[BlueScooby]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - Fortune Auto 510's have Arrived! RDC installation pics

Coils have arrived! Planning to install this weekend and get an alignment/corner balance next Monday. In the mean time, I can start playing with the RDC install. This weekend I decided where to mount the controller and started trimming it out. I think it looks pretty sweet

Only problem is now I have to mount the actuators and the front/rear control board...

 

[TBAG]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - Fortune Auto 510's have Arrived! RDC installation pics

Fancy set up.

7k-6k will be a very good spring rate for street. I believe it is the same as original TIC/SST kit which received plenty of good reviews.

FA seem to have become the most popular choice in North America.

Interested to see how they feel and what you think of onboard adjustment.

 

[BlueScooby]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - Fortune Auto 510's have Arrived! RDC installation pics

Those that have installed coilovers, what length should i start the dampers out with? The are pretty compressed from the box, so im probably going to have to unwind the lower a bit...

 

[BlueScooby]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - Fortune Auto 510's have Arrived! RDC installation pics

Thanks for the help Gavin!

Rear coils installed and done! Front coils tomorrow afternoon.

Also, i will probably need to modify the Oswald rear brace brackets to make room for the cable adapter for the RDC system... Wont be this weekend tho.

Alignment and corner balance Monday!

 

[BaronOBeefdip]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - Fortune Auto 510's have Arrived! RDC installation pics

No problem, any time! Once I get the front wheels off I'll let you know what I have things set at, if you're not settled in by then that is. But you could always readjust to near my settings if you want down the line.

 

[BlueScooby]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - FA510's installed and corner balanced!

So, remembering how much trouble it was to break loose the strut-hub bolts the last go-round, I decided to finally upgrade my garage with an air compressor. Went to lowes and bought a 5 gallon compressor, and immediately decided that was too small, despite my infrequent planned usage. For just a little more I got a nice Kobalt 20gal, that fit snugly under the workbench for a nice stealth installation. MUCH BETTER Added a little hose/ball valve/filter/regulator combo under the bench for a nice quick connect setup.

Next up is:
Sound Deadening to take the edge off the compressor noise
Adding a switch to the workbench to act as a local disconnect
Install a retractable hose reel on the ceiling and route piping/hose up to it

Coilover install post upcoming!

 

[BaronOBeefdip]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - FA510's installed and corner balanced!

Sweeeeeet! I like it.

 

[BlueScooby]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - FA510's installed and corner balanced!

Coilovers are installed! Alignment is done and the car is corner balanced

Friday I spent the afternoon tearing my rear interior apart. Got the seats, the trim, the shoulder belts and everything all out and on the floor in the garage. I didn't need to go this far but it made everything easier and allowed me to better acess how to install the RDC rear components.

Saturday I installed the rear coilovers. Took about 4-5 iterations of installing/uninstalling to get the ride height set. Finally ended up at nearly exactly the same 25.25" from fender to ground that I had on the JDM Pinks/Revalves.

Sunday I installed the fronts. Took about 4-5 iterations again, but the final "iteration" was litterally just tightening stuff I forgot to do when I was done previously... :lol: Ended up at 25.5" F-G instead of the 25.75" I measured on the JDM Pinks/Revalves, but I think having a smaller difference from front to rear looks better...

Last night I reinstalled my rear interior, removed the strut-top brackets for the Oswald Performance Rear Triangle Brace for modification, and installed the motors and control board for the rear portion of the RDC system. I haven't conneced the cables from the motors to the strut tops yet as I'm not sure if I have all the right parts/pieces to complete this puzzle. Going to call FA this morning to inquire.

Here you can see why I need to modify the rear brackets for the O.P. rear brace. The strut top is nearly hitting the bracket and won't allow for the RDC installation.

I'm not sure yet if I'm just going to cut that side of the brace out and flip it and weld it back in, or what. I emailed Mickey at O.P. to see what his thoughts are, but I'm likely to modify this myself.

