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Originally Posted by spidertri  You don't rotate the M strut mounts. You can either put them on the correct sides with the arrow pointing forward or swap them from side to side with the arrow still pointing forward.
Also, they alone didn't give me -3.3deg camber. From lowering my car I already had around -2deg. |
Does the strut not fit if I would rotate it? Does it physically not work or just not recommended? My guesstimated specs where off, but still +2deg (Oh I mean 1.3deg?) is still a step in the right direction.
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Originally Posted by pdxmotorhead I wasn't trying to bust your game, maybe what I should have said,,, is What is the alignment spec you want,,, then pick the parts. "more camber" or " more caster" is not very specific and since I tune a lot of suspension that's where I start. I recommend that book because it explains dive, ackerman and the basics of how the suspension works, so you can pick the best off the shelf parts to get as close to ideal for your suspension height and geometry.
I've done cars for folks that had no idea what good suspension was, I even did a 18' winnebago once. The guy loved it. Mostly it was good shocks and springs that were matched to the vehicles weight, and tuning the suspension angles to correctly control the top heavy beasty.. The guy had a 550HP 454 chevy in it for going to Baja to chase the rally cars. I even found a way to make adjustable sway bars for him.. They were BIG...
I believe in pre-planing I'm too old to mess with stuff more than once... LOL
Like I said keep us up on the final parts you end up with and the alignment that it works out to...
Cheers
Dave |
Well thanks for your help, I guess knowing your qualifications a little more does kinda help understand your point of view.
I am hardly a suspension expert, I was just playing around with parts - with a goal mostly of "does it work", streetable, just doing it to learn and see how the car feels with the different suspension. Mostly on feel then actual calculations I guess.
I am hoping, 0 toe, 2.2-3.0 max camber, and with caster I just guessed that with the e46 LCA and offset bushing it may give me a little too much, I don't mind a bit extra (havn't looked too much into numbers - again just eyeballing and seeing how it will feel) because from the little I know it does seem to help handling but of course too much also is not good.
The other hope was to find out how it works, do it myself, and write up how it felt for me and how it looks/ behaves so that others can also mess with it without having to break the wallet or get stuff crazy welded. Its real common coming from the honda/nissan world to mix and OEM parts from different models to get a setup that suits the persons driving style or look for the car. Just because so much is interchangeable and cheaper then after market options that may do the same thing. Besides different ideas are fun to play with.
But back on point, if I did put the offset shocktower mounts in the same place as the other thread that gained him more camber, but as spidertri said it also gives him more caster - now I am assuming with the offset m3 mounts and e46 LCA it will be wayy to much caster to be streetable.
Now becaues the offset LCA bushings are offset could I rotate them to loose caster?
For example - I put the upper shock tower mounts like the previously mentioned thread
http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=34102 - and rotate my offset LCA bushings in a attempt to compensate for the caster gained by the upper shock tower mounts to minimize it, then use IE street camber kit :
http://www.iemotorsport.com/bmw/E36-...adjcamber.html to gain another 1.25 deg of camber ontop of the of the 2deg camber, and maybe with a 1deg shim somewhere I can get a total of 4.25 camber back?
I do now kinda wish I had numbers for the caster gained with the E46LCA and offset LCA bushing and upper offset shock tower mount, just to make sure it would be in a operable range.
I feel there is hope?? Now please take a look my hypothesis, and see where the holes are! lol, it almost feels like a science experiment.