FMIC & Suspension Upgrade Suggestions/Ideas

[JTop]

Hi Sean,

Buying them off someone who got them from the previous owner. They just never had the chance to put them on and gave them to the new owner, but instead of putting them on he bought another set of 17". I'll make sure they're 5x100pcd stud pattern, and 7" wide and I'm happy with them before I hand anything over )
Cheers!

[JTop]

Hey All,

Bought the Denvers and test fitted one, really happy with them

Still browsing for the struts I'll be getting, was looking for front Bilstein B8s for the Polo and I came across KYB struts for both front and rear of the Polo. Being half the price, I'd imaging them being half the performance of the Bilsteins and just a slight upgrade from OEM. Read some reviews and most of them say, they're good but not for off-roading, and also that they'd last only half the time the Bilsteins would. I wouldn't be taking the car offroad, and don't have anywhere near me to do so, I think they should be fine?

Main Question. KYB yes or no

They would be an instant buy for me, rather than half and half for bilsteins, where I'm still looking for cheaper fronts/waiting on a deal to happen for them.

Cheers!

[Sydneykid]

KYB's are OK'ish, but I'd wait for Bilsteins to pop up. I'll send you a PM later with what I can get Bilsteins for, just in case they fit in your budget. One problem, you can't tell anyone the prices

Cheers
Gary

[JTop]

Hi All,
Still pondering on the FMIC, Found one of these for S14/15s, would it be worth $150? Shorter piping the better right? Because the BA intercooler goes from left to right, which for piping is a bit inconvenient, so looking into as many other options.
Two weeks of uni left and then I can start doing all the mods that I have been collecting for the car!
Still gotta get the Front Bilsteins ordered. Been delaying these as well as the Whiteline swaybar kit.

Also been looking for Speakers to replace the factory ones. More I use them, the more I want to tear them out and throw them away and just listen to the car, ahahaha. Whilst replacing these, going to redo my door cards with something nice. and put some sound deadening stuff...? No Idea yet.

Waiting on Gavins prototype Downpipe :O

[sambb]

That's a pretty close approximation of what the old (and like hens teeth) APR Polo 9N3 intercoolers looked like. I remember that Guy Harding many years ago put up flow tests of the stock SMIC vs APR vs Forge (The SEAT Sport wasn't included in the test … perhaps too early?) and the APR outflowed the forge by a fair bit ie the Forge was shown later down the track to drop a smidge under 2psi whereas the APR had less of a flow restriction. The Forge in fact flowed less cfm than the stock SMIC, however at dyno days back in the early 2010's had the biggest temp drops. It'd work fine. Just check that it hasn't had a run through the kitty litter at the track and that the fins aren't clogged with minute pebbles.

[Sydneykid]

As Sam suggested I'd do a bit of a fin tidy up with a small flat head screw driver. Then wash it out (shake shake shake) with 50/50 kero and metho until it's the same colour going in as it comes out, then flush it with water and leave in the sun for a few hours.

Cheers
Gary

[h100vw]

Hi All,
Still pondering on the FMIC, Found one of these for S14/15s, would it be worth $150? Shorter piping the better right? Because the BA intercooler goes from left to right, which for piping is a bit inconvenient, so looking into as many other options.
Two weeks of uni left and then I can start doing all the mods that I have been collecting for the car!
Still gotta get the Front Bilsteins ordered. Been delaying these as well as the Whiteline swaybar kit.

Also been looking for Speakers to replace the factory ones. More I use them, the more I want to tear them out and throw them away and just listen to the car, ahahaha. Whilst replacing these, going to redo my door cards with something nice. and put some sound deadening stuff...? No Idea yet.

Waiting on Gavins prototype Downpipe :O

Honestly, the downpipe is coming

[sambb]

Doing a tail section which doesnt cost Milltek prices Gav?

[simon k]

Simon, tell me more about these 180sx strut tops... Had a little play at a track the other day...the wear on the right front outside shoulder...strewth.

well I was digging around for the cheapest way to get some camber adjustment and a strut top for coilovers and discovered that Nissan strut tops are the same 105mm bolt spacing (PCD). I know a bloke who races a Bluebird and he had this one kicking around (he'd lost the other one otherwise I'd have taken the pair). Apparently Nissan/Datsun have used the same PCD all the way back to 1600's in the 60's and they're all interchangeable.

So here's what it looks like - camber adjustment only. On the Nissan the side at the top of the picture faces the wheel, on the Polo it's turned 180° and the side at the bottom faces the wheel.


Here it is sitting on top of the Polo strut mount - you can see that the studs line up. The studs themselves are 10mm so the holes would need to be filed/drilled out but that's not a big deal



here's the first ebay result: Strut Tops Plates Camber Adjustable For NISSAN Silvia 180SX 200SX 240SX S13 S14 6971362687571 | eBay It's pretty hard to go wrong with that price...

As for how to couple this with the standard Polo spring mount I don't know, I was doing it for coilovers so the mounting is different.

[sambb]

you could also orient it so that the stud in the bottom of the strut top pic is installed closest to the firewall. That would give you the slot angled diagonally back towards the centre of the engine bay yeah? - that way max caster and not giving away too much camber.