Bilstein Strut installation Height
 

Hello,

I installed my front Bilstein struts on my 2000 GT mustang through the 4 bolt MM Caster/Camber plates. I followed all directions, and was just wondering why the strut threads stick up so high above the CC plate. Mine are about 2 inches or so I believe. The instructions called for 1 short spacer below the cc plate and 1 short and 2 long on the top before the nut. Even though there is a pretty large indent on the bottom of my hood that allow for clearance, the strut is like a hair from hitting the hood. I guess my philosophy is wrong, I would think that if you are installing lowering springs, the shock height would be lower, not higher...

which bilsteins did you get?

I think MM's kit part number is BIL-7, but the actual number on the strut box
is F4-V36-4138-H3.

cool... those are foxbody sticks. it's fine to drop one of the spacers from the top to the bottom. Your ride height will probably change just a tad. If you get the longer 94-04 spec struts dropping a spacer like that gets you just that much closer to tagging the bumpstops on hard hits. Which is why MM and I say to get the shorter fox struts. Make sure you get full thread engagement of the strut and don't drop it any lower than you have to.

In fact... before you do anything take a little modeling clay and find out exactly how much space there is at rest on flat ground. Then we'll talk about messing with spacers.

This may sound like a stupid question, but ... Where can I find clay? Anywhere other than a hobby store? :)

Play-Doh.

Roger, got it.. Thanks.. I will do that this weekend. This is when I'm going to do the rear and install the springs, shocks and control arms :).

Ahhh finally found my thread... After the forum went down it trashed all my references to these threads...

After using the play-doh to find I had less than 1/8 clearance, I relocated the top 1/4 inch spacers to the bottom (below the caster/camber plate). Now has perfect clearance... Almost 1/4 clearance. Car handles like it is on rails now.. I took it through the mountain roads and noticed immediately how much more responsive it is. I take 20 mile an hour turns at like 40 without even a squeal of the tires. I will try to get the before/after pictures up. The drop was roughly 1.5 inch front and back.

awesome, glad to hear it all worked out for ya!!

great work. Isn't the difference amazing with just a few well chosen parts?

After my coil over install I took months re-learning my car's limits.

Hey r3d so if one was getting the MM coilover kit and CC plates but knew a guy whole could get bilstein struts at wholesell, He should get foxbody struts? would you happen to know the partnumber from bilstein?

Depends on several factors. Normally if you're going to lower it then yeah. Might as well.

Dunno part number but a little research should do you well. MM has custom valving that I kinda like but it's not mandatory.

Thanks V6 and R3D,

Sorry for the delay in response, but my email notifications seem to be dumping into yahoo's junk mail folder.. I guess cause it is a free email client that they don't give you the option of setting the email as NON junkmail.

In any case, YES! absolutely it is amazing what a difference. The nice thing is I got the awsome handling with very little to no sacrafice in driveability. I can't really notice a difference in the ride quality from stock. The tires are wearing nice and even. I think my next mod will be the front chin spoiler. I want to paint it white to match my car. I know they recently introduced some special spray can paint at Orchard Supply especially made for plastics.
I was thinking of trying that. I'm hoping the white shade would match close enough to look decent. If not I was going to get a quart of matched paint from the auto paint store and spray it with a gun.

Outside of that what would you guys recommend for some simple bolt on performance mods? Something that produces good bang for the buck.
I was thinking about adding the air induction. Is this worth doing? Anyone have any recommendations on one? I heard some require having to retune the chip or something... Is this necessary? Someday I would like to get a supercharger, but for 5 grand, I think that will be on the back burner for quite some time.

cobra brakes. before you go much further I'd really seriously consider popping for the bigger brakes. You've got worlds more control... you're likely to take bigger chances. Have a way out. Can't tell you how many times they've saved my bacon.

That's great advice R3D...

You couldn't of been more accurate... I've noticed myself taking far more chances now with the increased handling capability... I am whizzing all over the place now :). I already had one close call where a car stopped all of a sudden without warning in front of me. I had to slam the brakes on and was just inches from her bumper. At that time I could really see how lousy the brakes are. I did stop in time, but didn't feel to happy with the braking. Normally I always give myself plenty of distance from the car ahead of me, but in this instance if I left room someone would just take the space and cut in front of me... I was in the process of entering the freeway. In any case, that is a smart recommendation, "Thanks."
Who would you recommend to obtain the cobra kit from?

performancepartsinc.com sells the kit for $400. Also, buyfordracing.com sells the kit for $350 w/ SS lines included (Mach1 Kit is $310) however, the lines they sent me didn't work.

You can also check americanmuscle.com or call up Ken at speedconcepts.net and tell him r3dn3ck from wildhorses sent you. He'll take good care of you.

You can get some really nice rotors from TMD on ebay for 125 bucks for the set of 4 (they can swap in GT rears for you but you'll have to call) http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SLOTT...spagenameZWD1V

Then some proper pads. OEM are fine but dusty. I've been really super duper loving my EBC yellow pads. They're about 90 bucks from Summitracing.com for front. Stock rear pads should be fine, EBC green are also nice in back.

Then all you need to do is buy the caliper and line kit and you'll have a serious tooth chipper on your hands.

With just the switch to EBC yellows on my cobra brakes I've seen my stops shorten by like 10% or more from where they were which was an order of magnitude better than the stock 10.8" brakes. I'm always locking em up now. Never did that before.

http://www.buyfordracing.com/shop/pr...roducts_id=542 front calipers for $190, ss lines for the front can be had from http://www.speedconcepts.net/index.php?cPath=21_30_116 for 65 bucks.

Total for the pimpin level kit pieced together would be around 290 pieced together.