Saqib's EK9


zPandamoniumZz said:
I'm a sucker for clean facelift EK9's :beer:

England looks like such a nice place to live. Who owns the Kanjo-inspired EK9?
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Third ek9 in the pic is mine mate. Racing bibs are off now as unfortunately the pressure washer at work cut one in half
 
Hi. Time for an update I think?

So the car was stored for winter in November and I brought her back out in April - carried out some routine servicing since. Apart from that I'm still thoroughly enjoying the car, and she puts a smile on my face every time.

Some shots I've taken recently:

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You got that gearbox on yet?
 
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I replaced the rocker cover yesterday. Thanks to @rd55 dun for his good work. As you can see it's the earlier version with the "Motor Co" lettering.

The engine bay is a bit of a mess but I'll be tidying it up fairly soon.

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Something interesting was delivered to me very recently.

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Spoon fixed dampers and progressive springs.

I've been looking at these for a while now, so I finally decided in the last couple of weeks to order this setup and sell the Meisters.

Updates to follow.
 
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jesse888 said:
You got that gearbox on yet?
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I'm hoping soon. I put it on the back burner so I could order the new suspension. Well at least it'll give me an exciting (and rare) mod for me to look forward to!
 
Saqib said:
I'm hoping soon. I put it on the back burner so I could order the new suspension. Well at least it'll give me an exciting (and rare) mod for me to look forward to!
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Fair enough bud, you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner!
 
Still looking so good mate. What made you from the coilies to the spoon set up?
 
Where did you get the mirror tints dude?

they look wicked :)
 
Evening ladies. A small update on the car.

I've fitted the aforementioned Spoon fixed suspension setup and covered a couple of hundred miles with them. Initially I thought it was just as firm as my old Meister coilovers but once the brand new springs had settled and moved a little they became a lot more comfortable.

Overall impressions of the Spoon dampers and springs is that they're nothing short of superb. Tight and firm with good feedback yet still compliant enough for the average British road. A stellar road setup.

I have no complaints in terms of appearance either. In my opinion it looks much better compared to the previous "slammed" look. The 195/55 profile tyres fill the arches nicely and ground clearance isn't an issue either.

I'll scribble more words once I spend more time and miles with them fitted.

Other news? Well after numerous power steering pumps bizarrely failing on me, I decided to delete the system. It was done properly with everything unnecessary gutted, the piston seal removed, greased and then re-assembled.

So how is manual steering with the new suspension? Unbelievably good! Significantly more feedback and I feel a lot more connected to the car. Absolutely no regrets here.

It's worth considering your suspension setup before you carry out a manual steering conversion. Recent experience and experimenting showed me that coilovers with the damper settings turned up high made the car quite difficult to manoeuvre, even when I was up to speed.

I also purchased a S4C 4.78 gearbox (final drive from a 98 spec S80) from Jesse a while back and I (finally) had this fitted along with some fresh Honda MTF-3 and a new OEM clutch. What a difference this gearbox has made. The car is so much more fun to drive, going through the gears beautifully now, and the 'box itself is smooth and in good nick. And it makes the car faster, obviously.

My attitude towards this EK9 has always been "OEM+". Take a standard example and make a few improvements and some choice modifications. Nothing too wild. I'd say the recent changes fall in line with this approach.

Apologies for the imbalance between words and pictures. Some recent shots. One of them is from the Scottish Car Show in July which I was a part of.

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Looks great.

Nice review on the fixed springs. Something that i think il consider for my next set up.
 
Seen this at SCS and was a very clean example, looking good though! Makes me want to get my original ek9 box back in but might source a 4.7fd for it, not sure yet as the fact I use mine as a daily and drive it to and from Edinburgh a few times a week I need not too short of a gearing.
 
rd55 dun said:
Looks great.

Nice review on the fixed springs. Something that i think il consider for my next set up.
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Cheers Ross. I recommend Spoon suspension if your 9 is mostly road use.

LittleGeo said:
Seen this at SCS and was a very clean example, looking good though! Makes me want to get my original ek9 box back in but might source a 4.7fd for it, not sure yet as the fact I use mine as a daily and drive it to and from Edinburgh a few times a week I need not too short of a gearing.
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Thanks mate. I'd definitely go for the 4.78 final drive, no question about it. It makes a world of difference and it's well worth the slight disadvantage in longer distance daily driving.
 
Saqib said:
Thanks mate. I'd definitely go for the 4.78 final drive, no question about it. It makes a world of difference and it's well worth the slight disadvantage in longer distance daily driving.
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Are you noticing much difference in the revs on motorway? What revs you sitting at about 70
 
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