Coilovers

[E36is]

So, i have a set of coilovers laying around, i would like to install them on the e30, but right now the car is on stock height shocks. My question is, can coilovers be installed on stock height shocks or will they blow in a few weeks? My goal is to just set the coilovers about 1 inch all around, and possibly have te front sitting a tad lower than the rear (rakish stance). How easy is it to install? can i do it myself or should i get speedy to install them? thanks in advance.

[InfiniteDice]

They will not blow, all they need is some travel within it's designed travel range. If they bottom out all the time (they should have rubber bump stops to prevent this) or if they are extremely under valved to handle a high spring rate they could overheat and fail. I would assume the car would have to be driven very hard for a few hours in this case to do anything harmful.

In most cases with stiffer springs you start at a lower ride height but have way less less travel that with stock springs. I say mount them up and see how much travel you have left. The good thing with coilovers is that you can install them adjusted for a moderate drop until you have the $$$ to get some shocks/struts with higher valving to handle the springs. If your dampers are old, you'll probably have this annoying slight bounce as the spring recoil overpowers the rebound resistance of the damper.

In other words if your dampers are old, then they'll behave more 'old' and allow more bounce. This isn't because they are totally blown but because they are underrated to handle that spring load.

[Roysneon]

Wow, well written. If you're not going to shorten your housings or remove/move your spring perches then you should be OK but if you have stock shocks/struts they will go out on you much quicker.