JICs arrived yesterday

Received my JIC/Cross Competition Coilovers yesterday. Went with 7/11 springs after discussing my needs with a JIC rep., and got a killer deal from the shop I ordered them from. I'll post post installation pics when they're in.

hey .... very nice...... keep us up to date.....

I finally got around to installing my new JIC coilovers and rear strut bar this past weekend and I attached some pics (excuse the crummy pictures but all I had on me at the time was my camera phone). The JIC installation wasn't too bad although it was tedious. It took longer than I think it should have taken because the ride height adjustment was not preset from the factory like it was supposed to be (I spent about 5 hours a day on Sunday and Monday). Adjusting the ride height requires having to disassemble almost everything in order to make the change. While this is a PIA, it is nice to have independent ride height adjustability. At this point, I can make the adjustments a little faster so I going to do a little more tweaking. I want to raise the front end up 1/8 - 1/4" (I'm little concerned that the stock sway bars could be preloaded) and also lessen the negative camber. The next thing would be to figure out what dampening setting will work for me. In regard to the rear strut bar, I don't really know if it will actually do anything for the car since its chassis is already pretty stiff. It cost $40 so I figured why not. I also have some GT3 sway bars to install, but I want to hold off the installation for now. I want to evaluate the handling of the car at an autocross before adding another thing. I'll post an update on my driving impressions after I have more time to mess around with the car.

any driving impressions?

Initially, I set the dampening to full soft on both the front and rear and the car feels bouncy/floaty in the front. I still need to figure out what the proper dampening settings are. I'll keep you posted.

I'm about 1/2 done with the JIC install in my 993. I too have the 7/11 (or maybe it's 12.. hm. I'll have to look again) springs. I set the rear to +4 (from full soft) and the rear felt pretty good in the test drive I did yesterday. Now I need to get the front installed (the car looks pretty funy with the rear dropped down pretty good and the front at full 4x4 height). I did caps, rotors, belts and a couple of other repairs at the same time so my need to test drive and make sure I did not screw up the other work, was more important that the horrid look of the car with it's butt dragging. The road where I live is pretty bumpy and I had not nasty harshness from the rear, I hope the front set at +4 is about the same. The JIC CROSS system is pretty cool!

I had the JIC's installed as well along with some H&R sway bars and adjustable drop links on the rear. I can tell you I think they are amazing. I went with slightly lighter springs, I think they were 6/10, I'll check to make sure. Again, I believe I'm set at 4 rear and 6 front. This is the way the installer set it up and it is handling great. I've taken it to the local track a few times and it totally transforms the car. I'll post some pics of my car with the new ride height when I get to my home computer.

Did the stiffer setup cause and rattling from the targa roof?

Mike, I'll try those settings and let you know how it goes.

I haven't had any rattles in my roof. I get a few more in the car in general with the stiffer suspension but certainly nothing that wouldn't be expected. Here's a couple of picture of the new stance of my car.

Mike - the lowered stance l@@ks great! I'll bet it handles as good as it looks!

It actually handles better than it looks. The suspension has transformed the car. It is amazingly stable, not harsh at all, and overall just makes it a different car. I've been extremely impressed with the suspension. Now to qualify this, I have never had another aftermarket suspension on any other car. So I really don't have any basis for comparison. I do love what I have, so I'm happy enough with that.

I thought about it and figured I should posts some notes on my installation. I used RamVA�s PSS9 installation DIY but did some things slightly different. Per RamVA�s DIY (Thanks RamVA!) Front Prep: �3. Break the top bolt on the spindle. You ideally want to use a 21mm hazet socket so you can hold the spindle in place with the 7mm Allen. I didn�t have one so I just broke the bolt so I could get it off once the strut was off the car. It helps to do this before you drop the strut out as it�s really, really tight.� I didn�t want to break the bolt and I didn�t have a hazet socket so a friend suggested taking off the lower control arm (16mm/18mm) from the car side along with the secondary control arm (18mm/21mm). This worked perfectly. Note you�ll have to partially take off the underside aero panel. Also to make it easier to manipulate the spindle, I took the rotor off. This was pretty much a �must do� to get the arm aligned when I was reassembling everything. Rear Prep: �3. Undo the 15mm bolts on the top (inside the car). Because of the spring pressure the strut won�t fall out. Get back underneath and use something to lever the lower part of the strut out of the mount. You need to lever it toward the inboard side of the car. Using a jack under the strut will help to relieve some of the spring pressure, but this took some elbow grease.� I had the luxury of having spring compressors available, so I compressed the spring to relieve the pressure off of the strut. This helped a lot.

So you acknowledge this online but not when I told you in person? Who's your daddy? Stop sharing all the lil tricks on installs. Everyone should follow the Porsche manual to the teeth since they know best. I'm a little disappointed how long this took you since it is much less tedious than a Honda.

hey mike....are you 1 finger gap all the way around?

What exactly are you referring to here :-)

geyser, what's a manual?

Uh-huh, how easily you 'forget' the Starbuck debate...manuals just guidelines not bibles. GJ finishing the install. Now doublecheck those torque settings and try not to drop the car on my fingers next time. C'mon who's ur daddy? HAHA

Which finger are you referencing?

