KrysyGT (my fiancee), our friend Matt, and I took the better part of Saturday to install a GReddy SP2 cat-back exhaust, TEIN Basic coilovers, and paint calipers and rotor hats on Krysy's RX-8.

The exhaust install went relatively smooth, aside from the bolts that go to the cat, which have those stupid springs on them.

The coilovers were a different story. Taking the stock strut out of the car and getting the coilover back in was like one of those puzzles made out of metal links that there's only one way to undo! Matt had to stand on the caliper to sag the suspension enough to get me clearance to spin, gyrate, and maneuver the shocks and coilovers in and out...and they each came out a different way. The rears required removing the sway bar endlink, the headlight level sensor link, and drop the camber arm down off the chassis.

Krysy took care of her calipers and rotor hats as Matt and I moved from corner to corner doing the coilovers.

Here are the pics!

Up she goes and the wheels come off!:




Krysy busy painting (she does awesome with this stuff)


End result of painting


GReddy SP2


TEIN Basic damper


Before coilover install



After, nice and even!

 

looked like fun. +1 on having girls work on cars with you.

 

+1

 

nicely done! you might want to get some clear corners... just a thought

 

Awesome!

 

took about 8 hours in 85*+ degree heat and crazy humidity...no way. yeah +10 on the girls and cars combo. she installed most of her CAI too.

yeah those are driving us mad, they're next on the list along with some other small goodies. the stock fender vents are also hideous, looking into getting a shop up here to make some custom ones.

 

Very nice.

 

nice.

 

I am absolutely getting rid of the amber corners the second I recover from all the above work!

Thanks for the compliments guys.

 

Great looking car! My fiancee helped put in our coilovers too!

 

looking great! plus you can raise up for the winter or lower it for shows

How does the new suspension feel?

Which end of the car gave you the most trouble removing shocks? I found that the 2nd time I did shocks/springs on an 8, both fronts and rears came out relatively easy. The first time around we undid the wrong arm on the rear suspension, making it a major pain to remove the shock/spring assembly.

 

haha looks like fun.

 

the fronts sucked the most. they each came out a different way and each coilover went in a different way. matt had to stand on the caliper while holding the inner fender to sag the suspension to give me enough clearance to maneuver the assembly out. the rears weren't so bad, just removing all those parts was tedious and taking off the camber bolt was weird because i didn't want to screw up the alignment.

they each took maybe 5 mins to unbolt, the fronts took like 20-30 min each to figure out how to get them out and like 5-10 minutes to put in the coilover. the rears took seemingly no time at all, much more room comparitively to move the assemblies.

my evaluation of the ride quality is this. the stock suspension seemed way softer than the front, almost like a 3 wheeled car would handle (exaggeration), now the ride is way more even front to rear and a bit stiffer.

the exhaust added nice low and mid range power, the car feels totally different now.

with both mods considered, i'd compare it to a stock 350Z (i used to own one) but with like 30-35 less hp and an astronomical redline, lol.

 

nice nice!

 

awesome job.....

 

Thanks!

So far I love the new set up. The car feels much more "stuck to the ground" for lack of a fancy technical term Initially I was bothered by the effect the staggered wheels/tires had on the feeling as I told you at the last meet, but this has countered it and made the whole ride 1000x better when it comes to handling. I am absolutely going to look into the sway bars etc that you were telling me about.

Of course like any lowering, it made the ride alot stiffer, but not to the point where I cringe when I hit a bump. Overall: I love it, big improvement over stock.

Like Jeff said they had the roughest time with the fronts, then again they took the front passenger side on first, which of course once you get the first one done there rest aren't so bad. I feel that they got the rear done in less than half the time. (maybe because I removed all the trunk panels etc )

 

Congrats Krysy on the new suspension. I just got some Tein Monflex coilovers with the EDFC we will have to compare notes. I wish I had known you were doing this, I could have told you exactly how to get all the shocks out. I've been through this twice and Synaptic3 figured out a sureproof way thats repeatable every time.

BTW, I think I saw you driving in Newton Center on a Thursday night a couple weeks ago.

 

Nice job!!

I am free this weekend so why don't you guys come on down and you can do up mine

I will leave it in the driveway

 

Thanks! Well when I upgrade, we know who to talk to now!

Absolutely possible you saw me in Newton Corner Thursday a couple weeks ago as I was there

Hah, I don't think there is enough beer in the world to convince us to do that again so soon

 

Woot for installs in New England. I too was busy.

 

adjust to the lowest setting of yours Tein basic, thats what the coilover for !!!!

 

Women working on cars +1
Krysty working on cars with a picture included +10!! hehe.

Can't wait to see and hear the car at the car show on the 25th!

 

What did Synaptic3 figure out? Care to post notes?

 

Give them a call, I'm sure Dana would be happy to talk to you about all they've learned with my project.

 

I found if you losen the brake line bracket & then remove the uper control arm bolts, it makes the front a hole bunch easier! I've done my set twice.. Ack!