vpk944

I have an 89 951 that I want to upgrade the springs on. What is the most economical method of upgrading to a 400# spring while still using the factory strut/coilover assembly. thanks in advance

Jason @ Paragon Products

http://www.paragon-products.com/prod...4arhk-m030.htm

The picture is a little misleading because you don't actually get a threaded collar because your strut will already have one. You get a Racers Edge upper and lower perch, a pair of Koni Competition Bump Rubbers and a pair of Hypercoil springs of whatever rate you want.

Black Arrow

Sorry to hijack your tread vpk944, but what about coilovers at the rear? Isn`t there any possibility to install coilovers on the original m030 rear shocks? Is the only oppertunity to buy these http://www.paragon-products.com/prod...rearcupkit.htm (isn`t this the 968 m030 coilovers?)

And what about spring rates. whats the better rates for a car, mainly for track (and autoslalom) but also used on road. If going for 400# in front, what should the rear spring rates be? Assuming that the torsion bar isn`t done anything to. Also got a 89 with m030 original.

Diver944

Jason, I too have m030 on my '89 951S and would like to go a little stiffer (say 250lb). If I were to buy your Hypercoil conversion kit would I also need to have the strut revalved? Do your Koni inserts fit into an M030 strut and what spring rating do these inserts work with?

My car is a daily driver and I do about 5 track events a year

Jason @ Paragon Products

Paul, you'd be fine with 250# springs on your stock strut assuming it's still in good condition. Generally the Koni rebound adjustment will give you 100% increase in rebound forces from full soft to full stiff. You can install the 8641-1414 Sport inserts into the M030 struts, but you can also have Koni rebuild these struts. We do this quite a bit and usually have them revalved and converted to double adjustable (external compression adjustment to go with the external rebound adjustment). The 8641-1414 Sport inserts are generally good up to a 400# spring.

Jason @ Paragon Products

I'm not aware of any kit to put a coil spring on the stock Koni Sport Yellow rear shock. This shock:
http://www.paragon-products.com/pro...4rearcupkit.htm
is not the 968 M030 rear shock. The M030 rear shock was not threaded and was standard adjustable for rebound (remove to adjust). The shock on our site is externally double adjustable (rebound and compression) as well as being threaded for ride height adjustment. For 400# front springs and stock M030 torsion bars I'd go with a 225# spring.

Diver944

Thanks Jason that's just what I needed to know. My struts do need a rebuild but it is getting very difficult to find anyone in the UK to do this, and those that will are quoting 2-3 weeks which is just no good for a daily driver.

Do you do the rebuilding onsite or do you send the struts away? How long in man hours does it actually take to empty the oil, replace the valves and fill up again?

Jason @ Paragon Products

Paul, the man hours probably isn't the real issue, it's just getting "in line" at Koni. We don't do it here, the service is performed in Hebron Kentucky at the main US warehouse. We do offer a core program on these to address the issue you mentioned. We SOMETIMES...LOL...have sets that have been already rebuilt, revalved, converted to double adjustable and painted. Having not made the core charge high enough on these in the past (lesson learned) we're down to one set. I believe we're due a core set back soon so we should have some units to swap out in the near future. Because of the previous problem we encountered, the core charge is painful but if you return yours promptly it will probably appear on the same credit card statement as the original charge.

Diver944

OOOh that is tempting. I'll send you an email to discuss pricing and core charge as I can't find it on your website

Black Arrow

jason: if my front m030 koni`s are still great, what do I win when doing rebuild to a external compression adjustment and the external rebound adjustment? Is it worth it?
And what spring rate would you prefer on a car that have most trackdays, but still used on the road?
When having very hard springs at the rear, do I need to adjust the torsjon-bar to get it lowered to the same height, or less, that I have today?
Sorry all the stupid questions, but I`m a newbee conserning suspension...

GWTurboS

Tma, what you save on the front is having to perform the labor a second time. If you are going to take apart the front suspension to change springs, you could have the front KONI's rebuild and then never have to worry about them at all. However, if you really don't want or need the compression adjuster on the front strut, you could focus on just getting the front springs and then spending your money on the rear suspension.

On the rear I would suggest adjusting the torsion bars when converting to coilover. Ideally you should have some of the weight of the car resting on the coil springs when the car is at static ride height. This puts a little bit of preload on the spring without lifting the rear of the car.

Good luck!

Greg W.

Indica

Here is info on how to build your own rear coil over for a fraction a the price that new ones cost.
Check out lindsay racings project car page here: www.lindseyracing.com/project/page9.html
It shows pictures of a 968 MO3O rear shock that was converted to a coil over. This can be done on a budget.
On the site they say "First we decided to change spring rates and the ride height of the car. The rear of the car would settle under hard acceleration so we decided we needed a firmer spring. We had borrowed a pair of Bilstein coil over's from a friend to try. We liked them so much, we decided to build our own. We took the Koni M030 shocks from our earlier installation and modified them. We trimmed down the original lower spring perch and welded a tube down from that with a collar at the end that would now be our new lower perch. Welding on a gas charged shock should be done carefully. We purchased aftermarket spring collars and adjuster screws. We went to a 7" x .250 x 275lbs/in. spring. A little new paint and they looked as good as we expected them to work. We were shooting for lowering the rear of the car another inch."

I am planning on doing a similar mod for my 86 951 that has 968 Mo3o suspention. If you have rear shocks that are in need of a rebuild (like mine) then is should be easy to take the shock apart to do the lower perch welding- assemble the coil over kit and then have koni rebuild them for you.
I have not done this yet so I do not know exactly what is required to dissasemble the shocks. I am guessing that you compress the spring and remove it. Then you take the insert cap off (it threads onto the top of the lower shock insert), this is the point I am not sure what will happen- I think that the insert is gas charged so I would make sure to do this carefully. Then you should be able to weld lower spring perch on without any danger.
You will still have to re-index the torsion bars or remove them.

Indica

I am interested in what you guys think about the new dual adjustable vs the single Mo3o. I have a set of nearly new set of yellow (single) adjustables and a set of used but need rebuild Mo3o adjustables- so i am debating if it is worth the $ to get the Mo3o struts rebult as dual adjustable or just use my new single adjustable yellow konis. Whatever strut I am going to go with will be converted to coil over with the paragon kit.

Can you purchase the Koni 8641-1414 Sport inserts and install them yourself? Are these the dual adjustable inserts? Is the dual adjustable conversion something I can do myself or do I have to have koni or paragon do the work on the struts.
My car is going to be 50- 50 , street-track.

951power

the 8641 1414 sport is not the dual adjustebale.
If you where to only install the struts without the height adjustable kit it is a easy job. you could find instructions at paragon`s tech site.