estrellajon

Had my C63 P30 for 6 months now and back from MB hiatus. Been on BMW and Porsche for the past 10 years. Great project memories and now starting to mod the C63 and see how far it goes from here. Besides the cosmetics, diffuser, PPF install, new rear tires mounted etc, finally stated to install my coilovers. Front only took me an hour for both. That included cleaning the brake calipers. Rears are on my agenda today. May take longer as I need to drop the swing arm. To be continued......

ZephyrAMG

Great mod. I'm still debating whether to go all out KW Club Sports or just coilovers. Curious what you thought of Porsche and BMW in comparison to the C63. What brought you back? How do you regard the C63?

estrellajon

I think it depends what you plan to do with the car. If you're serious in tracking it along with street use, KW Club Sports are worth it. For street, regular coilovers or springs should be enough as we can't push the car too much on the street. I had KW V3 on my BMW which I planned to track more but never made it more than once. :-/. The v3 capability was never used.

Porsche and BMW ownership were fun due to the projects I've done to them which made some of my cars a unique build.

C63s are more like a turnkey hot rod with most of the upgrades already done. For street, brakes, suspension and engine are amazing and civil to drive everyday and faster than 90% of the cars out there. I would love to install a twin screw supercharger just for the project but for $13k, I'll just save the money for a future Porsche upgrade :-)

I was on a path of purchasing a 997TT then I drove my buddies 507 and loved the sound. So the TT is on hold at the moment while I see what these cars can do.

Ingenieur

Nice work
An hour is fast including some detailing

How high can they be set? Close to stock? Say -10 mm ?

estrellajon

Thanks. Having air tools and hydraulic spring compressor does help cut down time. Soak caliper with simple green and spray with brake cleaner does a great job.

It can be set to stock levels for sure with a coilover set up. Only way too go in my opinion as I don't want it too low. Just enough. With just springs, you're stuck with the specified height,

Ingenieur

If I decide to do coil overs what's your rate?
Local dealer is $112/hr

estrellajon

Ha. Dealers go by the book too doesn't matter if it takes them 2 hours. They would probably charge 5 hours. My buddys usually gets me gift cards or lunch for car work. Only caveat, I only work on German cars. Lol.

Ingenieur

Porsche 911
BMW 2002
Porsche 931
535i
E30 M3
E36 M3
E46 M3
Porsche 951
Audi RS4
AMG C63
Last 34 years or so
Average 5 years each but some less some more, and some overlap
Most modded in small ways

German enough? Lol

Thinking about H&R springs with some fabricated rubber pads/spacers
Front shoot for 12 mm drop 8 mm spacers
Rear 10 mm w / 10 mm spacers

Hesitation is I've read the H&R ride is rough

nkc

please if i want to embark on this install myself, what specific tools , would i be needing to make the job easy and stress free.... i see u mentioned air tools, etc, could you give me a detailed tool list, say i go with the kw clubsports, what else would i need to get the perfect install without issues?

thank you

estrellajon

Air tools speed up work progress tremendously but not necessary. What's required are All metric type sockets, wrenches, including E* star bolts. Invest in a breaker bar if you don't have a heavy duty impact wrench. A must in my opinion is a safe strut spring compressor. I had my share of cheap way of compressing springs. Very dangerous and takes forever. I figured I only have so many chances before I lose any eye or a jaw. :-/

Ingenieur

What are the E star bolts?
Are they the external 12? Point tapered ones?

estrellajon

Ha. My type of cars! Worked on all of them except an RS4. All fun cars.

I have always done KWs but only available in V3. My first choice but not required. My first H&R coilovers. Well see. :-) Your strategy of adjusting height on springs using pads is a good idea. Seems like a lot of testing to get the proper height? I'm interested on seeing that project.

estrellajon

They're like Hex bolts but different 6 points. Like 6 tapered points Lots of euro cars use these to be different I guess lol . Like these

Ingenieur

Thanks
Looks kinda like an external torx

estrellajon

Maybe that's what E stands for. I never knew what it meant Edit: quick google. That's exactly E what means. External star socket. Lol. Always called it E Star sockets

Ingenieur

If not too much trouble take a regular torx bit and one of those sockets (same size) and see if they mate
Tia

estrellajon

I'll try that and provide feedback. Should be perfect fit since it's technically "torx" type

estrellajon

T50 fits exactly on E10.

Ingenieur

Thanks
Off to Sears tomorrow


Here's a ??? For you
After my wavetrac install the rear seems to ride a bit higher
Maybe 1/4 to 3/8"...as measured before/after

If the sway bar end links are disconnected then retightened with the wheels hanging could that do it ?

estrellajon

The sway bar links will not affect that part since it only comes off and goes in one way. However, with my experience on working on any suspension work and doesn't matter what car, pre-loading the suspension is important prior to tightening the essentric bolt of a swing arm or control arm. Does that make sense? For example, when a car is placed on a lift, then you loosen a swing arm bolt on the sub-frame, the bushing in there will shift to a "natural" position. If you reinstall the arm and tighten it at this position, the bushing will be at tension and probably why the rear sits a bit higher. I normally pre-load the suspension up a bit using a jack then tighten to the proper torque. This way, the bushing is at a natural state when the car sits on the ground. I hope my explanation makes sense

Ingenieur

Makes perfect sense

But I think the only suspension component loosened was the sway bar
But not 100% sure of that

May put it up on ramps and lossen/tighten some stuff that may have been lossened/removed during the diff install

abcut973

FYI you don't need to remove the sway bar endlinks when installing your coilovers in the rear. All you need is unbolt the big torx close to the exhaust which will free up the lower part where the spring sits. Unbolt the external torx for the shock as well as the 2 bolts on top in your trunk and you are good for a swap

edit: Ingenieur in my opinion you don't need to loose the sway bar to install the LSD. You probably loose the rear suspension as if you install new springs to free the diff pumpking from the axles and driveshaft.

estrellajon

With both end links disconnected, the sway bar will swivel so the only connection of the sway bar to the swing arm are the end links with a bolt that goes in exactly how it came out. Hard to mess that up.

Not exactly sure what parts gets loosened or removed on our cars for diff swap . On BMWs I can remove the diff without removing any suspension components. Maybe same with our cars? I haven't looked that far yet

The only thing I can think off with a slight height change would be the rubber bushing not sitting at its natural state or coils not sitting correctly.

Do you remember if they had to shift the coil springs at all? Possibly that's not sitting right? Yeah best is to ensure all is good by looking at it. I would be interested to know what you find out

estrellajon

Exactly. That's what i did . This one. We were just discussing a possible issue he had

abcut973

Gotcha OP

Ingenieur like estrallajon mentioned probably your springs are not sitting properly or you have a spring pad higher on one side