My quest on finding shorter struts

Well...I love my coilovers, I really do, but I hate KYB (they make JUNK). Nothing we can really do as they were the only ones to ever provide Aftermarket support. For coilovers the rear ones will drop you a max of about 4.5" (unless you trim the spacer sleeve then you could lay frame, but I would leave it alone) easy and the struts won't EVER bottom out, there is just that much travel. (Strut Full Length = 23.125"; Body length = 15.1" ; Stroke length = 7.6"; leaving you with 3.1" of strut travel at full drop (the rear end is so light that it is almost impossible and at 4.5" drop, Fender took half the wall of tire of a 245/45/18 THAT IS PLENTY LOW). And I think they would be better paired with 250-300lb springs (I believe that is the sweet spot for AGX Valving), the ride in the rear is a little jarring, but it rotates it nicely around a corner despite that issue with Springs not being dampened correctly (again that is due to running 40psi tires and no weight). But since this thread is about going STUPID Low (but this could be used for those who want to handle correctly too) and not all handling (yeah I know; it goes against everything in my body, but these cars are better off in a straight line or show-n-slow). We will forget about the rears for now since they seem to do the job and do it well.

So this is primarily about the fronts. I am dropped probably 3.5", the stock strut is said to be:
Full Length: 16.625"
Body: 9.875
Travel: 6.3"

Now comparing these numbers to above, I have about 2.8" of travel and you are thinking "hey that is not bad" but remember kids, the motor is hanging out over those struts so it really feels like I have 1.4" of travel :OH NOES:. I will be honest I bottom out the front struts constantly, probably 10 times a week at this height. So its time to find a solution.

The game plan is this:
-Get some used OEM struts from up front
-Hollow them out and cut off the perch
-Find inserts (preferably from Koni, but Bilsteins will work too)

Why am I making this thread? I need help locating some strut inserts, I want dampening control and I want these sleeves to be shorter (I'll explain shortly), while gaining travel (say what?). The idea of running shortened struts is no new concept, its a cool concept and if this works, we can brag that we created our own custom suspension.

What I need to do is knock off about 1"-1.5" from the body and rod, for about 2-3" total. What this does is, lets say you were able to use on your car with springs, this would automatically just drop the car 2-3" but keep the full strut travel :ZOMGOODNESS: See how novel that is!

So good specs would be:
Body: ~7.5"-8.5"
Extended Full length: ~13.5"-15"

Those would be ideal I think, but its damn near impossible as our struts are already stupid short. Ya'll want to see me lower, then start googlin' and see what you can find.

the old koni inserts that used to fly around the wbody scene are from a taurus sho, btw.

Yup and they still make them, and I have the part number. I do believe the dimensions are identical to stock, but I will double check.

I've got the Koni inserts on my car right now and are working great. I'm not sure what model or any details on them though. If I have time this weekend I might be able to find out.

Those koni inserts are stock length; this only works if we get shorter length struts.

I'm sure there are shorter struts out there, but may be to the point of if you're willing to spend that much coin on them.

Breakthrough. I'm all over the web trying to find stuff and then I found this thread.

Who can shorten strut inserts?? :: motorgeek.com

At first I thought I found someone to shorten some koni inserts, then I read some more...KONI does custom struts for you.

I am going to email koni

whats this koni inserts your guys talk about?

It's a strut without any mounts/brackets really. As far as I know it's for a Taurus and it sits in a bracket so you can just take our stock struts, gut them, then just put these in and you're good to go.

gotcha.

They bolt in through a whole in the bottom of the hollowed out strut body. They are also pretty tight in the mount itself.

Do the konis work on the rear as well?

You say Koni will make you custom length struts, do you think they would do custom valving as well?

As far as I have read, they have all sorts of different options for the varying spring rates, so yes different valving. I have yet to contact Koni yet about this as I've been busy with a few other things on my plate and I don't want to start this order until I'm ready to pay.

So I'm sure you can get rear struts to fit as well.

Koni Upgrade
ClubGP:

Yup...stock length struts, but thats how its done though.

hmm would a company like afco be able to help?