Here you can see the rear control board and motors mounted just behind the rear seat. I used some gorrilla super strong double sided sticky tape and zipties to mount the motors to the two vertical bars that go behind the seat. The control board is just ziptied to the plastic division plate thing. The plastic divider also made for a clean way to hide the wires behind the seat and out of the trunk which worked out nicely.

On to the coilovers!
After unboxing:

After extending them to my initial height assumption (wrong... haha)

Comparing the rears (height not yet tested/adjusted)

First one on the car! (nevermind the brake line... its not yet bolt back and looks weird)

A very bad picture of the inboard clearance between the wheel and strut... Plenty of space basically. The 10mm between +35 and +45 wheels is probably most of the clearance I have. Otherwise I would probably be in the same boat as Gavin...

And a few shamelss photos of the finished product!

The car looks naked with out the big 'ol difffuser hanging out the back Gotta put that thing back on now...

 

[BlueScooby]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - FA510's installed and corner balanced!

Alignment after coilover install:

Before Balanceing:

After Balance:

 

[BlueScooby]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - FA510's installed and corner balanced!

Side note, apparently the full curb weight of my car (minus me) is 3328lbs... Although thats without the undertrays and diffuser (because alignment). So the factory advertised 3351 lbs curb weight is probably still pretty accurate for me with all the added and removed weight of various things.

I haven't really been "pursuing" a light weight car as that usually compromises the "daily driver" comforts that I want to keep... But its nice to know that I haven't ballooned the car's weight up and over the original curb weight.

 

[TBAG]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - FA510's installed and corner balanced!

1580kg! Didnt realise thsse cars were that heavy.

No weight gain with all add ons is good though.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[got2boostit2]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - FA510's installed and corner balanced!

1580kg! Didnt realise thsse cars were that heavy.

No weight gain with all add ons is good though.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

USDM bullshit

 

[BlueScooby]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - FA510's installed and corner balanced!

Yeah, I had forgot how heavy these cars were. Something about seeing the weight in kg seems much worse to me... Thanks a lot Gran Turuismo and all your 1000-1300kg cars. haha

 

[BlueScooby]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - FA510's installed and corner balanced!

So, seeing as I've been busy the natural thing for me to do is figure out how to pile on more work... I'm in the process of finishing the wiring/install of the RDC system, waiting on finishing the JDM mirrors, and I just finished the coilover install; so naturally I am re-evaluating my entire underbody... (To be honest, most of these aren't new ideas just ones I knew, I couldn't implement with the old suspension setup)

Contemplating a redo with some updates to the current design. Each iteration improves but I also end up finding things I can still improve further, and then I can't just let it be... Because thats too easy.

Main improvement targets are three-fold.
1-Improve fastening strategy to remove as many screw heads/obstructions from under body area
2-remove all vertical fences upstream of diffuser for better "flat" floor
3-widen/enhance rear diffuser (coilovers have less droop, which yeilds some more room)

Extra credit: get a welder and do this thing right.



Anyone want a bunch of large aluminum sheetmetal? :lol:

 

[BlueScooby]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - FA510's installed and corner balanced!

posted up the old suspension for sale, in case anyone is interested:

https://www.iwsti.com/forums/suspension-stiffening-parts-for-sale/318294-05-07-sti-feal-revalved-struts-jdm-pink-springs-rce-plates-groupn-tophats-post4464662.html#post4464662

 

[BlueScooby]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - Redoing the underbody and diffuser. again.

almost finalized the new underbody design. its largely the same, with several small tweaks, and two big tweaks. The big changes are the added width and a diffuser that now expands laterally as well as vertically .

I was reading up on diffuser design and one source was claiming that the upper limit of diffuser design for a road car was an expansion ratio of 1:5 (this seems a bit ambitious really). My current setup is somewhere around 1:2 or 1-2.5. I can't go a whole lot larger due to being limited on the angle of vertical expansion. If I could extend the diffuser forward or rearward more, that would help but thats not going to work. So, a little bit of lateral expansion is the name of the game. I'm only getting up to around 1:3 expansion ratio here (estimates of course, I don't have hard measurements on heights currently).

