Earlier this morning, I posted my over the phone results with Tirerack about the fitment of the Eibach lowering springs they offer, and the phone jockey says "absolutely they will fit!"....well, just got the e-mail response to the pre-phone call question I asked...and no joy for the AWD owners out there And no known end in site for the 4x4 stance (exaggeration I know)....but it seems the rwd magnums will have the benefit of Eibach springs now and antisway bars in feb....so jealous of you lucky a-holes [:'(]

 

Straight from the horses mouth (called Eibach) they will unlikely be producing anything for the awd model magnum. So I went elsewhere, I know H&R has produced awd kits for the audi and bmw's, so I gave them a ring ring....the girl says their product should be ready in 6-8 weeks, but doesn't know if it's a awd app or a rwd app....only time will tell she says....that burns my biscuit!!! Damnit, somebody engineer a awd set of lowering springs!! and antisway bar too please [sm=icon_beat.gif]

 

You could always use the stock springs. A cutoff wheel works nicely as does compressing them and then heating to 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes (the kitchen oven when mama isn't home).

 

fortunately, I'm old enough to not have to ask mamas permission to use the oven, just got to ask the wife, and I quit cutting off coils when I got rid of my first lowered s-10 when I was 19. It's coil-overs as a preference, but produced springs with a stiffer rate return is what I'm hoping for, as well as a stiffer antisway bar for the corners

 

Uhhhhh....yeah. Cutting springs or heating them to compress them is Rule 1 from The Junior Varsity School of Lowering. (Is that how Jackass Motorsports does it?) I suppose you could do that if you were really desperate to get the car down, but I don't think those of us spending $30k on our cars really want to go that route, do we?

 

Actually setting height in the controlled environment of an oven (albeit much larger than the one in your house) is how most racing springs are reset. BTW , I refer to the wife as mama. Trimming to ride height is how almost all springs are set. A lot of classes don’t allow coil-overs and spring adjusters somewhat new to the motorsports world. Try reading books written by Herb Adams, Millkken and Fred Puhn, you might actually learn something. JV School of Lowering huh? That’s almost cute. Jackazz Motorsports will be happy to hand you your *** after a few laps out here at Thunderhill or maybe Willows, bring it on if you think you’ve got it. Mustang open tracker huh? Let’s see. In fact, we can go out to Fontana next month for laps at CA Speedway if want. Do I trim springs, hell yes. Me and the other 90% of the chassis guys I deal with. The other 10% are die hard coil-over guys. The Elky is set up with AFCO adjusters and Afcoils, but I have in the past and will in future run trimmed coils, you must be one of those bolt-ons type of guys.

 

OK, I thought the "mama" comment was a jab at my car, like you thought I drove a kids car....I take pride in what I've done to her, it's all performance parts (except for the stereo) on it. And I am a bolt on guy, I can weld and cut, but all at a amature level, I wouldn't depend on any of my "custom" welding to stay together to save my life, but I can assemble plenty, to include rebuilding diffs, big brake installs, assembling engines (assembled a pair of 350's for a s-10 upgrade and rebuilt the 95' Silverado I initially had in germany, as well as a 455 out of my defunt project 1972 Buick Riviera). So if it can be bolted together, I'm all on it, I'm just not a fabricator, although I wish I was..........my real job is a network engineer now that I'm out of the military. So cars are my after hours/weekend hobby.

But I thought heating the springs up changes the metals properties, like if you had a decent stiff stock spring, heated it up like you do, and then get a lowered spring, it would come out with a different compression rate than it did before, like softer

 

Springs are a confusing subject, most people don't understand them. Springs cannot ever "change" rate without removing coils. A common misconception is when cois sag they are getting soft, that is not true, the rate is still the same just the height is changing. This can actually be remedied by simply shimming the spring. Spring rate is determined by spring mean diameter, number of turns and wire diameter. Once a spring is built the only thing that can change is the number of active coils. Heating a spring improperly will temper the metal which can cause it to break but will not change the rate. The best way to alter ride height on a given spring is to compress the spring in a controlled manner such as a spring compressor and evenly heat the spring to approx 400 degrees F. Allow to "bake" 10-15 minutes then remove and let air cool. It is difficult to get both springs to drop exactly the same amount, but if done correctly does not change ride at all. Trimming coils changes rate only because you have removed active coils in the cutting process. Usually trimming is done to increase rate on a soft spring (similiar to adding rubber) or to fine tune ride height (on cars that 1/4" of difference is actually crucial). Good luck with whatever you decide.

PS I like the BMer, what is it 5 series?

 

It's a 2000 323i, I bought it while I was still in the military, and I ain't educated nough to be an ociffer, so my dumb *** got the cheapest bmw available. But even so, I still loved the interior fitment quality vs. the chevy's I had grown up on, and at top speed for 1-2 hours plus on the autobahn, the thing rides awesome....solid feel like a high speed cruiser should feel, not like the car (or truck in my case) was going to shake apart at reentry

 

Sorry--didn't mean to be rude. I had a rough night's sleep! You are correct about cutting springs to lower the ride height on a race car, but are the Magnum's springs specific-rate like every racing spring is? I'm not sure, but they're most likely progressive-rate like most every street car out there. My point was that if you start cutting coils off of a street car's springs, you have no idea what you've done to the effective spring rate. And is this something you'd really suggest your average dude attempt on his brand new street car? I certainly wouldn't. There's just too much room for error.
And by the way, my Mustang is not quite all bolt-ons: 2,800lb., 408rwhp 351W, 335s all around, full Griggs GR40 suspension.
I have coil-overs at all four corners and always tune the suspension by using proper-height and rate springs, adjusting the lower spring perches for ride height and ideal weight-jacking. Of course, that's not really an option on the Magnum until someone comes up with a coil-over setup. So until then, standard aftermarket lowering springs are going to have to suffice for anyone who isn't comfortable cutting up their stock springs and quite possibly ruining them altogether.
Buttonwillow is my favorite track. I've since moved out to Phoenix, but I used to race at Buttonwillow quite frequently. (I've been opentracking for 14 years.) Other tracks I frequented are Laguna Seca, Sears Point, Thunderhill, and Streets of Willow. If I ever make it out there again, it's a match-up!!