dagame27

hey guys I have an 86 951 and just bought the cup car shocks, ak1120,ak1121, and ak37354. Are these going to be a pain in the *** to install or are they pretty straight forward. Also any recomendations on springs. Thanks for the help.

Chris

Danno

What kind of driving will you be doing?
Are you keeping the rear torsion bars?
What kind of wheels? Sizes? Tires?
Alignment specs?

951sickness

I have a set of those same shocks waiting to go into my car. Mine were revalved and came with springs to match. If I remember correctly I have 350# in front and 300# in the rear. The springs are Hypercoil in front and Eibach in the rear. Whre did you get your shocks and did they come with any spings?

dagame27

I got my shocks from eshocks.com. They were the cheapest I could find. I have not bought springs yet but plan to go with the hypercoils with similar rates to yours. Do you know what size springs i would need. Also with those spring rates have you done anything to the torsion bar? Mine is stock so would the spring rates I would go with change in anyway?

951sickness

I'm going to be running the stock torsion bar along with the helper springs in the rear. This setup with the revalved shocks and the spring rates were matched to my friend's 86 951 which would be running with the torsion bar in place. Since my 88 non-S 951 is basically the same, I'm not planning on changing anything. Did the shocks come with the spring perches? I think I am using the 2.5" diameter springs.

white 944 turbo

951 sickness what do you mean by helper springs? Does that refer to the coil over kit and if so were did you buy it? One other thing, your front springs how long are they?

cruise98

Chris:

What is the valving for your new struts?

For example: if the valving is 300/120, that is compression/rebound.

Multiply 300 x 10 to get decameters, then divide by 4.48 to get the spring rate in psi that the shock is valved for. So, in this example, it would be valved for a 670# spring rate.

Bilstein will revalve/rebuild any of their struts/shocks for $50/each plus shipping.

cruise98

Chris:

Oops, I cannot read my own notes. Sorry, disregard the previous math example. I completely screwed up the whole thing. It is rebound/compression.

The real story is add 1000 to compression, then divide by 4.48! This would give you a 250# spring.
I knew something did not look right.

Sorry for the confusion. I am trying to do too many things at one time.

Danno

Also keep in mind that those numbers are an average damping rating. Bilsteins use the deCarbon mechanism which changes damping based not just on shock velocity like most dampers, but is also position sensitive as well.

Russ Murphy

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva"> I'm going to be running the stock torsion bar along with the helper springs in the rear. This setup with the revalved shocks and the spring rates were matched to my friend's 86 951 which would be running with the torsion bar in place. Since my 88 non-S 951 is basically the same, I'm not planning on changing anything. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">You may not be planning on it, but you probably will have to change things. You'll most likely need to reindex your torsion bars to get the rear ride height right after you add the coilovers. Eight hours labor, minimum.

white 944 turbo

Russ Murphy, I notice that you have a turbosmart 45mm wastegate. Can you tell me were you purchased it and if you recommend it.

951sickness

dagame27: Where on your front struts do you have the compression/rebound numbers? My struts are still assembled and I can't find them anywhere.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">You may not be planning on it, but you probably will have to change things. You'll most likely need to reindex your torsion bars to get the rear ride height right after you add the coilovers. Eight hours labor, minimum.
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Yes, I know I might have to reindex the torsion bars but since his car dropped down only a little when the stock stuff was reinstalled and my car is dumped in the rear, I'm pretty sure I can get a good balance between ride height and a balanced suspension. If it coes to reindexing the torsion bars I would consider removing them all together and getting heavier springs for the rear.

White944Turbo: My front springs are 8" long and the rear shocks have springs and a threaded body. If I remember correctly my friend got the whole deal at Vision Motorsports.

Alan C.

You'll need to look under the dust boot. The numbers are near the top of the polished shock rod. May be real hard to see with the shock still on the car.
Alan

Russ Murphy

white944turbo,
I got it from TEC(turbo engineering corp). $337.00 I beleive. It's to early to tell as it's not working yet. The 1/8 pipe thread fitting into the upper housing is leaking (no teflon tape--DOH!) so I have no boost control other than my right foot. But it sure does hold boost (read- doesn't leak) better than my old stocker. I'll post about it when the exhaust/fuel leak/air leak is completed.

white 944 turbo

Thanks for the info. guys.