Thank you for the input! Your truck looks awesome. I put a backup camera on my EX a cpl years ago and it really helps me judge the distance when backing into parking spots and when hooking up trailers.

 

Installed the ATS V/C code slings yesterday and noticed my rancho 9000's are crap. At least the front ones are. I'm a pretty strong guy but I don't think I'm supposed to be able to compress them with my bare hands. At least not as easily as I did. . Before and after pix below. Sitting on 18" Harley wheels and 275/70R18 (front) and 325/60R18 (rear).

 

I did this also and I will never own a vehicle without one that hauls trailers again!

 

I hear ya... it's probably one of the best and easiest mods that can be done.

Forgot to mention. I needed brakes and rotors since I can't find anyone to turn them on my EX. Not a huge fan of turning rotors anyway but if they just need a little bit off the top, I don't see it as being much harm. Anyway, Hawk LTS pads and Powerstop rotors will be going on soon.

 

Put the Hawk LTS pads and Powerstop rotors on all 4 corners today. It was a hot one so I didn't get many pix. I snapped one for you all though.
Found a bad ball joint and a bad hub so those will probably be next. I'll be doing all the bal joints and probably just the 1 hub. I found that 1 front axle spins freely from the hub while the side with the bad hub won't spin freely. I removed the bad hub and held the axle shaft with some pliers to see of I could get it to spin separately from the hub and it will but it's pretty tough. Any ideas?

 

Welp, figured out why the axle shaft won't spin freely. The spindle bearing had grenades some time ago from the looks of it and the outer bearing of it has sort of welded itself to the wheel bearing hub. So I got a new hub assembly, seals, and stub shaft, and u joint on the way. It's only money right? Anyway, enjoy the carnage pic.

 

If you don't mind me asking how much did the springs from ats run you? and also How much of a lift did the v/c codes give you .do you think it would still fit in a garage?

 

Welcome to the EX forum!

What is your minimum garage opening measurement, they do vary a good amount? Are you planing on larger tires along with the new springs? Divide the tire height increase by 2 and add that to the highest point of your EX and then compare that to your garage measurement to determine the max amount of spring lift you can use and still fit inside.

 

It depends on your garage door height more than anything. I have 4 inch procomp springs and 315 70 17 and fit in my garage with an 8ft door with a few inches to spare.

 

Thank you for the welcome/replys. Garage height is 7ft at tallest point .tallest point on the x is roughly 6ft 7 inches .I'd be sticking with my 33's .I'm just looking for more stability when the wife and I tow our 23ft toy hauler .x likes to be pushed around alot .and where I live I have to park in my garage in winter .so that makes it hard to decide on lifts/spring swap height

 

Actually, it's the lowest point of the garage opening (not the tallest point) and interior that will be the problem if you are too tall.

Whats the weight of the TH? What WD hitch system are you using? Have you used a truck scale to get the WD dialed in to help the handling? What tire pressure do you run when towing? How does the EX feel on the road when not towing?

And to answer your question about how much lift V/C codes should give to a stock EX, about 2" up front and up to 3"-ish on the back, so depending on your garage approach angle and depth of Wisconsin snow on the ground you should still fit.

 

Trailer weights 3870 dry we had 26 gallons of water in it so it was just over 4k .it came with a husky ts with 600#bars .dealer thru it in and set it up .I run 70psi rear 65psi front when towing

 

Sorry for high jacking your thread repo-man I'll start my own

 

Hey man, sorry I'm a little late to the party. Work has been crazy and I need to step away from the screen for my sanity. To answer your question though, I got right between 1.5 and 1.75" of lift out of the V/C swap. Keep in mind that as far as I could tell, my stock EX springs were not sagging at all. This was based on measurements that others have taken and posted in the tech folder.

 

I towed the TT (38 ft @10k lbs total weight) on the first trip since doing all the mods. Im actually still on vacation. I also bought a superchips (1845) flash paq for $120 and installed a few different tunes. I went with this because of the price versus the SCT from 5 Star just to see if it offered anything to have some sort of an idea what a tuner could offer and to manage my expectations on what to expect from either tuner.

So far on all the mods I did, the only ones that really met my expectations were the V/C springs from ATS and the 18" wheels w/33" tires. The wheels/tires were the single biggest improvement in the ride quality I'm guessing due to the slightly shorter sidewall height. The springs were an improvement as well but keep in mind, my stock springs were not sagging from what I could tell. The gears did improve the overall and towing performance, just not as much as I expected. I lost a pretty significant amount of gas mileage (10 mpg (stock) vs 6-7 (now).

