spring or so...the KWs are pretty resistent to the salt and horriblenes that we have here in winter and I am not sure the ASTs will hold up as well (they might but know the KWs will so unwilling to chance it incase I want to sell them).

 

I wasn't saying camber plates are necessary but was referring to somebody like me who only needs the fronts to run -3 degrees where as the stock top hats are limited.

 

I was just looking at a set of KYB's in my garage and think shaving off the perches isn't that big of a job. The biggest problem I am going to run into is figuring out the size of the springs needed and where to weld the GC plates. I will shoot them a message and see what they have to say. I am still on the fence about it as my coilovers are working perfectly fine.

 

KYBs don't have the rebound damping sufficient for any meaningful springrates and can't be revalved. You would be wasting your time.

 

I was using it as an example since both are the same size. Nobody said anything about using KYB's