This is an 84,Z51 suspension

Rear height- floor to top of wheel well 27"
Front height- floor to top of wheel well almost 28"

Been trying to figure out for months why all of a sudden the height is so much higher. Haven't found any reason for it.... At this point I'm past that.

My Goal is to get the front down to just under 27", 26.75 would be perfect

A few weeks ago I raised the car up and removed the front transverse spring. I bought a softer spring from an 87... HMZ is the code. It has a higher arch than the Z51 I had removed.
I shaved the rubbers down to almost the spring... even have the new style retainers.....
then I got to thinkin..... maybe coilovers would be the best way to go. They would give definetly give me an adjustment of 0-3 inches to lower.

Now... I've been debating what if the monospring doesn't work the way I want it to... i don't want to do this job twice. So I started shoping around and asking questions/searching.

Bought the QA-1's.... they are NOT going in the stock tower..even if you flare the sides out. I do not have the ability to weld nor am I going to pay a welder to come to me.
Now I'm looking into using the 36MM Bilsteins with 1-7/8 I.D spring.

Now that you know what I'm up to which route would you go? (QA1's are out of the question at this point)

I've also searched an searched but can someone actually confirm that this size spring... 1-7/8 I.D actually work with just flaring out the stock towers?
A picture would be great if anyone has one.

 

You've got the new spring. Maybe it'll work. Give it a try. Our 84 shock towers are very narrow and need cutting and welding for coilovers to work. If you find a boltin, let me know.

 

Thats the thing.. I'd hate to go thru the trouble of lowering via the monospring.. put it back on the ground and have it not work. Then back in the air. Trying to get out of doing this twice.

I finally did find a couple of pics with the exotic muscle coilovers mounted in our shock towers. You do have to flare it out and it doesn't look like its a whole lot.

found this in a 4 year old post by Nucking Futs, send him a PM

 

Looks like it does fit. The early C4 towers were pretty wimpy; after flaring them out, even more so. I think I would reinforce them before allowing them to support the full weight of the front end, especially in a race environment.

 

Seeing those wimpy towers make me happy I did what I did

 

Those are nice. Now you have to market a kit.

 

Wish I could weld!!

Merle at EM has said people have used the narrow towers like that with the bilsteins for years.

Just don't like the thought of bending something out and possibly weaken the metal.

May have to try the transverse spring and keep my fingers crossed.
If I do should I reuse my orginal spring or go to the 87 spring, even though it has more of an arch to it?

 

You can flare them, and then have someone weld some 1/8" thick sheet metal plates to the sides to reinforce the towers on the side and then take a grinder and radius the edges and they would look similar to mine

Call a local weld shop and tell them what you want, I bet it would cost $50 or less for them to stick or wire weld the reinforcements to the sides of the towers

 

[QUOTE=qws;1579782064]Wish I could weld!!

Merle at EM has said people have used the narrow towers like that with the bilsteins for years.

QUOTE]

Tell Merle the Bilsteins just dampen the car's suspension. Coilovers support the weight of the car. Big difference.

 

Ask Merle about how guys are doing with his race setup. They should be running pretty strongly valved shocks and pretty stiff springs. If they haven't had failures, I think you'd be ok. I'd ask for names and numbers of the guys if he doesn't mind, just to verify it for yourself...

I think the only guy I've ever actually heard of having a failure with coilovers is "FattVette" (I think). I don't know if it was the hat or the actual mount that failed. Don't remember his circumstances but for all I know this could be another thing like the rear lower mount problem. Nobody says it is safe, but yet no reported failures.

I feel you on the not wanted to do things over, let us know what you find.

 

That is the only one I have found, also.
CF member Widebody emailed me some pics of his Bilstein CO on early year C4. No problems with stock towers since 2003, racing at speeds up to 170 mph.

I will have more input once my front sleeve kits arrive, but I have slipped my 1 7/8" ID springs in place, and I may not have to flare tower at all.

 

I did do a ton of searching on the forum and even came up with a bunch of installs using EM's coilovers. I did ask him the other day and all I got was they will fit with opening up the towers and he's got a bunch of people that have used these on there early C4's.

I did hear back from nuckingfuts and he's had them on since 2007

did you also notice in that pic that the tiebar isn't bolted into where the orginal shocks were bolted?

 

Yes, I noticed that, too. Did you quiz him on that. I believe EM uses 2 1/4" ID springs.

 

Not yet, I'm gonna get back in touch with him.

I've asked Merle about the size of his springs but he's very reluctant to give out any information

 

Dan,
What part number Bilsteins are you using in the front?

 

I would have to look it up , but it's the factory version for 84-87

 

The only ones I'm finding have the metal boot at the top. You must be using a Z51 shock?

 

Are you sure it isn't just hanging loose in the pic?

I think EM using 2.25" springs because they are using 2" bilstein threaded bodies, not a factory option. I wonder if there are relevant strength differences between the smaller shocks and larger 2" bodies? Agent86 may really be on to a super easy upgrade here.

 

I found these by Bilstein, kinda neat 46mm which would be 1.82 inches are so. A 1-7/8 spring would barely fit over. But you would have to adapt the stud and TieBar on, but the compressed and extended lengths are very close 10 and 13 inches
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/BS...2030/?rtype=10

 

The metal dust shield just slips off the top.
Here is the shock from Bilstein's site
http://cart.bilsteinus.com/product/24-002288/1041219