# heating springs to lower?



## witt19 (Mar 2, 2003)

i heard that you could "heat" springs to make them lower? i was just wondering how you would do this and if this would have the same consequences as cutting springs. Thanks 

witt


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## witt19 (Mar 2, 2003)

oh, heres where i got the idea from : 

This method will stress the spring heavily by compressing it all the way. This is no place for cheap compressors. As you heat steel, it's yield strength will weaken. With a little luck the 450 degree oven temperature will weaken the steel till the spring sags/shortens. When it cools, the metal strength is fully restored. If you get the metal to hot like the guys do with torches, the molecule structure of the steel will change. This poor method will leave the spring permanently weakened and will most likely continue to sag. This is why torching your springs got such a bad rap and for a good reason. However anytime you mention heating the springs, people reflex back to the stereo type of this hurting the spring. However, every engineering table I have seen, does not show any steel structural change till you get to near double 450 degrees. Torching takes it to about triple this temperature. Ouch! 

This method came from HP book's "How to make your car Handle". This book is main stream on everything. So far it has never steered me wrong. Pun intended. I have yet to try sagging a spring in the oven because in the past the springs were a bit soft so I cut them. In the next few months, I plan to try the oven method and see how it does. My current car is stiff enough. It tends to skip a little on rough turns. If anything, it needs to be softer. 

Look at dirt bikes. How often do you ever hear of them messing with the springs with the exception of setting the ride height. Never unless someone is extremely fast or weigh outside 95th percentile. The rest go straight for the shocks to tune. Offroaders learned this in the 70's. Indy learned it in the early 90's. Lol! Springs hold up the car. Use them to set the ride height and rarely do you need to mess with them. Tune with swaybars, shocks, and other stuff. Most of the spring sales are a poor investment for the money. This is why I am a bit down on spending good money on them. Resetting your ride height can easily be done for pennies Vs high dollar aftermarket people promising the world. 

I hope this helps. When we can do something for $0 then why waste our money. I like the formula "Performance for the Dollar


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## PatScottAKA99XE (Apr 30, 2002)

Here is why I say dont do it. Even if you manage to do it correctly and not weaken the springs you are still gonna have one huge problem(maybe more). Since they wont be any stiffer your dampers are gonna bottom out like mad. Lower springs need to be stiffer to keep the suspension from bottoming out on the stops. Chances are since you are not changing the number of coils, just the spacing between them you are going to run into coil bind.

On these cars you can gain tons from messing with the springs. It has to be done to make the car handle better, its not all in the dampers like stated in the info you found.

Of course this is comming from someone who puts cut, heated, and (most)lowering springs all in the same catagory...JUNK! Performance costs money there is no way around that.


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## nastynissan (Jan 26, 2003)

DO NOT, Heat springs...you make them weaker and brittle. Cutting is even better than heating. but still I dont recommend it.
Go here if you want all the info on suspensions. http://www.sentra.net/tech/garage/s...b51eb34cb6114cf

Just for the record....I custom made my springs...But it was not an easy, quick, or SAFE process.. It Has helped handling dramatically and theyve lasted @ 6mths now. But unless youve got the tools and the Know-how I dont even suggest thinking about it. And no I wont tell you how I did mine because It IS NOT SAFE. Im just constantly working on cars so I keep a check on things.


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