Also my TT seems to tow a lot 'heavier' than it did on my previous trip when the X was all stock (3.73's, stock tire size). That being said, I do feel like I have a clogged/worn out cat converter. It just feels like something is holding me back at higher rpms more so than it did when I was stock = lower rpms.

When it downshifts, it has slightly more power but still feels like something is holding it back. Ive had these experiences before that were worse in hot temperatures where it would downshift and it felt like it hit a wall, which is why I think it's the cat. It's similar to that now, just not as bad. I've changed the air, fuel filters an give it a tune up (new plugs and COPs) with the same results, and there aren't any misses. This kind of explains to me why it feels like something is holding it back. 4.88 Gears @ 2500ish rpm vs 3.73 Gears @2100ish rpm. Higher rpm=pushing against a branch wall (less pwr) vs lower rpm.

For the supeechips tuner, it actually seems pretty decent for a gas engine. I notice a little bit of umpf, a little more throttle response, and a little bit of mileage on the "87 tune". The tow tune (91 octane) absolutely sucked. This is when I first noticed that 'something was holding me back' and it kicked out of OD at the slightest Incline. I actually pulled in to a rest area 50 miles in to our trip to put another tune on it because it annoyed me so bad and installed the performance tune (91 octane). Also, the trans temp was in the high 190's on the tow tune. On the 91 performance tune, it still felt like something held me back but I was able to stay in OD longer and apply more throttle (seemed like a significant amount more) while in OD before it downshifted. The transtemps were a solid 10 degs cooler (mod-high 180s on the same terrain, same outside temps, same everything). I'm not able to use Cruise nearly as much as I'm used because it kicks put of OD way too soon as opposed to using my foot to but that's something I'll have to get used to. I have a hard time believing the SCT/5Star tines will be over $300-$400 better than this. I have no doubt it's a better product and would perform better but I'm only talking from a cost to performance difference. This is an assumption though. Also, my speedo is and always was about 2-3 mph off 55mph and above no matter what I out the tire size/gears to on the tuner. Nothing has changed on that.

The gas mpg improvement on the 87 tune was about 2-3 mpg (crazy I know) just driving around unloaded. On the open road, there in an improvement as well just not sure quite how much. Towing mpg sux worse as stated above.

I'm gonna run the 91 performance tune unloaded until I run it out and out it back to the 87 tune and keep it like that for the rest of my trip and towing back home to see what it does. I may try the 'mpg' tune while I'm here to see what it does if I get to out another tank of 87 in it again. I'm not sure on that yet.

Mpg after the mods, before tunes around town was worse too 6-7 mpg vs 9-10 stock. Interstate was a maybe 1 mpg worse unloaded after Mods.

Due to the above 'holding me back' statements I made, I'm thinking of buying a stick y pipe from a JY or some thing that's cut off right before the cat, welding a test pipe on it and install it on my X to see of that goes away and then I'll know.

Stfts were average 13 as well on my car gauge pro app. Not sure what the means though.

Even though I stayed in OD longer, it seemed like I had to give it more throttle to keep it at 65-70mph than I used to. This may be because it stayed in OD more. But compared to when it was stock form, it didn't seem like I had to give it that much throttle. It would kick out of OD way earlier so I couldn't give it that much in OD so. Idk.

I've run 89 and 91 octane before but it was all unloaded and I don't remember if there was a mph improvement but I remember that it did hold OD longer but it wasn't much and it ran overall smoother at all rpms as well as idle.

I've driven a newer v10 (3v and different trans, at least 5R100 or maybe something else, not a 4spd anyway) uhaul box truck that averaged about 10mpg loaded up about 1/2 way and I had a problem keeping it down to 70-75, it kept wanting to go faster. Gobs of power! It was awesome so I'm comparing mine to that. It's probably not fair but that's all I have to compare it to.

Possible issues/causes/thngs I can think of to check are: fuel filter, plugs, fpr, JY y-test pipe/cat, o2's, injectors, fuel pump screen, Fuel pump, egr(?), or it just sux cause it's a CA model/typical v10(?) and my expectations are too much despite my experiences and what everyone else says.

Gas mileage unloaded with the 91 performance tune seems to be roughly the same as the 87 tune so far. If you got this far, tha lnk you reading my novel. Haha. Please let me know if yall can think if anything or of all this sounds normal because it really doesn't feel normal.