dsddcd

Interesting, in the front I had about 3mm available on the treads of the body for preload but the rears at least and inch or two. I also had quite a bit of room for the ride height adjustment.

This is a picture of a Swift 8" long 12K spring on the rear.

ndogg

If you are not maxing the preload adjuster then spring length does not matter...

Based on your calculations you had a preload number. So did you measure and see if your shock is compressed the predicted amount?

andrewhake

Interesting, in the front I had about 3mm available on the treads of the body for preload but the rears at least and inch or two. I also had quite a bit of room for the ride height adjustment.

This is a picture of a Swift 8" long 12K spring on the rear.



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With the ride height measurements you gave earlier, you are about 35mm (1.4") higher ride height than I am (so basically stock ride height?) So the way your rear is adjusted in your image compared to mine makes sense.

dsddcd

I should onow facitory ride height but is has been a long time since I have had an S2K with factiry susoension. My wheel gap is smaller than your picture though. I measured again and I was right at 25 3/4" in the rear after setteling. I will run around 25-25.5", even with more spring I am concerend about roll center and lowering much further so did not try to go lower.

thomsbrain

You just discovered the basic fact about the DFV. When set to sit in the middle of the piston stroke, the rear shock is simply too long for the S2000 application. That's why Ohlins' out-of-the-box settings sit the piston so compressed that the shock body is almost in contact with the bump-stop, in order to achieve a lowered ride height. The frustrating part about that is Ohlins had room to make the shock assembly shorter just by designing the lower mount more thoughtfully, but they didn't do so. Alas.

First step for you if you need to go lower will be to dial out almost all of that rear preload and accept that the piston won't be sitting the middle of the range. Luckily the bumpstop is progressive and fairly long, and the car will actually still drive surprisingly well. As a plus, you'll have a little extra rear rebound travel (which is a big plus if you are on the stock differential). If you need even lower ride height after that, run roll center adjusters (they actually change the rear roll center very little on the S2000, so you can think of them more as "ride height reduction shims").

Also, folks changing springs should know you can run shorter than 8" springs if you're going up in rate and there's plenty of adjustment on the shock body to properly mount and pre-load a 7" or even shorter without changing ride height or needing a helper spring. You can save weight that way (for a given rate, shorter springs are not only shorter but thinner too).

I love the performance of the DFV. The "custom" DFV options out there (from Urge or Speed-Freaks) would be wise to focus more on fixing the rear length and not just valving for stiffer springs.

decepticondc5

All,

Thank you for the responses. Right now I am trying to reach out to Creative Services Ohara about shipping a set of lower mounts to us.

andrewhake

It looks like a very good option from Creative Services Ohara. Around $240 and it looks like they are designed to get the rear around 20mm lower. Even anodized the same gold finish.



I would recommend talking with Jesse Streeter (http://jessestreeter.com). I have gotten many parts from him direct and he is great to work with to facilitate purchasing parts direct from Japan.

I would also recommend looking into the J's rear roll center adjuster ball joints. They are available in both 12mm and 20mm and will get you that much lower.

andrewhake

Good to know that 7" springs work fine without helper springs. Only real possible downside of running 7" springs would be a little less spring compression travel right? There is only so much suspension travel though so no big deal if it is within range still I suppose.

I actually discussed some of these things with Anish in regards to running stiffer springs in the rear. Without the rear RCAs my ride height would be higher than I would want. Was just discussing the rear CSO lower mounts as well since something like that would make a great option for people running stiffer springs without RCAs or for those that want to run more preload. Going to look into making something like that available for people that are interested.

decepticondc5

Count me as very interested. CSO has not responded to my emails yet.

skatebrian624

Looks like I'm a little late to this party. Basically just repeating Thomsbrain, but it sounds like you have too much preload with a heavy spring. Were you able to get lower mounts?