Koni Shock/Strut & Epic Engineering Spring Install

Lack of support for the 5th gen in general. Very little support for the GT either. 5th gen was a move away from performance and a move towards Toyota. To each his own. Cant say I would ever refer to it as a "gem". 4th gen Legacy was by far the best in my opinion.

+1 fully agreed.

5th gen was also uninspiring in the looks department sorry to say, typical toyota

on another note, cut and drilled the bottom hole on my shock bodies. As suggested from others before, had i had a pipe cutter that would have been eons easier. The hacksaw works but you need alow of elbow grease. I ended up using my dremel and a cut-off wheel to do the rest after i cut a groove with the hacksaw.

Got a coat of anti-rust on it right now and waiting for some duplicolor adhesion promotor and school bus yellow to come in the mail before giving this its final coat. Im guessing it will likely chip off but if the overall can stay yellow that will be cool. For vanity's sake.

any usage for the internals/internal tube of these shock bodies? Or should i just chuck them?

I'm waiting on my paint as well. Yours should stay cleaner than mine being in CA.

I tossed the internals myself. Not sure what use they would be. It's nice to have a few on here doing the same mod at the same time.

I'm waiting on my paint as well. Yours should stay cleaner than mine being in CA.

 

I tossed the internals myself. Not sure what use they would be. It's nice to have a few on here doing the same mod at the same time.

i just know that when i go to installing the spring and then into the car im going to nick it on something. *crossing my fingers that it doesnt happen. But its unlike its a show-off factor. No ones going to really see the yellow. Its just me knowing that its under there and yes also nice to know someone's out there doing the same mod too. I doubt theres many of us left who are doing this.

What year was this? Because I'm pretty sure that Frederick was the 1st to put Konis on a 5th Gen and I was the 2nd. And I never heard a word of anyone buying pre-built Koni setups for the 5th Gen from Infamous. I was the only one that offered Koni building and donor exchange to the 5th Gen owners here. And I only built less than 15 sets, most of them with brand new donor KYB struts because I couldn't keep enough used donors around.

I said "one of". I dont need to boost my ego and was not bragging. But I did install one of the first 5th gen set ups at my shop.

I verified fitment and operation and then started listing and selling the parts and sets on my website. My website was the only one (I knew of) that even listed the Koni parts fitting the 5th gen. I answered a LOT of questions about it. I sold pre-installed sets on my website and when my 6 sets of donor struts were gone, I stopped. I sold far more pre-installed 4th gen set via this forum and the same thing happened, all the cores never came back.

Like I said, not a lot of interest/support for the 5th gen. It was a major change to the platform.

I said "one of". I dont need to boost my ego and was not bragging. But I did install one of the first 5th gen set ups at my shop.

 

 

 

I verified fitment and operation and then started listing and selling the parts and sets on my website. My website was the only one (I knew of) that even listed the Koni parts fitting the 5th gen. I answered a LOT of questions about it. I sold pre-installed sets on my website and when my 6 sets of donor struts were gone, I stopped. I sold far more pre-installed 4th gen set via this forum and the same thing happened, all the cores never came back.

 

 

 

Like I said, not a lot of interest/support for the 5th gen. It was a major change to the platform.

I was in one those in the 4th gen sets that Mike made and I did send my cores back all the way from PA. Mike was great to work with.

I'm still running the Konis, but had to go with H&R springs when the passenger side front Epic Engineering spring broke. There wasn't more than 50K on them, but I hear that broken EE springs are common. They never got back to me either. The H&Rs are much more compliant, yet they stiffen when pushed on the curvies. I like them much better than the EE springs.

Mike was great to work with.

+1. Still running the whiteline sways on my car that I got from Mike. So sad that infamous is no more =(

So sad that infamous is no more =(

Careful, you might trigger him.

Careful, you might trigger him.

:lol:LOL. No. I learned that I am very good at making money for other people and very bad at making it for myself.

Rehashing thread:

Koni's on the way and prepping my KYB's in advance. 4th Gen GTWagon

Just want to know before the inserts arrive. I don't have the instruction manual just yet.

Am I cutting the strut 40mm from the top of the silver cap on the KYB strut or from the bottom of the silver cap mounted on the KYB Strut?

I want to make sure I leave enough of the shaft for the Koni nubs on the insert to fit into the shaft.

To add to this thread, my pile 'o crap to go on the OBXT soon. Relevant to the thread, as you can see the yellow tops to the strut housings...

Edge of spring rests againt the rise in the lower plate. This stops the spring from spinning when the car is turning.

___/---- best visual i can give on my phone.

First of all, sorry for the necrobump...

I've had this general setup (Epic springs, Koni yellows, Whiteline swaybars, saggy butt spacers, etc.) on my '07 LGT wagon for the past 8ish years, and it's been great for my purposes.  I made all the changes from OEM while living in Miami where most surface streets (and all of the expressways) are buttery smooth, and it was perfect.  It was a bit too stiff for my liking on many of the streets of Los Angeles, however.

I'm now in Chicago where the roads are substantially worse than both Miami and LA, and while my LGT has never been driven in the winter, it's place in the pecking order has shifted in order to accommodate an E63s AMG wagon that now occupies the LGT's garage space.  I had to get rid of my winter beater '04 OB 3.0 altogether, and now the LGT is my all weather/all season/lives in the driveway car.

I'm looking to have a somewhat more compliant ride in the LGT and am wondering if there's any point in dialing back the amount of damping force on the Konis.  Part of me just wants to leave things alone because sometimes messing with stuff that's worked just fine for 8 years is a bad idea, and part of me also thinks that it won't have much (if any) of the desired impact anyway, given that at least for now, I'm not planning on changing the springs or anything else.

Any thoughts or opinions on whether there's any point to digging through all my crap to find the little "Koni adjuster knob" and loosening things up?  Or should I just deal with it until I can convince myself to take the plunge and fundamentally alter the perfect setup of this car by lifting it a bit?

Thanks!

When I installed my Koni and Swift spring setup, I had the fronts on "full hard - 1/4 turn".  That lasted maybe a week and it was insanity.  I cranked the fronts down to full soft + 1/2 turn and that gave me a more compliant ride but still decent rebound for spirited driving.  The rears I have around full hard - 1/2 turn.

I would start with the fronts, turn them softer a bit and try it.

Right on - thanks!  I don't recall with absolute certainty what I ended up with initially, but even before you said anything, I have a vague feeling that it's probably "full hard - 1/4".  I wouldn't go so far as to call it "insanity" (though perhaps two cracked wheels over the years suggests otherwise...) but it's definitely within the range of "intense" and/or "hardcore"...

I'll roll the dice and see what happens.