Our 240sx Moderator PapaSmurf2k3 (James) installs a set of Raceland coilovers on his S13... Check in and see his impressions:

Raceland Coilovers for 240sx - Installation and Review

Questions? Comments?

You're very sneaky!

Any info on the spring rates? They look like standard sized coils. If they are under dampened, it wouldn't cost a lot to buy a set of softer springs and fix the ride.

Where did you acquire these raceland coilovers bc looking to get a new set after i noticed my Megan racing coils make a noise every time i drive up my drive way the rears on both sides

float_6969 wrote:Any info on the spring rates? They look like standard sized coils. If they are under dampened, it wouldn't cost a lot to buy a set of softer springs and fix the ride.

I'm not sure exactly what the spring rates are, but I wouldn't want to go too much softer. Not to mention if you have to buy new springs, it sort of defeats the the awesome bang-for-the-buck factor of these coils.

240hatchsx wrote:Where did you acquire these raceland coilovers bc looking to get a new set after i noticed my Megan racing coils make a noise every time i drive up my drive way the rears on both sides

I got them directly from Raceland. Supposedly that is why they can sell them so cheaply, there isn't a middle man.
http://www.racelandus.com/coilovers/nis ... overs.html

Well lookie that, I coulda spent 69 bucks more, and had brand new, as opposed to discontinued with an alleged 20k on them. I guess If I ever need rebuilding, I'll sell the poor things for nothing, and buy those things.

I didn't know those existed, and didn't want to give megan my money, though. Any idea what raceland's honesty as a company is like? Don't wanna be supporting any ripoff artists, now.

I also didn't consider taking the lowering load off bushings, I'll have to do that before the alignment that I'm still procrastinating about.

mechanicalmoron wrote:Any idea what raceland's honesty as a company is like? Don't wanna be supporting any ripoff artists, now.

Honesty? I'm not really sure what you mean. I contacted them asking if they had any stiffer dampers off the shelf that I could try out, and they actually looked for me but unfortunately didn't have anything that would work. That's about it.

mechanicalmoron wrote: I also didn't consider taking the lowering load off bushings

Funny you should ask! I'm also over on a Hyundai forum and one of the guys had his bottomed out over there. Max Lows Anyways, he had one of his blow after about 12-15k on them and he contacted raceland and they sent him a new strut or coil over - can't fully remember. Either way, they replaced what needed done for him and then he shipped the busted one back to them and they reimbursed him the "core charge." Pretty easy experience on his behalf.

JGT Customs wrote:Funny you should ask! I'm also over on a Hyundai forum and one of the guys had his bottomed out over there. Max Lows Anyways, he had one of his blow after about 12-15k on them and he contacted raceland and they sent him a new strut or coil over - can't fully remember. Either way, they replaced what needed done for him and then he shipped the busted one back to them and they reimbursed him the "core charge." Pretty easy experience on his behalf.

Was this in their 2 year warrenty period? Or just out of good businessmanship?

2 year warranty. But you know how warranties can go with the wrong company - they find any way they can to skate out of it.

Raceland coilovers are known in Miataland as "Riceland" coilovers...for obvious reasons if you've ever raced with a set of them installed.

s0m3th1ngAZ wrote:Raceland coilovers are known in Miataland as "Riceland" coilovers...for obvious reasons if you've ever raced with a set of them installed.

But isn't the same going to be true of any "entry" level coilovers? And all the other "entry" coilovers cost about twice as much - I got teins with similar features (aside from proper brake clips being included) for the same price, except used and pretty beat.... I assume I could have gotten these and been about where I am now.

I mean, raceland is just a name, and it's a name that sort of gives away the fact that they're not going to be serious racing gear. And a price that gives away that they're super-budget entry street gear, only for the price of non-adjustable springs and dampers. So from that perspective, they sound pretty great for what they are.

The difference really is in the valving. Tein isn't known for having poorly valved coilovers. What would be really nice is if the racelands had been put on a shock dyno to give us an idea of how they're going to perform.

Hijacker wrote:The difference really is in the valving. Tein isn't known for having poorly valved coilovers. What would be really nice is if the racelands had been put on a shock dyno to give us an idea of how they're going to perform.

Well, I can tell you that mine have some serious bounce if you push on the back of the car.... They're not scary to drive or anything (like my stock ones where) but if they don't have SOME sort of wear/damage, ehh, I dunno about their damping/spring choice, at least from an external parked perspective.

When you say bounce, do you mean the car oscillates up and down a few times, or it pushes back hard to it's rest position (no oscillation)?

Hijacker wrote:When you say bounce, do you mean the car oscillates up and down a few times, or it pushes back hard to it's rest position (no oscillation)?

oscillates.

In fact, it may bounce more times than it did on my totally shot stock dampers, but the springs are so much stiffer that it doesn't have the same crazy/scary side-to-side oscillations at speed.

It's a set of tein basics that I paid a nico member 400 shipped for. They where from NJ, so rusted/bad powder coat, and they where set as low as possible (which I think teins should be just fine with), with one of the bumpstops stuck to the top on the back. Seller said they have 20k on them, and it seemed a much better investment than spending that much on a brand new stock suspension. I mean, I think it was, now my car's fun to drive again, without being scary. But I'm not so sure about the dampers. No leaks though.

And for what it's worth, I have them set at tein's reccomended drop, which makes it the suggested damping/spring rate combo, too.

