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continued from above
We used a front spring length long enough to keep the spring package "above the tire" while making sure they weren't too short that they had excessive slack at full droop. Out back we used the Whiteline spring and added our prototype "Version 1" S550 spherical rear upper shock mounts - which are admittedly a bit ugly, due to a plating choice I made that didn't work well.
How were these made? We took the cast aluminum OEM upper shock mounts (above left) and drilled out the crimped in upper washer, which acts like a "fuse" - this pops out when someone bottoms the suspension hard enough in a crash. But it also pops when people convert the S550 rear shocks to coilover springs, and we don't want that. Moving from a divorced spring to coilover spring moves the suspension loads through the shock, and the stock top mount cannot withstand that for very long. We CNC machined a spherical bearing holder section and welded it into the modified stock casting (above right). It works, it just doesn't look very good, so we're not going to sell "Version 1" and instead will make a fully CNC machined "Version 2" with an additional feature we think is warranted. I will show that and explain further in a future post.
Both the rear shock and the front strut are inverted, which puts the single adjuster knob on the bottom. This is actually easier to access this way on the rear, and up front you just turn the wheels to lock and you can get to them fairly easy. An inverted front strut housing is very strong and has little deflection under lateral loads. We installed the modular camber "slug" inserts with zero offset on the upper spindle mount, to gain maximum wheel room. As we will show below, there is still plenty of camber adjustment on the plates so you don't need to "kick the struts" to get camber in the mounting holes. That gobbles up much needed inboard wheel room, and changes the SAI geometry, so we avoid that trick at all costs.
Installation up front is fairly straight forward. The Whiteline strut is about 2" shorter than the stock piece and getting the front spring and strut out is relatively easy on that end. Above you can see the installed Max-G coilover and swaybar.
OEM rear spring removal is not that easy - it takes a few tricks. Removing the rear shock while supporting the lower arm, then lowering the control arm doesn't release tension on the spring enough to remove it. You have to unbolt and lower the rear subframe from the chassis to unload the long, massive rear spring that Ford uses in the divorced location.
Even with the rear spring and shock removed, the rear control arm does not pivot freely. At all. Two guys can hang on this control arm, because it has so much bushing bind in it. It is amazing that this works in stock form, but it somehow does...
You can see the inboard bushings (left side of pic above) and how out of axis they are. These are fighting each other badly during suspension travel. One of these lower control arm bushings is a sealed spherical from Ford, the other is a big nasty rubber bushing, with chunks removed to allow it to rotate in bind. Of course we will look at fixing this down the road.
Weight loss was a benefit with the aftermarket coilovers - as it usually is. Even with the beefier inverted 44.5mm shafts the pair of Whiteline front struts they were still 5.0 pounds lighter than the stock front struts, with springs and top hats installed.
The weight loss out back was even more substantial at 9.2 pounds on the pair of rear shocks/springs/top mounts. This is mostly due to the massive OEM "divorced" spring being replaced with a 60mm coilover spring. If you look closely at the "T-bar" lower mount, it is asymmetrical, to kick the lower part of the shock away from the rear axles. If you install this backwards it will be pretty apparent, as the spring will be close to the axle, but Whiteline thought of this little trick to gain more room.
The rear shock is inverted so that the spring can sit "inside the barrel" of the wheel and not restrict the inboard wheel room for wider wheels and tires. With our 19x11" wheel it wasn't even close - we could move inboard another 1/2 to 3/4" and never get near the shock top. Moving the spring out to the shock can sometimes have negative side effects, but on the IRS suspension here with the ample wheel room its a non-issue. The effective wheel rate is higher due to the change in motion ratio - the lever effect of moving the spring out closer to the tire compared to the stock inboard "divorced" spring. 60mm springs are not only lighter but come in a lot more rates and lengths for adjusting around different conditions, tracks, and tire setups.
Whiteline Swaybars and End Links
The factory front swaybars on this 2018 GT were 32.5mm and the rear was 22 mm (0.855"), and of course non-adjustable. Since the rates the Max-G coilovers came with still looked a tad soft for what we had in mind for our next track test we went ahead and ordered up a set of adjustable swaybars from Whiteline.
The Whiteline bits are 35mm front and 25mm rear, with 3 adjustment holes on each side. The BFK006 kit comes with the front and rear bars, body mount bushings, locking rings, and Whiteline shortened/adjustable endlinks for both ends.
Installing these was relatively straight forward and when doing coilovers doesn't add a lot of work. We always test fit any aftermarket bar with the supplied bushings and sleeves, then shim them to fit so that they rotate with "pinkie finger effort". Once they are shimmed and fitted, the body mount bushings and sleeves are removed and drilled/tapped for grease zerks. This allows us to squirt in fresh grease every 6-12 months for a low stiction, noise-free rotation.
continued below
We used a front spring length long enough to keep the spring package "above the tire" while making sure they weren't too short that they had excessive slack at full droop. Out back we used the Whiteline spring and added our prototype "Version 1" S550 spherical rear upper shock mounts - which are admittedly a bit ugly, due to a plating choice I made that didn't work well.
