[turt1e]

Hi,

I just purchased a set of Penske DA 8100 series shocks from Guy Ankeny. Not much in the way of installation documentation provided. So any advice from those of you that have installed these shocks would be great.

Any tips on how the shocks should be compressed prior to installation?

Do I reuse the bushings and rear mounting plates from the stock shocks on the Penskes?

Where and how have you mounted the remote reservoirs? Any pictures?

I plan on tackling the install this weekend so I have time for testing before the Solo2 National Tour and Pro Solo in Atlanta this April.

Thanks,

Paul Barros

 

[ScDFACHE]

Hi,

I just purchased a set of Penske DA 8100 series shocks from Guy Ankeny. Not much in the way of installation documentation provided. So any advice from those of you that have installed these shocks would be great.

Any tips on how the shocks should be compressed prior to installation?

Do I reuse the bushings and rear mounting plates from the stock shocks on the Penskes?

Where and how have you mounted the remote reservoirs? Any pictures?

I plan on tackling the install this weekend so I have time for testing before the Solo2 National Tour and Pro Solo in Atlanta this April.

Thanks,

Paul Barros

Call Chuck Mallett at Mallett Cars - they use Penske DAs for may of their applications. Nice shocks

 

[turt1e]

Thanks for the info, and I may use it as a last resort. I would feel kind of strange calling Chuck considering I didn't purchase the shocks from him. I'm hoping I will get advice from forum members that have actually done the installs themselves. I installed the 04 stock shocks on my 2001 and that was a real PITA once I got to the fronts, so I'm trying to get any tips before I attempt the install.

Thanks again,

Paul Barros

 

[DJWorm]

Go to & Click ON "Member Rides"
<-------------OVER THERE

Scroll down and select Page 4, then Click on my Sig Pic for DJWorm, It will bring up a gallery, Click on "Engine Bay"

You will see the Shock Reservoirs mounted on the radiator shroud with the lines plumbed thru the inner fender liner after drilling appropriate sized holes (2 1/2") to pass the reservoirs thru. Mallett used special large rubber grommets to seal the holes. Zip Ties were used to attatch the reservoirs to the radiator shroud after drilling small holes appropriately spaced.

Likewise holes were drilled in the bottom of the rear side compartments facing forward. The special gromments were used here also and slits were made in the carpeting. The reservoirs were fastened to the rear of the compartments using a billet bottle clamp.

This type of mounting keeps the reservoirs clean and easy to reach to make adjustments.

 

[turt1e]

DJWorm,

Thanks! Those images really help. I really like the idea of routing the rear reservoirs to the interior tub area. So any holes I drill need to be big enough to pass the whole reservoir through correct? Know I just need to find out if cutting a whole in the rear tub is legal in Super Stock.

Thanks again,

 

[DJWorm]

13.5.E. "A hole may be added through the bodywork to route the line from the reservoir to the shock absorber body. Such holes may serve no other purpose."

Yes, you drill the whole big enough to pass the reservoir thru. Then it gets covered by the grommet with the line going thru the middle of it. You do not want to dissconnect and reconnect the line. The allowance doesn't limit the size of the hole and as long as the line passes thru it you are OK.

In addition:

13.5.F. "A hole may be added to an interior body panel to provide access to the adjustment mechanism on an allowed adjustable shock absorber. The hole may serve no other purpose. ....."

So you can even add another hole but it is not necessary to do so.

 

[Mark Olson]

turt1e, Jack the car up, use jack stands, remove the wheels. You can do this one at a time or all four.
Removing the old shocks, was the hard part. You will need a 7mm open end to hold the shock shaft when you loosen the top nut. 13mm socket with ext, ether a 19mm 22 mm (maybe 24) brain fade. (the fronts are the ones that will give you the most trouble) but I found that you can jack (under the a-arm) and compress the shock, then using some (wire, heavy string, nylon webbing to tie and hold the shock compressed) will help in the extraction. Compress/tie off/ release the jack after removing the top shaft bolt/ then the two 13mm at the base remember there are nuts coming from the bottom.

The rears are much easer but to make things go easy you do the same as the fronts. only removing the plate at the top first and the large bottom bolt. You can then remove the plate after the shock has been removed.

Reinstall by compressing the shock/ tying off before installing, using all the stock bushings. Install bottom of shock first, jack a-arm to get the top installed, then release string an lower jack.

The remotes: My rears are in the trunk wells/ with holes in the small side well to route the lines (2 1/2) with rubber seal. Fronts: I have in the same place as DJ but had longer 30in lines installed and routed thru slots next to radiator.

I hope this all makes sense.

 

[turt1e]

Mark,

Thanks for the install instructions. Sounds similar to the procedure I went through to install the 04 stock shocks, so thats good to know. Were are you guys getting the rubber seals to plug the 2 1/2 inch holes? Are you using a common item that I could find at my local hardware store, or do you have to get it from Mallet?

One last question, how did you compress the penske shocks? They seem much harder to compress by hand than the stock shocks.

Thanks,

 

[DJWorm]

Mallett installed my shocks. He only supplies the rubber grommets on shocks he installs.

