Do not buy G60 shocks.

[nando]

What about them is shorter, the casing or the shafts?
If the casings are shorter, you'd still have to chop the tubes.

No special gland nuts though.

Are the casings 36mm like the i/is?

the casings are shorter

and yes, same diameter.

of course you have to chop the tubes. Count yourself as being lucky for having that option.

just having shorter shafts doesn't mean you will not have suspension travel issues, in fact that is almost never the case. that just means you have less droop.

[Moto-Mucci]

Um no, the reason is so i dont bottom out every time i hit a bump bigger then 1 inch... which is about every 30 seconds in san francisco. My car is already stupid low for a DD.

Yea, but you asked if you had to cut your tubes.
Getting more shock travel at the same ride height means lowering the spring perches, which means cutting the tubes, which forces you to have to run shorter shocks.
Otherwise they're pointless.

[Moto-Mucci]

the casings are shorter

and yes, same diameter.

of course you have to chop the tubes. Count yourself as being lucky for having that option.

just having shorter shafts doesn't mean you will not have suspension travel issues, in fact that is almost never the case. that just means you have less droop.

Interesting. The IX HD shocks are $20 more each then the G60 Sports. However, considering you need the $40 G60/E30 gland nuts from Bilstein, they come out about the same price.

But, IX's are the correct diameter. It also looks like IX HD's and Sports are the same price for the IX - so why not get Sports? There's gotta be a difference in valving, otherwise why make both?

Sounds like a good option. I'd like to see dimensions on both.

[nando]

there is no such thing as an ix sport

[Moto-Mucci]

Ahh you're right, I misread.

[e30this]

there is no such thing as an ix sport

Correct, We just had a thread about this on e30tech. Someone said about getting sports for a IX and he posted a photo. But someone told him wrong info. Then he posted it only to find out he was wrong.

[Uber E30]

Yea, but you asked if you had to cut your tubes.
Getting more shock travel at the same ride height means lowering the spring perches, which means cutting the tubes, which forces you to have to run shorter shocks.
Otherwise they're pointless.

Why? If i run 2 spacers wouldnt it accomplish the same thing? One at the bottom of the tube would be the length of whatever the tube would normally be cut and the other normal spacer that everyone talks about. Hence this:

[Moto-Mucci]

I'm not really sure what you're talking about. 2 spacers? I understand the bottom spacer but where's the other spacer go? From that picture it looks like it gos on top?? That doesn't make sense. There's a collar nut that screws down the top of the shock casing in the tube.

I don't see how you could stay at the same height and get more shock travel without modifying either the spring perches or the shock towers (which shouldn't be an option). The space between those two contact points wont change unless you run a different spring - which means you won't be at the same height.

Maybe I'm missing something here?

[nando]

no you are right

running a shorter insert in the same length housing does not increase suspension travel. You will bottom out the same place you would with stock length inserts. and on top of that you have less droop.

[Uber E30]

So this is how i see it... maybe im wrong and someone can point me in the right direction.


Wouldn't cutting my housing lower my car? My springs are going to compress to the same height no matter how short the housing is. So i would end up with this effect?!?





Sorry for the MS paint stuff but its faster then explaining :)

[nando]

well you wouldn't normally cut the housings unless you were using coilovers. So no, it wouldn't affect your height, because you would adjust the perches and choose the right spring length to end up where you wanted to be originally.

so if you were using 5" length, 500# springs in the front, and you shortened the housings 3", you would need 8" length, 500# springs instead.

unless you just want to be lower. ;)

[Uber E30]

right but im not running coilovers... im running 60/50s and the shocks are compressed so much that i have no travel in them. Would my idea not work for this application? It seems valid to me unless im totally missing something.

[nando]

if you have no travel then your only option is to cut the housings. shorter inserts in stock housings are not going to increase travel.

you could add pads to the springs to bring it back up some. But really if you are that low that cut housings are a must for travel reasons, you may as well just get coilovers and stop messing around. :)

actually there is one other option - you could get camber plates from either ground control or vorshlag. These will also increase suspension travel, but lower the car by the same amount. so you would still need to add more pads to the spring to even the height out.

[Moto-Mucci]

You can't stay at the current height with the same springs and gain shock travel. It's not possible.

You need to increase the distance between the spring perch and the shock tower. You can only do this with coil over conversions or taller springs.

And you can only increase travel AND stay at the same height by lowering the spring perches (and again either using coilover conversions or taller springs.)

Edit - and what nando said.

[Uber E30]

You need to increase the distance between the spring perch and the shock tower

Why? Isnt the piston in the shock just hitting the end of its travel because its so compressed? If so then using shorter shocks and adding a spacer on top like in my picture should work.