Air leaks and bag psi setup

[V8-ESPRITS3]

I have had a lot of problems with air leaks! to start with I had more leaks than a net balloon! got it down to leaking like the titanic! I now have it nearly sorted but still a few minor leaks. can you ever get a 100% leak free setup? I have now just put 50 psi in each bag and have 50 psi in the tank and will check in an hour what has leaked from the setup.

right next question regarding bag psi and setup, I have not driven the car yet so have no real idea on what psi to run in the bags? I also have adjustable dampers/shocks.
So do you run with the dampers soft? or a harder setting?



Thanks

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

What kind of thread tape / sealant are you using? I've had good luck with Rectorseal T+2 (not sure whether they sell it in the UK), and the thicker pink thread tape used for gas lines. But, you're right, getting leak-free is a pain in the ass. I'm close, just one last pair of leaky elbow fittings to swap out.

A couple of thoughts:
- If you use push-in PTC-PTC elbows anywhere in your system, they leak like a bitch. I've had to get rid of all of them on my setup.
- Plastic air line only has so many times it can be inserted into PTC fittings before it's got permanent teeth marks and will no longer adequately seal. I've gone through on my system and trimmed a half inch or so off the end of every line, and that got rid of 90% of the leaks I had.
- Make sure any lines that enter a PTC fitting are entering straight-on. A little side pressure can cause the end of the line to not fit tight against the o-ring in the fitting.

Regarding air pressure: you can get a rough estimate of the pressure each bag will be sitting at by dividing your corner weight by the cap area of the bag and multiplying by the ratio of the length between the hub and the LCA pivot vs. the length between the bag and the LCA pivot (there's a term for this, but I'm spacing it at the moment).

So, on my SS-5s, the cap area is roughly 16 in^2, and the front corners of my W124 weigh just shy of 1000 lbs each, and the hub-to-pivot vs. bag-to-pivot ratio is roughly 2:1. 1000 / 16 * 2 = 125 psi, and guess what, my bags sit at about 110-120 psi at ride height.

On dampers, bags are extremely progressive, and they get more progressive the lower you run them. This requires a relatively stiff damper to keep control of. My W124 has very stiff dampers from the factory, and I feel that it handles and rides very nicely, with minimum bounciness. Certainly not any more bounciness than stock. Your vehicle is very light, however, so it's not as likely that you're going to dip as far into your suspension travel over everyday bumps as my much heavier car does, so you're probably going to be mostly riding in the relatively linear section of the bags' behavior. I would start medium soft and go hit some speedbumps and feel if it's bouncy. Even better, set up a camera on a tripod and see whether the car bounces over bumps. You can always dial up the damping factor.

EDIT: The term I was looking for above is "motion ratio."