Help me fine tune my suspension setup. SLR kit E36

[jeepster]

Okay, Im gonna revive this thread. I have tried many variations of setups, alignments, etc. This past event was the best the car has ever felt. It self returned well, was predictable, and had good angle without locking up or spinning. I finally got the car to "wag the tail"! Also rear tire wear is perfect.

Car:
94 325is
ls1 t56 swap (350ish HP)
advanced design coilovers 650lb front 750lb rear with GC plates
M3 front sway, NO rear sway (best mod I did so far!)
E46 arms ,adjustable lollipops adjusted all the way in (max caster), 95 M3 knuckles
SLR 1/2 kit

Current settings:
Front:
650lb springs
1/4" toe out (total not per side) (using the longacre plates that equals about 36 minutes or about 0.6* total)
-4.7 degree camber
Max caster on GC plates (~7 degrees) and max caster with adjustable SLR lollipops
Stock ackerman setting (not using the 0 ackerman setting)
17x8 wheels +20 offset with 20mm spacers
245/40 RS-3

Rear:
750 lb springs
.2 Degree Toe
-1.7 degree camber
17x8 +20 offset
245/40 federal 595

On a side note, I ran some big 275/40 federals (yes on my 8" wheels) and I think I like it better. The tires last way longer too. I did up the pressure 10 psi from my 245's though.

[Mikestokman]

Even though I don't have a legit slr kit, can I post my specs aswell for the not super modded car people?

Car:
1995 e36 m3 coupe
s50 (stock power)
h&r street (?) coilovers, forget the brand of camber plate but it's just a basic one...
no front sway, stock m3 rear
e46 arms, delrin offset bushings, homemade angle kit (similar to slr)

current setup:
Front:
0.3* total toe out
-6* camber
6.3* caster
17x7 Nissan Altima wheels (lol) +25 after adapter with a 225/45 vortex tire

Rear:
0.2* toe in
-0.3* camber
17x7.5 +42 stock wheels with 235/45 gt radial champiro 328 running 35psi cold

probably the best my car has ever felt on track, running less camber and more angle kinda scared me before the event because I didn't know if I would be able to spin tire as easy as before when I was running like -3* camber, but after the first lap I was stoked. My steering kind of "falls" to lock when you're just driving around in a parking lot or whatever, but when I was full lock on track a simple flick would toss the car the opposite way without fighting anything. Tire wear seemed great (although you can't really expect them to be perfectly flat when drifting banks) as having that extra grip made it so much easyier to control. Instead of being pulled to the bottom of banks It was quite easy to just stay high and keep your foot in it without having to fight a spin, and grabbing ebrake would scrub tons of speed without looping the car around. Having that much front camber definatly is not ideal if you're doing road racing with any high speed tight corners, but I found it perfectly fine for drifting, no shakey initiations or anything like that.

[Novablue454]

Ill throw mine in the mix so they're all in one place

Car:
2000 E46 328i
LS6/T56
BC BR Coilovers (448 / 672)
SLR Ultra kit (27mm wider arms then Super kit, 108mm wider track then OEM)
Ackerman setting in "low ackerman" (not minimal)
No sway bars (waiting for whiteline front and not using a rear)
245/40/17 on et20 wheels with H&R 30mm spacers

Front:
Caster - L 7.33* R 7.48*
Camber - L -4.90* R -5.06*
Toe - L -.06* R -.06*

Rear:
Camber - L -.97* R -1.01*
Toe - L .05* R .05

Will post up results after first track day in 2 weeks!

UPDATE:

The car drove great with the above setup, self steered well, no issues. Unfortunately the shop that did it left the tie rods loose and after 4 track days my wheel was off center, so I get it re-done at a performance shop. This is the new set up:



I'll be trying it out this weekend

[jeepster]

I installed a complete new M3 rear subframe with poly bushings, solid diff bushings, Poly RTAB, and all new control arm bushings, with turner adjustable arms. Also installed fully adjustable SLR front kit with offset upper camber plates. Everything is at max caster and minimum camber. Going in for an alignment today and drifting this weekend. Lets see how it goes!!!

[jalopi]

were all your previous bushings old/shot? if so, you will notice an extreme difference in how the car drives. ilovedrifting has been generous enough to let me drive his bone stock m3 e36 over the last couple of events while i finish my swap up. his bushings are very old and/or shot and despite the extra power of the s52, the car was very difficult to drift (compared to my m52'd car with solid bushings) as the rear wheels seemed to have a mind of their own

you won't regret the work it took to freshen the rear suspension up

[jeepster]

were all your previous bushings old/shot? if so, you will notice an extreme difference in how the car drives. ilovedrifting has been generous enough to let me drive his bone stock m3 e36 over the last couple of events while i finish my swap up. his bushings are very old and/or shot and despite the extra power of the s52, the car was very difficult to drift (compared to my m52'd car with solid bushings) as the rear wheels seemed to have a mind of their own

you won't regret the work it took to freshen the rear suspension up

Yeah, while my bushings were not trash, they had 190k on them an all original 325 bits. I had the full M3 rear already built, but never installed it. If its not broke, don't fix it mentality. Im excited to see how responsive it is now!

