Bolting up an EVO 8 suspension...Need advice

For the life of me I can't find that thread that compared the EVO shocks and struts to the Galant's. Anyway, a friend of mine gave me his EVO 8 RS Shocks and Struts w/ Eibach springs and OEM springs. That same friend can make the rear mounts that I would need to bolt everything up. He's actually pretty pumped to see if this is going to work and how it will look. My questions for the guys that have messed with EVO suspensions in the past is:

[*]Will this work even with the right mounts made?
[*]How low will this set up be?
[*]Other than rear mounts is there anything else that needs to be done? I remember reading something about the fronts as well.
[/list]

Thanks for any help you guys can provide! I've been searching for these answers all morning..I guess I'm just not putting in the right search perimeters. Again, Thanks for any help.

 

Search for "EVO 8" with the username "kartorium".

Here is a start! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

See below

 

Oh F it. The link is too long to add. Just search for what I said and it should come up.

 

[steve]

here is the link, just clicky

I think it doesn't like the " marks in the URL.

 

Thank you Steve. I'm feeling a little retarded this morning. The puppy decided to wake up about 2 hours early /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[Scott Y]

So then, is this an accurate summary regarding EVO VIII suspension?
I've searched and searched, am tired of searching, and want to clear up conflicting information:

Front: stock EVO VIII struts/shocks are a bolt-on affair, no mods required. I've seen plenty of conflicting info regarding this.

Rear: springs fit, struts require modified mount

ride: much stiffer than GVR4.

height: close to the stock GVR4 ride height, less than 1" drop if any.

cost: springs are anywhere from $25 to $150. struts are $??.

If I can get this all sorted out, I'll be doing the EVO VIII suspension on my GVR4, currrently stock suspension with 150K on it.

-Scott Y

 

Scott if a rear mount adapter can be made I will make one for you free of charge. See if you can get ahold of some shocks to go with your springs.

 

[Scott Y]

You're on!
I'll keep you posted.

 

[kartorium]

First of all, The full evo 8 fronts (springs and struts) are awesome on the galant. They are much much better than my GC and AGX combo in both handling and ride quality. They were better at the stock ride level and even tighter after cutting the springs. These struts in my mind blow away the AGX's. I'll have some other people ride in my car this weekend for a second opinion.

I think I posted pictures somewhere. The rears might be able to work if you weld in a bushing between the "fork" style mount on the rear struts. That way it would slide onto the stock post mount deal.

I wrote all of this information in my post, but here's a summary....

-front springs and struts will make car sit stock height or higher, cutting or lowering springs are required to get a tolerable fender gap. Ride is much much better and is stiff too. Stiffer than my GC and AGX's.

-Front struts require a spacer to bolt up, and you have to build some sort of bracket to mount the brake line to. Then I just ziptied the abs line to the strut. The evo 8 brake line mounts are way low and wont' work.

-front upper evo 8 strut mounts will not work, use GVR4 mounts.

-A very stiff rear setup is required to get balanced handling with all evo fronts. With evo 8 fronts and GC and AGX's in the rear my car understeers on throttle a lot. I also have 22mil sways front and rear.

Somebody local wants my cut front springs. but I still have the rear evo struts, and the front evo struts with a crude spacer. If you want the whole set I'll sell the front struts and rears for 175$ or so.(not including springs, already taken)

 

What kind of spacer are we talking about? I'll be happy to machine some "not crude" spacers for you guys since it looks like a lot of you are interested in installing this stuff.

 

[kartorium]

Here's what I did:
Took a sawzall to a stock strut I had laying around and cut off both the lower mounting tabs or whatever you wanna call em. Came out with two peices of metal with the right holes already in them and in the right shape. Then I just took the grinder to em and smoothed em out and thinned em up just a tad. So the spacer needs to be a tad bit thinner than the stock strut mount tabs. I don't think I explained that too well, but hope ya get the picture.

 

Ya but not everyone probably has the stock ones to cut up. Can you get me a picture? It sounds like something I can make quick and easy but I want to make sure I'm thinking of it right.

 

[kartorium]

I'll work on it, I'll try to take some measurements too or draw a picture or somethin.

 

[Hertz]

I'm interested -- I've got a set of Evo8 springs waiting patiently in the garage.

 

This thread would be allot better with pictures guys. Just a thought.

 

[kartorium]

My previous thread has pictures, i believe its linked above.

 

Scott got all the evo8 bits so I'll finally get to take a crack at them this weekend. Hopefully good news to follow. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I'm trying to make a bolt on solution for the entire setup but we'll see if I'm successful.

 

[Scott Y]

Chris is going to make this a simple bolt-on affair folks!
Here's some teaser pics, to clear up the fog surrounding ride height with EVO bits. Stay tuned for a full post on the project.
Note: the car was sitting on a slightly inclined driveway.

The highly calibrated measuring tool:


Fender gap with stock setup:


Fender gap with stock EVO setup:


Camber with stock EVO setup:


Clearly the EVO front springs need to be cut - we're figuring out how much to cut off and then bolting it all up again. I want stock or just slightly lower than stock height when it's all done.

-We'll keep the list posted,
Scott Y, dreaming of EVO

 

Thanks Scott /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif The front is not quite a bolt on affair but I think it can be made that way with a little work. Once I get the first prototype bits made then we'll work on the rear. I hope that can be a bolt on solution as well but worse case it will be an "exchange" with a little welding involved.

BTW I need a good spring compressor. Can anyone recommend something? The cheapie one we were using bit the big one to say the least.

 

[kartorium]

You guys, cut the spring down to about a 9" free hieght + or - half an inch depending on how low you want it. That should be a good starting point.

Chris, I always just rent a compressor from shucks. Its like 8 bucks or somethin.