Here�s an update. I installed GT3 sway bars and TRG drop links. The sway bar install was pretty straight forward but it took a lot more disassembly to do the in front than I thought it would. I found that the front bottom of the car has support braces to match the top support braces and I thought that was pretty cool. Since I was working on the car anyway, I put in the Porsche engine protection plate to guard the car�s engine. Afterward, I took the car to Custom Alignment to get it dialed in (alignment, corner balance, and ride height). I attached the alignment sheet and some pics of the sway bars, links and after the alignment. The shop�s configuration recommendation was pretty much spot on with the other alignment posts on this board (Camber F/R: -2.5/-2.0; Toe F/R: 0/ 1/16�). The floatiness/hunting I described initially after my JIC install was due to my toe settings being way off. The car feels and handles so much better now after being dialed in. The ride height was raised in the front a little to get the control arms parallel to the ground and a little in the rear to get a slightly less than 1 degree rake front to rear. The overall height is a little higher than I expected but it more performance oriented and that�s what I�m going for. After the corner balance, I found out that my car weighs 3084lbs and 3259lbs with my weight 175lbs (lightweight 02 5 spokes F/R 8�/10�, PS2 235/265, no floor mats except for 1 weathertech driver mat at approximately 5lbs, a hair over 1/4 tank of gas, a stereo amp at approximately 10lbs, heavier GT3 sway bars and TRG drop links, engine protection plate, no spare tire, no toolkit/jack, JICs which weigh the same as stock from my measurements, and the rear strut brace). Right now, I have the JICs at 5 clicks from full soft in front and 7 clicks from full soft in the rear. The GT3 sway bars are set to the 3rd hole from full stiff (going away from the body of the bar) in the front and one hole from full stiff in the rear (the pics show full stiff at F/R but I�ve since revised them). I�m hitting the GGR AX this weekend at Candlestick to get a feel for the car and then I�m heading off to Reno-Fernley for some DE tracking.

Also, in case you're wondering what the TRG drop links look like up close, these links have shims/washers that actually nestle in the ball joint. From what I can tell, the AP ones just have the bolt going through the ball joint. Can't confirm this b/c I have not see AP ones in person.

Here's a little update. Participated in 2 AXs. I'm was running PS2 235/265. The first AX (Monster Park) was good. Very little body roll when compared to my stock set up. The second AX (Bay Meadows) was ok as well but it was hard to tell b/c my rear tires were were wearing out. To me it felt as if the back end wanted to slide out on me. In regard to track, I did two track events. I went to Reno-Fernley for a two day event. I was still running the 265s. The back of the car was defiantly loose and I had to reign it in. Afterward, I went to Thunder Hill, but I put some fresh meat on rear (295s) this time. The back of the car was very stable. The more I pushed the more the back end seemed to just hunker down. On turn two, when I pushed a little more, i noticed a little understeer...just a tad. I'm looking to put 245s (or wider) up front now. I still kept the original settings I dialed in when I first put in the coilovers/sway bars. I have the JICs at 5 clicks from full soft in front and 7 clicks from full soft in the rear. The GT3 sway bars are set to the 3rd hole from full stiff (going away from the body of the bar) in the front and one hole from full stiff in the rear. Overall, I think the set up is very good, but it needs fatter tires in the front and especially in the rear to really kick butt. In regard to the driving to the track events, There is a lot of road noise and the ride is definitely more stiff but not harsh. I have the 7KG/11KG set up, but I think I may have been able to live with the 8KG/12KG option. The ride would have been harsh though. I attached some pics from my last Thunder Hill event from a week or so ago. I also, included couple before/after shot of the car on Turn 3 with my stock set up and with the new set up. You can really tell how much the JICs and GT3 sway bars help.

thanks for the update...looks like your having a great time with your 3.4. Drive On!!!

I will....I have another Thunder Hill track event on Sept. 14th! I'm hoping to have fatter tires up front by then.

a few thoughts: 1. what group let's you on the track with the sun roof either open or tilted? 2. if the track surface is smooth, you should set the coilovers MUCH higher. At Watkins Glen, I'm running 10/13. For Summit Point, I had to back everything down by 4f/6r. Firm up the rear to dial-out some understeer. 3. you should have lowered the car more 4. I'm running 235/285 MPSC's. good luck. I really love the JIC's

i concur. i run about them about halfway in the middle for a rough track like road atlanta. but at roebling (flat and smooth) i set them almost at full stiff. i run the same spring rates as you.

Looks good, I would throw some wheels spacers on too, the wheels look a little "tucked".

Thanks for the input guys. I didn't want to mess with the settings on the jics or sway bars just yet. I want to relearn the car now that I threw more stuff in; I'll be changing settings after a few more events. Also, I would have lowered the car more, but the control arms would not be parallel with the ground, per the alignment shop. The back is a little higher than the front to compensate for the car squatting during acceleration. The shop said that if I lowered the back, it'd understeer. In regard to spacers, I'm looking into getting wider wheels that are more flush with the fenders. I don't want to add the weight of spacers to the car. I guess a weight versus track width discussion can be started up =)

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Can you share the name of the shop and the price or did you get a deal that was "just for you"???

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+1

Went to the track this past Friday (9-14-07). I absolutely love driving my 996 in its current configuration (tires still 235/295). Here's the link to one of the videos I took. My friend helped me clean up my lines a bit from earlier sessions. http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...35143116&hl=en I also attached some pics. Enjoy!

Here are the pics.

More pics