[protomor]

Raper dan showed me the benefits of low caster. I think he has like 4 degrees. Helps keep the wheels on the ground at max angle yo.

[Novablue454]

But what's the fun in keeping the wheels on the ground?

[s50b30]

Do you guys run front arb?
My front wheels seem to rub against it on full lock.
Even on max ackerman setting.
17" wheel 225/45 et20 ish.

[Piner]

I don't run front or rear ARB's , no issues there. With good enough dampers its not a problem. For a little while I was running a rear roll bar and no front bar. I don't recommend that though.

[Novablue454]

I don't run front or rear ARBs, my tire couldn't clear it and the e46 sway bar doesn't work with the SLR kit. I am running 245/40r17 on an et20 wheel with a 30mm spacer in order to clear everything, and I still rub the control arm heavily.

[Piner]

^ Yeah I rub in the front even with a 205/40/17 in the front on an 17X8 et20. I have a set of 15mm spacers that I haven't tried yet to gain a bit more clearance and hopefully a few more degrees of angle.

[jeepster]

I run a front M3 bar and no rear bar. I have SLR adjustable arms (about half way out). 17x9 +30 with 40MM spacer. 245/35/17 toyo r1r I touch my sway bar, but it has no negative affects on my handling so far.

[s50b30]

I tried to use the low ackerman setting, to try to make the leading tire not rub against the swaybar.
Now the tierod is touching the spindle adapter/ plate/ block or whatever you call it on full lock.

[JesterMX6]

my tie rod hits the block at full lock. in fact there's a chance that the tie rod hitting the block is what's stopping my steering instead of the steering rack.

[SLR]

I tried to use the low ackerman setting, to try to make the leading tire not rub against the swaybar.
Now the tierod is touching the spindle adapter/ plate/ block or whatever you call it on full lock.

That would be the high-ackerman setting unless your plates are installed backwards. When you are under your car can you read SLR on both of the plates ?

Also the tie-rod touching can only occur in full-droop on the leading wheel which should never happen on track. Everything is dynamically different with car in the air.

Also low ackerman would make your car MORE likely to touch the swaybar on an E36/E46 Did you switch to E30 ?

- - - Updated - - -

my tie rod hits the block at full lock. in fact there's a chance that the tie rod hitting the block is what's stopping my steering instead of the steering rack.

Please see previous reply, this should only ever happen on the lift, when on the ground it's no problem.

[s50b30]

Im sorry. I meant the high ackerman setting.
I tried using the second highest ackerman position, jacking the controlarm up so its about level.
It still barely touching on full lock.
Might have to change to the next ackerman setting, but I think that will make the wheel rub the arb.

Should have bought the ultra kit.

[Novablue454]

I have the ultra kit, on the 2nd to lowest ackerman (i think its called drift/street, while the lowest is full drift) and I rub the arb. just throw the arb away, haha

[SLR]

One thing with the anti-roll bar is you can grind the bend portion where the tire touches nearly into half thickness since that part is not loaded in torsion. If you opt for this, after grinding i would use a flap-wheel sanding disc in 80grit and then 120grit in order to smooth out any roughness from grinding and remove stress risers.

Since the arm section of the bar has very little torsion going through it, it's fine.
See 1999 Q45 bar:
s-l1600.jpg

[jeepster]

With the full kit installed. I removed some caster at the top hat to maximize the camber adjustability. I now have the camber set to the farthest positive that I can. The rear is also now at -.1* of Camber. rear Toe is maxed out without modifying the control arm pockets.

[Novablue454]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNvp8O9j...slrspeed&hl=en

[SLEEPYDUB]

Reviving this for 2017.
Anyone using the SLR camber/caster plates mentioned above? I am about to install mine, and will attempt to dial caster back down to around 7* from my original 8.9*.

At it's current 8.9* caster, it doesn't self steer well and is hard to turn in parking lot maneuvers. It also like to go full lock as soon as I flick into a corner, it is way too abrupt of a step out.

Hoping these plates will allow me to bring caster down to around 7* and see how that helps. If that doesn't work, I'm going to look into my scrub radius. Currently on a 16x9 +15 with a 20mm spacers. So effectively a -5mm offset.

Does anyone think that is too much for the front end scrub radius? Should I swap back to a 16x8 +0 with no spacer?

[s50b30]

Does anybody hot the instruction sheets for slr kit? With torque values. I lost mine.

[cerber717]

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/02...g?v=1502341774

[protomor]

Oh they finally put it on the site instead of a cart item.

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