For anyone really looking to obtain some knowledge, look up a book called Chassis Engineering by Herb Adams, an engineer for Chrysler if I remember correctly. This goes in to detail on how spring rates actually effect handling. For everyone out there who flame cut springs, WHEN IT IS DONE CORRECTLY IT WILL HANDLE THE STREET BETTER THAN KING SPRINGS!!!!! I can say this from experience as my last EF I6 had cut springs and matched short shocks and it handled better than my EF V8 with King Lows and matched shocks. PROVEN FACT....... soft spring rates help the tyre to adhere to the road. PROVEN FACT...... if spring rates are too hard then the tyres will momentarily skip across the road when encountering bumps. Why is it that even though an EF XR6 has lowered suspension it still remains soft????? If we drive around on race tracks then hard springs would be perfect, HOWEVER WE DONT!!!! All this being said, to the guy who started the thread, your a f**k tool mate cause 3 coils is for f**k sake way too much!!

For any one looking to argue........
STD SPRING RATES
Front 319.5lbs/in
Rear 183.8lbs/in
CUT SPRING RATES
Front 1.25 coils removed 378lbs/in
Rear 1 coil removed 202lbs/in

Note EA SLS rear springs were used due to the nature of the spring.

Conclusion
Front increase in spring rate appox 18%
Rear increase in spring rate approx 10%
With this slight difference in balance it helps the car to maintain rear end grip when cornering under heavy throttle loads and can be adjusted with sway bar rates

Compared to King Lows with a front spring rate of 385lbs/in and a rear progressive rate spring which is out of my scope to measure however is not as friendly when going over speed humps as I now experience

Heat transfer throughout the spring whilst being cut is negligable as you can still safely hold the spring within 3 inches of the cut right after it has been done and this portion of the spring is part of the seating area any way. Also something to note is that springs generate an enormous amout of heat when compressing and decompressing which exceeds the amount of heat generated when modifying them. So to say that cutting them is going to alter their molecular structure is s**t.

My final statement is this..... Cutting springs has been made illegal due to the efforts of tools like the person who originated this thread, and for no other reason. If done correctly they WILL provide you with a fantastic ride and performance. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CUT SPRINGS UNTILL YOU HAVE DONE YOUR HOMEWORK AND IF YOUR TOO f**k LAZY TO DO SO THEN JUST PULL A SPIDER OUT OF YOUR WALLET AND BUY SOME LOWERED SPRINGS

 

 

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Cause the rest of us saved money and bought them ourselves. Hell, i am a povo uni student as well, so i saved for 3 months untill i could afford to do everything properly

Gezz, you guys can get nasty, Slabz was just after a little bit of advice and you all jumped down his neck. It wasn’t like he wanted to have his car sitting on the bump stops and drive around, he just wanted to drop the height a little. Hence why he went out a got some new springs….

Good on you Slabz for having a go, of course getting a set of lowered springs is going to be the better option in the long run, but a temporary fix like cutting half to one coil off will do for the time been, although it will void any insurance you might have.

This site is supposed to be for people who are like minded and enjoy doing modifications to their cars, I’m sure comments like “Moronâ€￾ “he is a noodleâ€￾ “knobâ€￾ “dumb a***!!!â€￾, aren’t really all that helpful in promoting a good ford modification community. (although sometimes funny.)
As for the comments about it been illegal, I’ve got no doubt about that, but I could guarantee that on at least 90% of cars owned by fordmods members there will be one or more illegal/unroadworthy items I could find.

Give the guy a break, and offer some helpful/unabusive posts..

Now back to working on my un engineered turboed EF..

softer springs on the rear will help with weight transfer, being able to handle the weight transfer during acceleration in a straaight line and during heavy cornering are 2 completely different things. Ever head of or seen excessive body roll?? ANd don't say it won't happen if you put Huge sway bars in, if your installing all these parts you should have bought lowered springs in the first place.

you did do slightly better than this knob that started this thread by raplacing the shocks, which raises the question, why not just buy springs as well when you bought the shocks??? they aren't that expensive!!!

your also compairing springs from an I6 and a V8, these springs and handling packages are initially different between the two.

