79 SC Strut Insert (Shock Absorber) Confusion

[mikedsilva]

This is probably all me not being able to follow something simple but I find myself confused over choosing new shock absorber/ strut inserts. Car is a 79SC and has the Boge Struts that use the gland nut for securing the insert in the strut.

I removed my struts to do bushings, tie rod ends and ball joints.. all were worn.
The shocks didn't exhibit the typical worn out symptoms.. ie, it didnt bounce or float, but there is definitely some lateral movement between the polished insert and the yellow leg. You can see some wear here....




Anyhow.. I contacted my local supplier and they can only supply the green bilstein and gave me this part number:

34001127 Strut Insert - Bilstein B6 1969 - 03/1985 with Boge Legs

Now according to our host site, that is a B6 Performance item.




Pelican also list the B8 Performance Plus - Is this a stiffer damper? From googling the general consensis is that B8 is same as B6 but shorter ie designed for cars that are heavily lowered. Mine is "euro spec" I guess.



Pelican also list the B6 Performance but in the wording, it says it is a "rally setting".. what does that mean.. longer travel for greater wheel articulation?



Finally, Pelican list this B6 Heavy Duty STANDARD VALVING.


The part number on my shocks is
F4-P36-0115-H000 - what the hell does that mean?? does it correlate to any of those listed on Pelican?


Looking at another site whose name I shall not mention... we have these options:



They list them as Std, Sport and Club Sport.


I'm trying to establish which shock would be the same as the one I pulled from my car.
Looking at the part number my local supplier gave me, 34001127, it doesn't correlate to any from the UK website.
And if you look at the 34001158, Pelican calls it a B6 Performance "Rally Setting" while the other site refers to it as B6 Sport. Same part number.

Here is a table I quickly threw together to try and compare the offerings..



Or should I just get my current dampers rebuilt...
Any help appreciated. My head is spinning....

[Bill Douglas]

Mike, if it's any help. My car is a 1979 SC with factory Bilsteins. I replaced both the inserts with these. The feel the same as my previous ones did, NOT stiff like a rally or track car In fact I didn't need to replace them as it was the ball joints causing the clunk. But they fitted my car. I'm not sure about your Boge struts though.

[Schulisco]

Mike,
agree with you that the shops confusing the customers with unprecise and worthless information about the dampers. I was in the same situation. Boge/Sachs/Woodhead/Kayaba offer afaik only one damper which is the production replacement.
Bilstein were always the "sport" option (M030 I guess) as they're always the green B6 gas shock absorbers. Boge were always oil dampers afaik, Sachs/Boge/Woodhead also standard, but I'm not sure if they were oil or gas dampers. Today Boge dampers come from Sachs.
Bilstein offers several yellow dampers with different setups, they call it "settings", for any purpose of the car. These are stiffer/harder than the green Bilstein dampers which were the sport option!

You can find them in the catalogue either online on the Bilstein website or here in this PDF classique PDF catalogue, which I also prefer:
https://workshop.bilstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/4_BILSTEIN-Klassik-Katalog-2019.pdf

Furthermore Bilstein switched the part numbers schema in the early 2010s to todays pattern. In an 2010 Bilstein catalogue your damper nr F36-0115 is a "sportlich Strasse" / "sporty road" version.

Here is a link to an older 2010 version of the Bilstein catalogue with your numbers: https://www.bilstein.nl/downloads/catalogues/BILSTEIN-classic-catalogue.pdf



The 1:1 replacement with the new numbers seems to be 34-001158



Concerning the several suspension setups I created a overview collected from the PDF catalogue. Also there are several options on how to mount the dampers, not only the Boge or Bilstein struts in the front. More details in the parts catalogue.

Bilstein Porsche 911 Fahrwerkssetups / suspension settings

Setting	VA/front axle	HA/rear axle
Bilstein SC/Carrera series	140/100	196/133
Bilstein Turbo Serie/series	150/110	196/133
Bilstein Sportlich Strasse/sporty road	225/112	336/164
Bilstein Clubsport	200/170	220/180
Bilstein Rennen 1/race 1	160/160	unknown
Bilstein Rennen 1*/race 1*	200/170	unknown
Bilstein 1000 Seen/1000 lakes rallye	270/100	285/140
Bilstein RSR	160/160	180/170

number x 9,81 indicates the actual force in Newtons
numbers pattern: rebound/compression
all shock absorbers are of type B6
the SC/Carrera series and the Bilstein Turbo series are both green coloured (rear) dampers, the rest is yellow coloured.

Some Porsche specialists say, on Targas and Cabrios stiffer suspension than the green Bilsteins is forbidden. I have a Coupé also with sporty road dampers, on the rear I'm going to move to Clubsport due an advice of an very experienced Porsche specialist, they were way more comfortable than sporty road but still stiffer/sportier than series subspension.

Thomas

[mikedsilva]

Originally Posted by Schulisco

Mike,
agree with you that the shops confusing the customers with unprecise and worthless information about the dampers. I was in the same situation. Boge/Sachs/Woodhead/Kayaba offer afaik only one damper which is the production replacement.
Bilstein were always the "sport" option (M030 I guess) as they're always the green B6 gas shock absorbers. Boge were always oil dampers afaik, Sachs/Boge/Woodhead also standard, but I'm not sure if they were oil or gas dampers. Today Boge dampers come from Sachs.
Bilstein offers several yellow dampers with different setups, they call it "settings", for any purpose of the car. These are stiffer/harder than the green Bilstein dampers which were the sport option!


Thomas

thanks for a great reply with exellent information.
Does the green or yellow mean anything anymore?

Some places say the B6 is yellow.. most others are showing them as green. Not sure it means anything?

[Bill Douglas]

Mike, I've found my old but good B6 inserts. You can have them for free if you like. I bought new ones and put them in, but my car's problem was the ball joints. The old inserts feel the same as my new ones. So yours if you pay the freight..

[thetorch]

Originally Posted by mikedsilva

thanks for a great reply with exellent information.
Does the green or yellow mean anything anymore?

Some places say the B6 is yellow.. most others are showing them as green. Not sure it means anything?

Some of the rear B6s are yellow, for example, the ones for a 1969, though I believe later cars yellow is only B8, at least in the rear.

[mikedsilva]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

Mike, I've found my old but good B6 inserts. You can have them for free if you like. I bought new ones and put them in, but my car's problem was the ball joints. The old inserts feel the same as my new ones. So yours if you pay the freight..

Hi Bill
that's mighty generous of you, however if you have factory Bilsteins, then your units will be unsuitable for my Boge Struts.
As of this point, I have sent my old yellow front inserts off to Bilstein here in Aus to be rebuilt. They tell me that the unit I have (with the super duper long part number) is the same as a currently available 34001158.

Not entirely sure how long they are going to take to do this, but I'll update the thread when I can.
Again, thanks for your offer.

[Bill Douglas]

No trouble, pleased to help.

Yep, a Bilstein rebuild will be excellent. Same as new.

Good luck with it.