bilstein madness... what the bloody hell???

[e30leigh]

so ive come across something very weird :S

the other week at work we had a M coupe (e36) in for a service. it was noted down that the front shocks were "leaking" by one of the boys. turns out that the shocks are ok. but they had been moddified to accept aftermarket inserts. once i got a look at them finally i identified them as bilstein inserts.
as the customer had already agreed that he wanted factory items refitted back to the car i grabbed them to see what was going on. quick measurements showed that they would fit e30 struts. they are about 600mm long from the very bottom to the top of the thread. the body of which is about 385mm long.
i searched the part number

F4-R30-5029-H000

which turns out to be a subaru legacy rear..... what the hell!!!!!

i didnt get a chance to test fit them. but they appear to fit. the thread pitch and diameter on the collars is the same as the e30.

it sucked i didnt have an e30 strut on hand the measure the length ect of to compare fully with. but with new valving these may be a very nice option for the every going question to what struts should be used in modded e30s.

and seeming these were in an M coupe for god knows how long and were doing a good job in a car that is daily driven and apear to be stiffer then the factory options. then they could be worth exploring i think.

let me know what you guys think. perhaps we can compare them to e30 units. or known units used in e30s.

thanks, leigh.

[jlevie]

More important than the dimensions would be the valving inside the shock. The right person at Bilstein could probably tell you how the valving on those compares to what would be called for in an E30.

[e30leigh]

yea for sure. they seemed well suited to the m coupe. but id say they could easy be revalved for whatever spring is being run in an e30.

im tryn to get my hands on a set of front struts so i can see how these are going to work in a e30.

i also forgot to mention that the m coupe struts had about 1.5" spacers under then inserts. but i think this isnt valid info as the housings were modded and could very well of been lengthened with addition of the collar top.