Upping spring rate on stock Ohlins valving (NC)

[Dan]

I’ve read the ‘Ohlins, OMG!’ thread but hadn’t seen anyone post about this.

I’m on some BC V1’s with uprated springs at the moment which have been working well but I’m keen to start working more on my setup and want to go to a higher quality damper along with poly bushes.

I’m looking at putting a set of Ohlins R&T in my NC and upping the spring rate by around 50% on the stock valving to 10kg/6kg (7kg/4kg stock) as this seems like the most cost efficient way to go to a quality damper with some adjustability and a decent spring rate.

I spoke to Steve Cramer about this who said the stock valving will likely be fine, he’s seen people doing similar and if it isn’t enough then get them revalved but I don’t want to go putting them in and then have to pull them out.

I found a thread in the US with people talking about doing this and apparently it 'works' but has anyone locally done this on their Ohlins? Experiences?

Also who have people worked with locally to revalve their Ohlins?

[Sailor]

Dan, If you're going for a mostly track setup then this might be what you want
http://www.good-win-racing.com/Mazda-Pe ... E-MX5.html

[Dan]

Yeh I was interested in that option. The problem is that since he doesn't ship to Australia I need to buy it through MX5 parts and even if he only put a 10% mark up on it the price is pretty much the same as a set of MCS 2-way's with custom valving and springs which is the set-up the top NC guys seem to be running over in the states and the guys who sell them seem to be keen to help find the right set-up if I decide on them.

The other options I looked at were MCA's and Fat Cat. Both are interesting but in the case of MCA's I wasn't in love with the idea of buying custom BC's and Fat Cat the lack of adjustability, but in both cases the consultation process and pretty sharp price makes them attractive.

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[Regie]

you don't need to go quicker Dan

[Dan]

you don't need to go quicker Dan

Blasphemy!

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[Dan]

I’ve decided to go with MCA Reds instead of Ohlins mainly because I think it's better if the shocks were already valved with the spring rates in mind and if I decide to run Slicks with Aero at some point the valving will be sufficient to move higher again (local support and a lower price than the other options is good too).

If anyone runs across this thread in the future thinking of upping the spring rates I thought I’d close this out and give information on what springs you can use (I’ve used the 10kg/6kg setup I was looking at as the example).

Front:
It’s pretty simple at the front as you can just run a standard 65ID spring in the spring rate you want but the length of the spring is something you probably want to consider.

The stock Ohlins spring has a free length of 200mm (7.87 Inches). Since you’ve now upped the spring rate and the height adjuster can go +/- 15mm you are fine to run 7” springs (177.8mm) as you should be able to get close to the same height as the stock Ohlins kit comes out with if you really needed to by taking the Height adjustor to the max but you can also now lower the car more than was possible before.

The Swift spring part number you want at the front for 10kg is Z65-178-100 (full list here http://www.swiftsprings.net/products/un ... gs-65.html).

Rear:
At the rear it’s a bit more complicated as you either need a spring that is tapered 70mm-100mm ID to match the stock spring or buy an upper spring perch which allows you to run standard coilover springs (Goodwin sell them). The adjustment range on the rear height adjuster is -15/+10mm and the Tapered springs you can buy only come in 200mm (7.87 inch) lengths in 6kg which is the same as the stock Ohlins spring length.

Goodwin recommends a 6 inch spring at the rear for 8kg springs so if you think you’ll need to go lower than the standard Ohlins adjustment range then you need to either run a different spring rate that has the right size available or get one of the replacement upper spring perches so you can use standard springs.

Both the 70mm-90mm and 70mm-100mm tapers in 200mm length have reports of working with the Tein part numbers being SJ060-01200 and SH060-01200.

I haven’t found anyone using these so I can’t guarantee it will work but if you needed to lower the car more and are happy with either a 5kg or 7kg spring you could possibly use the 175mm (6.89 inch) versions. Those part numbers are ST050-01175 (5kg) or ST070-01175 (7kg) (full list here http://www.tein.com/products/standard_s ... _list.html).

Here’s the Ohlins Manual I used which has all of the spring length and height adjustment information in it http://www.roadandtrackbyohlins.com/wp- ... ASMI30.pdf