A Well, if you have the Nismo S-Tune suspension than you are SOL. The springs are just as wide as factory ones, and you cannot use front camber plates on them. You will need coilovers to be able to use front camber plates on a 240SX. Take a look at the Nismo R-Tune coilovers. They come with camber plates and have adjustable dampening and ride height. As for the rear, you won't find camber plates because the rear suspension is not a MacPherson design like the front. To adjust rear camber you will need aftermarket rear camber arms. Check out the Circuit Sports arms at www.Phase2Mototrend.com.
Q I have a 2000 Honda Accord (4-cylinder), which has four lugs per wheel. I was looking at Tommy Cho's 240SX and his rims in the 2009 December issue. I am not looking for performance in my vehicle but more of the luxury look. I have been looking for rims with a deep lip for my car but haven't been so lucky. Can you help me on my journey of finding deep lip rims that actually look good?
Dan Villa
Via email
A A luxury look as in a flush VIP stance? Tommy's S13.5 was rocking some mad lipped Work Meisters because he had overfenders and 240SX cars naturally can handle low offsets. Most FWD cars, and Hondas in general, are designed with a very high offset. Your model Accord typically uses a 7'' with a +38 offset in the front, and a 8'' with a +38 offset in the rear. For more lip, you could go as far as a 9'' wide wheel with a +20 offset, but you will have to stretch some tires and play with camber and ride height settings. That still won't give you a lip like the 240SX guys, cause your car just can't handle it.
Q I have a 1986 Toyota MR2 (not supercharged, I know it sucks). I'm planning on doing a 20-valve blacktop 4AG swap so it really doesn't matter. Anyways, I want to know if you guys know of any really good companies that make suspension parts for my MR2. I have been searching and the only one that I have found so far is a company called KSport. They sell a coilover setup and a big brake kit.
Keep up the good work and I love the article about the orange Corolla and the white Starlet more Toyotas please!
Jimmy Sanchez
Via email
A Other than KSport, there are a few more options here stateside like D2 Racing, BC Racing, and if you have the money TODA's Fightex coilovers. If full coilovers are too spendy for you, you could build your own. Building coilovers on a MacPherson-designed car is very common. What you would need to do is buy a coilover sleeve kit, like what Techno Toy Tuning offers, and then get a short stroke strut insert like Tokico, KYB or TRD. You will have to cut and weld some metal, but it isn't as hard as it sounds. Check out the current issue of Project Car magazine to see how they built coilovers for a AE86 Corolla. It's a very similar process.
Q I have a 1996 Integra LS with a B18B. I want to build a naturally-aspirated beast with possibly a 75 shot of nitrous. But here is my problem, I don't know if I should stroke the B18B and keep the head on there or go with a VTEC head instead. And if so, do I need to switch from OBD2 to OBD1?
Danny Spencer
Marshville, NC
A Stroking a B18B is expensive and not really worth it unless you're going all out and this is a race car. For less you could just buy a B20 block to gain some displacement. Assuming this is your daily driver, doing a VTEC head from a B16 or B18C would work great. On a naturally aspirated you will need VTEC. Building an all-motor LS engine like yours would just be more expensive to yield the same results. Having a Honda is all about having VTEC. Go for it! As far as the ECU, you can stay with OBD2 but changing to OBD1 will allow you far more aftermarket support for tuning.