Prgressive rate springs are in the same ball park as linear rate springs so you can't compair the 2 unless you have had both.

THE BOTTOM LINE IS CUTTING SPRINGS IS STUPID AND FOREMOST ILLEGAL FOR A NUMBER OF DEFINATE REASONS. THEY AREN'T EXPENSIVE AND FOR THE SAFETY OF YOU AND OTHERS ON THE ROAD, DO IT PROPERLY, BUY LOWERED SPRINGS.

line lockers and bald tires also equals no insurance so meh...



2) thats only if u cut them too low.



how the HELL do u figure that? they arent gonna go nuts in a straight line... crappy asian drivers and grandpas endanger ever person on the road.

P platers are a danger to themselves, yes. BUT old people are a danger to everyone else



instead i'm in an EB with snowflakes (stockies that don't look like stockies )



i'm a pov uni student who is jack of the front of his car sitting higher than the a*** (like a s**t VL) so i wanted to bring the front down to ride level.

and i went and got another set of stock springs from the wreckers yesterday for $22 and this time i only cut one coil of and now the car sits nice a level AND the strut are still tensioned. also when i cut them i could stick my hand on them afterwards so they can't have been more than about 60-70 degrees. i dont think thats enuf to ruin the tempering.

i will also be posting pictures in a little while because i was smart enuf to take some before i put the more legal ones back in

i only cut one coil this time so the car sits level, the struts are still tensioned when not under force so they WONT COME OUT u cry babies... and smackdown: STFU

well no-one bloody told me that 3 was too many BEFORE i started so i just ahd to experiment and now i'll know for next time that 3 is too many. i now have one cut off and it rides wonderfully, feels really firm so i'm happy even if u guys arent.

and if lowered springs are so cheap then why don't you guys buy em for me? DONATE to the "lower slabz' car foundation"

oh yeah.. and due to the fantastic response i got from all u guys, i shall also be posting all my other wonderful mods for you the blast me about too

I agree with Jaysen, my fronts are cut. They were lovell superlows, but not low enougn, so they were carefully modified. And to tell you the truth, handled better (with the car even, before front was higher), and the ride was the same.

And this poor bastard gets flamed...I think it's really funny that one has cut 3 coils off. I want pics! As for endangering other peoples lives... The ride will be s**t, but he wouldn't get far on 3 missing coils.. so if anyone is looking for slabz, he might still be on that hump at maccers .

Anyway, give this guy a break, Im sure each of you has done s**t just as stupid or more stupid before.


Cheers

Nope.

I do things properly, sure it costs more. But I can take my car over any pit in the country and get passed, I can take it to any race track, and be confident that the car will perform as I require, and without worry that something may not be up to scratch. And my insurance company knows my mods so I'm covered, my fault or not.

I spent $2,200 on my suspension, got practially everything replaced.
I spent $900 just last week on brakes.
I spend the money replacing tyres at the right time.

It's part of maintaining a car, so I wear the cost happily, knowing I have a vehicle that is a safe a possible, and reliable. And when I give it a flogging I can rely on it to perform.

As has been said, cut springs CAN be done properly. But it isn't something we should be encouraging, because, not everyone CAN do it PROPERLY, and it IS ILLEGAL, and no insurer will cover you.

spring chopping may be safe for the pro's that know what their doing...
But what about the other 99.999% of dereks that do the job in their backyards??? "Ford falcon deathtrap"

heres ya pics . and also i didn't scrape as much as you'd think, i cleared all the spoon drains i found and all the speed humps i found. my only scrape was entering a dirt car park where the approach and departure angles were huge.

 

 

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from my pictures you can also see how low your car can go when running stock shockies (which are the bump stops).. now if you were to get lowered shocks and go to turn a corner and bounce

 

 

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holy s**t... thats like almost a bit lower than mine at the front... looks kinda s**t with the back in the air though.


Cheers

Ahahaha mate that looks aqwesome, i wish i could safely have my car sitting that low. I kow what u mean about not scraping my ea had superlows, shortened shocks, 15s and a full gt kit and i never scraped once, got up all teh rounded gutters and over speed humps no problems.