The underbody tray mating to the diffuser will be 6" wider than previous; and the diffuser exit will be 10" wider than that! In total (including the diffuser), I am adding roughly 575 square inches of underbody. If I can achieve a pressure differential under the car of even a tenth of 1PSI, thats nearly 60lbs of extra downforce! (Obviously to reach a pressure differential that large, I will have to be scootin down the track)


(Do not pay too close attention to the hatched areas locating the tires and the OEM aero panels, they are not dimensioned and are merely approximations for reference. Everything else is scaled properly)
Here is the basic design as it sits:

Here is a graphic showing the added width:

Once I finalize dimensions and such, it'll be time to head back to the sheetmetal shop




As an aside, I finally found a statement regarding "ground effects" that I think explains why adding the skirts like I did previously was not a good idea.

"You are discussing ground effect (low underside pressure due to low volume of air under the car, vs the pressure above the car), and a diffuser (accelerating air into a void to generate low pressure)"

Basically a ground effects (with skirts) car is designed to limit airflow under the car, where as a diffuser design is supposed to increase airflow under the car. They have, literally, OPPOSITE goals... I feel like a bit of a goofball for mixing those up now At least Porsche made the same mistake too (albeit like 30-40 years ago...)



TL;DR - new diffuser design, no skirts

 

[awenthol]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - FA510's installed and corner balanced!

Last night I reinstalled my rear interior, removed the strut-top brackets for the Oswald Performance Rear Triangle Brace for modification, and installed the motors and control board for the rear portion of the RDC system. I haven't conneced the cables from the motors to the strut tops yet as I'm not sure if I have all the right parts/pieces to complete this puzzle. Going to call FA this morning to inquire.

Here you can see why I need to modify the rear brackets for the O.P. rear brace. The strut top is nearly hitting the bracket and won't allow for the RDC installation.

I don't understand the rear suspension top brace. The rear shocks/springs act vertically on the chassis. What good is lateral bracing? Front is a different story but I would challenge the effectiveness...

 

[BlueScooby]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - FA510's installed and corner balanced!

I don't understand the rear suspension top brace. The rear shocks/springs act vertically on the chassis. What good is lateral bracing? Front is a different story but I would challenge the effectiveness...

Just trying to stiffen the rear chassis up. As with any chassis bracing you are trying to limit flex. The rear suspension does not have a lot in the way of reinforcement to keep the rear towers from flexing inward under hard cornering. The "bracing" or structural components of the rear of the car also do nothing to keep they car from "leaning" one way or another.The triangle brace addresses that directly by triangulating the towers down to the back seat.

Check out here for more information: Why the GD Chassis needs an X-Brace

In this link you will find a video where the triangulated bracket down to the back seat is unbolted and you can see it shifting back and forth under hard cornering.

EDIT: It is true the rear suspension are designed to "act vertically" on the chassis, but that is looking at them in a vacuum, suspension design is much more complex than that. As a part of the whole system, they also transmit lateral loads to the chassis. Hence the brace. :tup:

 

[BlueScooby]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - Redoing the underbody and diffuser. again.

Fortune Auto 510 Review

The RDC installation was finally completed last weekend with a servo replacement from FA so I could finally test out the dampers at different levels of stiffness. First of all, being able to control that from the drivers seat is amazing! But I am thoroughly impressed with the damping of these coils. The FEAL revalves I was using before are pretty close to what these coils are at full stiff, but yet the coilovers seem more compliant (and with a stiffer spring!). Big bumps do not upset the whole car like the FEALs did. I always assumed that was related to the large swaybars, but it appears that is not the case. Right now I'm driving the car at 15 clicks out of 24 and the car seems both planted and a more comfortable ride at the same time. I can't say how these compare with other coilovers of course, but I am very impressed with these compared to my previous setup!

 

[TBAG]

Re: BlueScooby's 06 STI - Redoing the underbody and diffuser. again.

It is always the sign of a good valving. It feels more compliant even with higher spring rates.