How were these made? We took the cast aluminum OEM upper shock mounts (above left) and drilled out the crimped in upper washer, which acts like a "fuse" - this pops out when someone bottoms the suspension hard enough in a crash. But it also pops when people convert the S550 rear shocks to coilover springs, and we don't want that. Moving from a divorced spring to coilover spring moves the suspension loads through the shock, and the stock top mount cannot withstand that for very long. We CNC machined a spherical bearing holder section and welded it into the modified stock casting (above right). It works, it just doesn't look very good, so we're not going to sell "Version 1" and instead will make a fully CNC machined "Version 2" with an additional feature we think is warranted. I will show that and explain further in a future post.
Both the rear shock and the front strut are inverted, which puts the single adjuster knob on the bottom. This is actually easier to access this way on the rear, and up front you just turn the wheels to lock and you can get to them fairly easy. An inverted front strut housing is very strong and has little deflection under lateral loads. We installed the modular camber "slug" inserts with zero offset on the upper spindle mount, to gain maximum wheel room. As we will show below, there is still plenty of camber adjustment on the plates so you don't need to "kick the struts" to get camber in the mounting holes. That gobbles up much needed inboard wheel room, and changes the SAI geometry, so we avoid that trick at all costs.
Installation up front is fairly straight forward. The Whiteline strut is about 2" shorter than the stock piece and getting the front spring and strut out is relatively easy on that end. Above you can see the installed Max-G coilover and swaybar.
OEM rear spring removal is not that easy - it takes a few tricks. Removing the rear shock while supporting the lower arm, then lowering the control arm doesn't release tension on the spring enough to remove it. You have to unbolt and lower the rear subframe from the chassis to unload the long, massive rear spring that Ford uses in the divorced location.
Even with the rear spring and shock removed, the rear control arm does not pivot freely. At all. Two guys can hang on this control arm, because it has so much bushing bind in it. It is amazing that this works in stock form, but it somehow does...
You can see the inboard bushings (left side of pic above) and how out of axis they are. These are fighting each other badly during suspension travel. One of these lower control arm bushings is a sealed spherical from Ford, the other is a big nasty rubber bushing, with chunks removed to allow it to rotate in bind. Of course we will look at fixing this down the road.
Weight loss was a benefit with the aftermarket coilovers - as it usually is. Even with the beefier inverted 44.5mm shafts the pair of Whiteline front struts they were still 5.0 pounds lighter than the stock front struts, with springs and top hats installed.
The weight loss out back was even more substantial at 9.2 pounds on the pair of rear shocks/springs/top mounts. This is mostly due to the massive OEM "divorced" spring being replaced with a 60mm coilover spring. If you look closely at the "T-bar" lower mount, it is asymmetrical, to kick the lower part of the shock away from the rear axles. If you install this backwards it will be pretty apparent, as the spring will be close to the axle, but Whiteline thought of this little trick to gain more room.
The rear shock is inverted so that the spring can sit "inside the barrel" of the wheel and not restrict the inboard wheel room for wider wheels and tires. With our 19x11" wheel it wasn't even close - we could move inboard another 1/2 to 3/4" and never get near the shock top. Moving the spring out to the shock can sometimes have negative side effects, but on the IRS suspension here with the ample wheel room its a non-issue. The effective wheel rate is higher due to the change in motion ratio - the lever effect of moving the spring out closer to the tire compared to the stock inboard "divorced" spring. 60mm springs are not only lighter but come in a lot more rates and lengths for adjusting around different conditions, tracks, and tire setups.
Whiteline Swaybars and End Links
The factory front swaybars on this 2018 GT were 32.5mm and the rear was 22 mm (0.855"), and of course non-adjustable. Since the rates the Max-G coilovers came with still looked a tad soft for what we had in mind for our next track test we went ahead and ordered up a set of adjustable swaybars from Whiteline.
The Whiteline bits are 35mm front and 25mm rear, with 3 adjustment holes on each side. The BFK006 kit comes with the front and rear bars, body mount bushings, locking rings, and Whiteline shortened/adjustable endlinks for both ends.
Installing these was relatively straight forward and when doing coilovers doesn't add a lot of work. We always test fit any aftermarket bar with the supplied bushings and sleeves, then shim them to fit so that they rotate with "pinkie finger effort". Once they are shimmed and fitted, the body mount bushings and sleeves are removed and drilled/tapped for grease zerks. This allows us to squirt in fresh grease every 6-12 months for a low stiction, noise-free rotation.
continued below