You can have them at stock ride height, and it wouldn't matter. The oscillation is due to the damper being blown. If you can push on an end of a car and it oscillates, then the damper is shot and the car can bounce up and down on the spring. The damper, when working, forces the spring to its natural resting position without having the car oscillate up and down.

Hijacker wrote:You can have them at stock ride height, and it wouldn't matter. The oscillation is due to the damper being blown. If you can push on an end of a car and it oscillates, then the damper is shot and the car can bounce up and down on the spring. The damper, when working, forces the spring to its natural resting position without having the car oscillate up and down.

well wouldn't damping stiffness relative to spring rate have bad spots, where a given damping rate would interact badly with a given spring rate?

If they're not leaking, what's gone wrong inside, that it's not damping?

I mean, I agree with you, they're blown.... but that was my point about these raceland things. I'm not going to put down the dough to get beat teins rebuilt, I think, because if it caused me a problem, I could simply spend about the same amount, and have brand new racelands. (or ricelands, if you prefer)

It doesn't have "bad spots" per say, but you definitely want to match your springs and dampers accordingly.

Having too stiff of a damper with a really weak spring would probably kill the damper pretty quickly, result in a stiff ride while still getting some body roll.

Having too light of a damper results in undamped oscillations... aka bouncyness.

Think of spring rate sort of as being how big your bounce is going to be, and your damper how long it continues to oscillate after the initial load/unload (or bounce if you will).

So stiff springs with blown dampers is like what you have now with the Teins, soft springs with blown dampers would be kinda like Uncle Buck's old land yacht:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFV9WVZ4cek[/youtube]
Now, listen to this indian guy talking about damping while showing you a cool animation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=Dyq ... ature=fvwp
Having a vehicle completely undamped is actually rather dangerous. If you hit a sequence of bumps just right (going the right speed), each bump will ADD to the amplitude of the previous bump's, and you can pretty much lose all vehicle control (your wheels can physically come off the ground).
Obviously the racelands are nowhere near that bad, I'm just giving you a little backstory on damping.

Haha, with my stock shocks it was like that, there's a few specific high speed bumps that made me think I was going to die, just for a little pot hole, but at 70mph.

Wit my new gear it looks more like when the indian guy uses the max damping setting on his simulation. But the exhaust looks like uncle bucks.

How are the Racelands holding up? Do they feel any different being broken in now?

Honestly they feel like they are a little softer if anything. Maybe I've just gotten used to them. I really like how the car handles after I got it aligned per my specs.
I still think it could use slightly more damper though.

Cool thanks for the update

Perhaps another update?

Still going strong!

I took a peek under the car the other day. There's no leaks or anything.
One thing I have noticed is that the car isn't quite level anymore. It might have been that way before and I just didn't notice it, or it might be because I hacked the car all up and turned it into a truck. Finally, it could be that the suspension settled a bit. Who knows.

It seems to ride better and better though. Again, possibly because I dropped a ton of weight from the back, or maybe because they are breaking in. I'll re-level the car at some point, but I'll probably have to get another alignment after that.

Good to hear.

I'm finding that the general consensus is that these are pretty decent for street use, and are holding up well after a couple years.

float_6969 wrote:Any info on the spring rates? They look like standard sized coils. If they are under dampened, it wouldn't cost a lot to buy a set of softer springs and fix the ride.

Raceland website says the coils are 7k / 5k for S-13.

Thanks for the update!

UPDATES!
Pulled the ol 240 truck into the shop tonight to jack it up a bit for an off-roading excursion I have planned this weekend. I also just finished a lighting install in the shop last night, so I figured it was time to get down and dirty with some vehicle work.


So here's a little how-to: re-adjust your coilovers, as well as a long-term update.

Again, jack the car up and pull the wheels off. Chances are the coilovers have some road grit on them, so either blow it off with a compressor, brush it off with a soft brush, or douche the thing in WD40 or other penetrating oil, and wipe it all down with a rag. You're going to want to douche the thing in penetrating oil anyway (just to make it easier to move the collars around), so that's what I did.

Once you take the middle collar off of the spring perch position, you'll want to loosen up the lower collar. Mine was pretty damn tight, so I had to use a hammer in conjunction with the supplied wrenches. Once its loose, lock the lower collar with the middle collar (jam-nut style) and twist to rotate the housing to raise/lower the vehicle.

I measured how much housing was sticking through the lower mount (1.5-1.6 inches) so I can set it back later.

I backed the housing out of the lower mount until it was slightly under-flush with the bottom of the mount.

Ride height when I started:

Ride height when I finished (I just did the front):

I re-read my original review and noticed I said I went something like 15-20 threads into the lower housing when I originally installed everything. I definitely want to keep some thread engagement (probably 10 or so threads minimum), so I really wouldn't be able to raise the rear up much more than it is now. Not really worth the effort anyway. Maybe if I'm bored and some buddies want to see how the suspension works, I'll get under there and do it. The front has another inch or so to go before I'd be worried about it. Its pretty impressive how high you can jack the thing up and lower it down

Long term review.
I mentioned earlier that the car seemed to no-longer be level. That was measured in my old garage, which, itself wasn't level. Once I got the car on a flat surface, everything was pretty damn close to being perfect, so disregard my previous comment.
One thing I DID notice is that some of the threads are starting to rust a bit on the housing (but really not bad), and that one of the dust boots is cracked.

Overall, NOT BAD. If you live up north, you might want to keep some grease on the threads, or periodically paint them (not too much paint though... don't want to clog up the threads!).

I use anti-seize on them - easy to wipe off, and keeps anything from sticking.