slomarao

get the konis, wait and save up if you have to. Otherwise you ll be buying shocks in the next few years again.
Talk to sam on the fone, he ll make you understand the whole situation and why an why not you want to do certain things. There is a reason 40% of the people on this board get suspension parts and advice from him.
He knows his stuff and proves it time and time again. I have a friend who has the kyb's and im on koni's. He is shocked at how much better my car handles than his. Plus i only have koni's, a ebay stb, and poly bushings on the sway bars. He has shocks, springs, sway bars, camber adjustment, and a 3 pt stb.
Buy the koni's, i know its hard to get over the price but their really worth it.

Evolution223

Does anyone have any experience with Tokico Shocks?? They say on their website that their shocks are an excellent choice for use with lowering springs, no other company actually says that. It would be cool to have something Japanese on the car too.

Also that ebay deal is good but you can get the same price plus free shipping here...

http://www.performancecenter.com/pro...Chevrolet/2000

Sam Strano

I'll think I'll let Ebay and performancecenter.com answer those questions. Often those that don't have the cheapest price have the best information.

Greed4Speed

Here is a great analogy for the Koni vs Bilsten debate. You can spend the extra money on a set of AFR heads and get the most out of your engine or go with a set of budget ported heads from a place like TEA and still make quite a bit more power than stock heads.

Honestly, I'm suprised to see Sam even suggest the AGX. He always said they are too soft on low and too hard on the highest setting and had nothing in between. Keep in mind I'm driving on these Bilsteins daily and enjoying the hell out of them and these springs.

Sam Strano

You shouldn't be suprised, they are normally my 3rd choice behind Koni's and Revalves. If Koni's are out because of cost, and Revalves are out because of stock issues, that leaves those next. Why would I prefer to put on a set of messed up Bilsteins (IMO) that you can't do a damned thing to tweak the setup when you can at least do some dialing in on the AGX's?

Again, not many have had the opportunity to be on a lot of different shocks, and fewer still even understand them. I disagree the new Bilstein is very good, the old ones were better for my tastes and even those weren't really right for lowering springs. And just because there might be 100 folks out there that say "it's fine", I know I can do better. There are also those that say "it's fine" with stock shocks too.

Step back from what you bought and what you are comparing against. Look at the facts that Bilstein was X, changed to Y, I quit selling them as Y because of complaints that alterted me to an issue, I checked the valving and found something much more like DeCarbon's than not. Bilstein clearly realized something was wrong because now there is this huge backlog of shocks. A few have trickled into the states, many were left over from before. I haven't seen Bilstein's for the front of these cars since March 2007.

I don't think there is much more need to belabor this point. It's up to the individual, but I'd think most folks would want to know what they are buying is the most suitable for their needs, and most all the informaiton out there about Bilstein's comes from me. All the rest is marketing hype. If you want to by into hype ok. But don't confuse "ok" or "better" with "correct" or "as good as it could be".

Greed4Speed

Thats the same thing with heads. Some people are perfectly happy with their budget heads while others have to have their ported Trick Flows.

palehorse77

OK well, I've seen the old thread where we (Sam and Air) discovered this engineers goof and laid out the rates.

Do you guys happen to have the rates for the KYB AGX (fronts main concern - both if possible). I'd just like to compare them before I go and buy them. Maybe I'll just wait and see what Bilstein does? I just can't afford the Konis after puttin nearly 10K into the motor. Atleast not now.

Thanks for the input guys. Go Pats

always faster

I was in the same boat.I was(2 years ago) gonna order some Bilstein with some lowering spring to improve my handling because i saw that a lot of people was running them on this board and where very happy...

I came accross a Sam Strano post(never heard about him)and decide to order from him.I called him and he took over 30 mins to talk to me and see what was my goal(corner carving).Even after this conversation he asked me to call him back when i was gonna be set on my order.Man a guy that take all this time to help you and after all dont even rush or push you to buy right now is really a professional.

I was so impressed from all the info that he gave me that i totally changed my order.I ended up with some Koni and kept my stock spring(since this is not the biggest improvement you can make in handling) and bought some Strano hollow sway bar kit.

The car never handle so well and i can attack any kind of curve now .Yes im totally sold to Sam because he know his stuff.

My advice,listen to Sam or wait to have enough money for the Koni.

slomarao

i did the exact same thing. I want shocks and springs, I had 750 to spend. After talking to sam for 35min i bought koni's and stayed on my stock springs.
After being in friends cars with other setups i can honestly say i would only put koni's or qa1's in a fbody. Maybe the revalves.
Buy once and buy right.
the kyb's are either way to soft or way to hard. There is no in between, a friend of mine had them. We f ed with every setting, test drove the car and ended up just leaving them extremely hard. I would not be happy if i had them in my car.
i would save up and buy the right shocks for your car.

Greed4Speed

QA1's suck for handling. The only place they shine is at the drag strip.

slomarao

my buddy has sportline springs and with them tightened up we were doin 75 on a circular off ramp. Hes got addco sways on it too but their still drag shocks.
So i would have to disagree.

cmking26

I ordered the fronts AGX's. Now I just need to find the cheapest place for rears and an adj panhard rod.

BLK96Z28

Where'd you find the best price for the AGX's?

cmking26

So far ebay. They have the rears for 188 shipped. The fronts I got from another board member for 80 shipped with 5k miles. Hope they are ok. The adj panhard bar Jegs has for 89.

palehorse77

So looking at buying the Koni's 1139 but do they come with the adjustable ride height collars?

Thanks