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Member
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2012
- Messages
- 6
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Saskatchewan, Canada
- Vehicle Year
- 2008
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Engine Size
- 3.0
- Transmission
- Manual
ok guys. this is the project. I am hoping some other torsion owners want to do the same thing so we can make this happen. I will do it without community support, but it would be nice to save a bit and have higher chance of success if there is a group effort.
I want to have a plush low ride. Good suspension travel while riding a fair bit lower. I am setting up with air ride on all four corners and so I can adjust ride height on fly and beef up the back end when pulling a trailer. My truck concept is mainly a daily driver that will sit much lower, and be comfortable, good at pulling and hauling, and look somewhat custom. I have a 2.0litre Common rail VW diesel engine with only 3000km on it, as well as a Audi 6spd Quattro tranny that I am going to weld the center diff on for RWD only mode. I have done this with a spare transmission on my Audi A4 for dyno testing a few years ago. It works good. I have an after market ECU and have many swaps under my belt, so this is no big deal. I expect a 40+mpg puller that will have 180HP/350ft-lbs in Phase 1, and 250HP/400ft-lbs in Phase 2, when I install a micro compound turbo system that I have worked out with a friend. These number are fairly easy to get too on the TDI and I have run close to this with my TDI converted Audi A4. Enough on Power train and back to Suspension. I posted the below text in anouther thread here, but I wanted to make a separate post because what I am doing is specific to sport TORSION BAR front suspension. My main focus right now is dealing with the front suspension set-up.
I have read through other posts where people have dropped the sport suspension, at most comments and problems indicate a loss in suspension travel and a rougher ride. A properly design system should be able to drop ride height and still provide a comfortable ride. The lower arms are limited in range before they hit the mounting bracket and run into the bump stop clearance issues. I have lowering keys from Illusive Designs on this forum, but have decided I would rather go this route.
Here is an excerpts from the other post I made:
I was talking to Airbagit.com (Yuri) two weeks ago about putting a system together for my 2008 ranger sport. Here are my thoughts. I want air ride..front and back. I want to ride -4 to -5 in front from where it is now, and retain full wheel travel so that ride quality improves with drop and air system, not gets worse. Torsion front suspension..torsion bars removed. The first idea they swung at me was replacing upper control arms with custom units, along with a bracket to pick-up the top end of the airbag. that is the air bag it acting on top of the top control arm. My initial concern with this was that the control arms would be angled up somewhat and not have very good range of travel for bumps. That would mean custom lower control arms too to clear the interferences at that ride height. After further thought, it occurred to me, that if someone is building upper and lower control arms all ready, why not make them to mate up with 2" drop MustangII spindles. The length of control arms could be adjusted to suite any differences in offset, and the control arms would be positioned more parallel to the road meaning good travel range and better geometry. Only catch is they need somebody with a Ranger Sport to swing by so they can make some measurement, fabricate it up and test fit. Anybody up for pursuing this? The upper arms and bag was 899.00 and the lower custom arms were anouther 300.00 if I recall. 2" drop mustang II spindles ? This also opens up some good options for rotors and calipers. thoughts guys? group buy to get pricing down and get this happening?
What do you guys think??
I am also wondering what tire/rim size members would recommend with a lowered sport. The arches seem pretty big, so I am not sure if a smaller OD tire would look good. Comments please.
I want to have a plush low ride. Good suspension travel while riding a fair bit lower. I am setting up with air ride on all four corners and so I can adjust ride height on fly and beef up the back end when pulling a trailer. My truck concept is mainly a daily driver that will sit much lower, and be comfortable, good at pulling and hauling, and look somewhat custom. I have a 2.0litre Common rail VW diesel engine with only 3000km on it, as well as a Audi 6spd Quattro tranny that I am going to weld the center diff on for RWD only mode. I have done this with a spare transmission on my Audi A4 for dyno testing a few years ago. It works good. I have an after market ECU and have many swaps under my belt, so this is no big deal. I expect a 40+mpg puller that will have 180HP/350ft-lbs in Phase 1, and 250HP/400ft-lbs in Phase 2, when I install a micro compound turbo system that I have worked out with a friend. These number are fairly easy to get too on the TDI and I have run close to this with my TDI converted Audi A4. Enough on Power train and back to Suspension. I posted the below text in anouther thread here, but I wanted to make a separate post because what I am doing is specific to sport TORSION BAR front suspension. My main focus right now is dealing with the front suspension set-up.
I have read through other posts where people have dropped the sport suspension, at most comments and problems indicate a loss in suspension travel and a rougher ride. A properly design system should be able to drop ride height and still provide a comfortable ride. The lower arms are limited in range before they hit the mounting bracket and run into the bump stop clearance issues. I have lowering keys from Illusive Designs on this forum, but have decided I would rather go this route.
Here is an excerpts from the other post I made:
I was talking to Airbagit.com (Yuri) two weeks ago about putting a system together for my 2008 ranger sport. Here are my thoughts. I want air ride..front and back. I want to ride -4 to -5 in front from where it is now, and retain full wheel travel so that ride quality improves with drop and air system, not gets worse. Torsion front suspension..torsion bars removed. The first idea they swung at me was replacing upper control arms with custom units, along with a bracket to pick-up the top end of the airbag. that is the air bag it acting on top of the top control arm. My initial concern with this was that the control arms would be angled up somewhat and not have very good range of travel for bumps. That would mean custom lower control arms too to clear the interferences at that ride height. After further thought, it occurred to me, that if someone is building upper and lower control arms all ready, why not make them to mate up with 2" drop MustangII spindles. The length of control arms could be adjusted to suite any differences in offset, and the control arms would be positioned more parallel to the road meaning good travel range and better geometry. Only catch is they need somebody with a Ranger Sport to swing by so they can make some measurement, fabricate it up and test fit. Anybody up for pursuing this? The upper arms and bag was 899.00 and the lower custom arms were anouther 300.00 if I recall. 2" drop mustang II spindles ? This also opens up some good options for rotors and calipers. thoughts guys? group buy to get pricing down and get this happening?
What do you guys think??
I am also wondering what tire/rim size members would recommend with a lowered sport. The arches seem pretty big, so I am not sure if a smaller OD tire would look good. Comments please.
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Thanks for the heads up. I will make sure I check that first. I was thinking independant rear suspension in future, so....may be sooner than later. Now that I think about it though, I have read of a few other V8 conversions with T5's in A4's that are running around fine. I will go back and check those threads on Audizine.
