michael7810

Hi - My right front shock is leaking badly and looking thru the previous owner documents I can't find any reference to shock replacement so I want to replace both front & rear shocks. It's a street car however once I get it sorted I would like to do DE once or twice a year.
The PO told me the car has "dealer installed M030 suspension" but there is no documentation to describe what was installed. I know M030 is an upgrade but but not much more than that...bottom line is I don't really know what I have except the car has stock 944T brakes for sure.
How can I determine what suspension I have?
What is recommended for a car mostly driven on the highway with occasional spirited street and DE driving?
Thanks,
Michael

black944 turbo

I love my setup, which is 968 m030 sways and caster blocks, koni yellows, and 200# springs up front with adjustable perches. My car is a street car, but it feels great.

Humboldtgrin

Rear shocks are about $200 ea and front struts can be rebuilt at the cost of you left kidney. Or you can buy new front struts for the cost of a bit of your life. Check Evilbay.

MAGK944

Fit the Koni inserts by cutting the front struts and at the same time fit the lowered Welt 200LB springs . Then lower the rear to the bottom setting using the eccentric and fit Koni shocks back there also. Later save up a pair of 968 M030 sways.

michael7810

Good input. I'm not convinced I want to lower my car as it's otherwise bone stock. At risk of looking stupid are the benefits of lowering the car noticeable on a street driven car by a driver with zero race experience?
I need to measure my swaybars when I get back in town. What size are 968 M030 sway bars?

black944 turbo

They are 19 mm 3 way adjustable in the rear and 30 mm front.

My car is lowered slightly, the only benefit that I see is cosmetic. This is based on the fact that this will be a street car.

MAGK944

Don't hesitate to lower the car an inch or thereabouts as that is what the stock height was as designed by the factory. The US cars were raised above the factory designed height only to meet federal regulations on bumper height, all other countries got a correct height 944.

Humboldtgrin

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto...221611896.html

Jason @ Paragon Products

Post a picture of the front strut...that'll tell us what has or has not been done in the past.

bumflick

The Bilstien setup in post #8 above sounds like it is designed to work without the rear torsion bar.

Not a simple effort. One of the few things I outsourced on my car, when i went with coilovers all around. (86 951, weekend toy, occasional autocross. No DEs, yet)

michael7810

I'll be home in a few days and will post a picture. Thanks

beamishnz

Hi Michael. If you car is fitted with the M030 option it will most likely be school bus yellow Koni with adjustable spring height platforms like this:


These can be rebuilt for around $220 per shock by ProParts and I also believe Jason @ Paragon offers a rebuild service. ProParts have a long wait list so Jason may be a better bet

If it is non MO30 it will probably have the std Sachs suspension like this:




The std suspension is sealed but can be rebuilt with a Koni strut insert conversion kit (Jason @ Paragon is a great source for these) or with a Bilstein strut insert. I recently wrote an article for the NZ Porsche Club magazine on converting sealed struts to Bilstein inserts and can supply the threaded inserts if you want to go down that route.

https://1drv.ms/b/s!AgY0rE3ADM04gr1niKxIVZo0wz1pYQ





Either the Koni or Bilstein inserts would be a great upgrade for "spirited street and DE driving" and still great for everyday driving too. As previously mentioned the USA cars were set up higher than ROW to meet bumper regulations. Also the M030 spec was approximately a further 30mm lower than stock so a drop of 30mm is still very usable for everyday driving. The factory spec for M030 cars dimension X on the diagram below is 170mm and I have found that a good for road use.




The Bilstein Escort set up in the Craiglist ad (post 8 above) is very nice but the spring rates and valving of that set up is very race orientated and in my opinion would be unsuitable for road use.

Look forward to hearing about your current set up.

Auto_Werks 3.6

There is a lot of bad info about these being tossed around.... with 400/375 spring rates, this is NOT for torsion bar delete. Up until recently I was running 450 front / 600 rear PLUS the stock torsion bars.

400 / 375 plus tbar will be firm on the street, but it's not end of the world, and it's certainly NOT stiff enough for racing. The setup looks clean, if you could get our for $1500 it would probably be a good deal.

As a side note... I would never want to run a rear shock in place of a torsion bar if it has those rubber bushings like the the ones in the Craigslist ad. That's a dead give away that it's not your main spring for the car

ried

Would you have to re-index your torsion bars on a 944 Turbo S (M030 car) after installing those rear shocks with helper springs in the Craigslist ad?

beamishnz

My comments re the Bilstein setup on Craiglist being unsuitable was for the OP who is of a mind set characterised by "I'm not convinced I want to lower my car as it's otherwise bone stock". And there is nothing wrong with that approach.

I'm pretty familiar with the Bilstein Motorsport set up (sometimes referred to as Escort or Firehawk) and have run it for the last 3 years on a road going 944 S2 with original Porsche Motorsport turbo Cup springs which are 160/400lb progressive fronts (approx 300 rears).

My shocks were rebuilt and specified by Bilstien specifically for my application and I was fortunate to have access to Joerg Hofffman who is the head of Bilstein Motorsport Europe and was closely involved with the original Turbo Cup programme. He recommended 380/150 for the front and advised 600/190 to be unsuitable for road use. Also chatted to Dave Lindsey who has a similar set up on his road car and he described 600/190 valving as "track only stiff". I do know that some guys run 600/190 on the road but I was happy to go with the recommendation from Joerg and Dave.

The set up on Craiglist has the 600/190 valving and spring rates that are pretty close to those used by the original factory race cars ...

I love the set up I have for fast road/DE use but in my opinion it is a pretty extreme set up for the road ... my wife hates it

My thought was that the OP didn't want to stray to far from stock so my recommendation is that he would be best to use his existing front struts and convert to Bilstein B6 Sport or Koni sport and run with stock or 200/250 Weltmeister springs. That is also a very nice compliant wife friendly solution