You can order and purchase the grommets custom made from firms such as Marco

www.marcorubber.com

You can compress the Penske's by setting the bump setting to #1 and slowly compressing them and/or letting some of the Nitrogen out of the shrader valve. However you need the inflation tool gauge and a bottle of Nitrogen to recharge them to the proper pressure

 

[Mark Olson]

I found my rubber hole fillers at the Ace hardwear store. And like DJ suggested, get the fill tool and a small bottol of gas to keep every thing top off or at the pressure that fits your needs.

 

[turt1e]

Thanks for all the help guys! My co-driver and I got the shocks installed last week and we were out testing and tuning this weekend. The initial setting that Guy recommended was to hard on the rebound for the bumpy surface we were on. This led to the car "jacking down" mid way through the autocross course and started hitting the bump stops and front spoiler. We tried to resolve the issue by raising the ride height but that didn't help much. I later got back in touch with Guy and he recommended that we should have softened the rebound to alleviate the problem. So we've softened it up about 5 swipes on all four corners and hopefully will be able to test at the practice session on Friday.

One question though on the rebound adjuster. Is it possible to go to soft and back that little hex nut all the way out? Or will it stop turning just as it does when you get to full hard?

Thanks,

 

[crznZ06]

Do the Penskes require that the rear reservoirs be mounted in the trunk? Is there anyway that the rear reserviors can be mounted without cutting the car up? Thanks.

 

[DJWorm]

You can mount the reservoirs in the wheel well but then they are hard to access and get messed up with dirt and grime. It's better to mount the rear reservoirs in the trunk where they stay clean and are easy to access.

It's really not an issue, even if you remove the Penskes later, you just use Aluminum push plate snap in covers painted flat black with a bead of clear RTV Silicone sealant. These are available from Lowe's for about $2.

When installing you cut the carpet in an X pattern to pass the line thru.
When removing you just glue it down and the hole is complete sealed and coverd.

 

[DKTZ06]

One question though on the rebound adjuster. Is it possible to go to soft and back that little hex nut all the way out? Or will it stop turning just as it does when you get to full hard?

Thanks,

It will stop turning when you hit full soft. I am having the same problem with the Penske DA's and the car bottoming out. I notice that my car is ~0.5" lower than the other well-setup Z06's. I am raising the ride height back to "normal" for the front and de-gassing the compression reservoirs for the rears. I think Guy's initial setup is a little too stiff.

-Don

 

[DKTZ06]

After now having adjusted the shocks, I must recant on my previous post. The front rebound adjusters will stop as they make contact with the housing when you hit full soft. The rear rebound adjusters, however, will not stop. If you know where they are now, subtract the difference in sweep counts and adjust .... but if you're anal like me, just go to full stiff and count backwards.

-Don

 

[turt1e]

After now having adjusted the shocks, I must recant on my previous post. The front rebound adjusters will stop as they make contact with the housing when you hit full soft. The rear rebound adjusters, however, will not stop. If you know where they are now, subtract the difference in sweep counts and adjust .... but if you're anal like me, just go to full stiff and count backwards.

-Don

So in the rear if I kept turning the rebound adjuster it will back out all the way and drop out!! That would be a serious PITA to get back in without having to remove the shocks. So how many "flats" from Hard is the softest setting?

Thanks

 

[Mark Olson]

Something to think about, if you increase the pressure (gas) this will change the effect that the damping/comp setting do. More pressure and the rebound will soften (some) but at the same time the compression will harden.

Buy the way at last weeks (American Autocross) Guy was testing his new ride, and it looked very stiff to me but seem to suit his driving and the flat concrete at Atwater.

 

[DKTZ06]

So in the rear if I kept turning the rebound adjuster it will back out all the way and drop out!! That would be a serious PITA to get back in without having to remove the shocks. So how many "flats" from Hard is the softest setting?

Thanks

28 sweeps from full stiff to full soft. Guy sent me the shocks charged at 120psi. I bled them down to 65psi in the rear and 75psi in the front. The car runs a lot smoother now. I dialed down the rebound to 10 sweeps (from full soft) in the front and 5 sweeps in the rear. The shocks seem to be working much better over bumps and pavement changes. The rebound change helped a lot in that regard. I'm fairly satisfied with this change. I may end up adding more pressure to the fronts if there is too much roll in steady state corners.

 

[DKTZ06]

Something to think about, if you increase the pressure (gas) this will change the effect that the damping/comp setting do. More pressure and the rebound will soften (some) but at the same time the compression will harden.

I was fighting the car at the Houston NT with the settings that Guy set them at. I could not get the front to stop pushing without lowering the bump down all the way. I've heard from a few SS guys that the Penskes actually need lower pressures for auto-x (as opposed to the Konis which need higher pressure). I'll keep testing and tuning and see what seems to be the right setup.

-Don

 

[tigerdrvr]

I thought I'd resucitate this thread rather than start a new one on the subject of the Penske DA shocks.

I finished the install of mine this weekend and am just starting to mess around with them, just a little street driving. Initial settings are 125psi charge, 1 on compression and 7 sweeps on rebound...and I am hitting the splitter/spoiler on bumps that I never did before. I have to imagine either the rebound is too hard or that these shocks, as set, have less compression than stockers?

I bumped the compression to 2 in front and will try that tomorrow. I'm also going to experiment with a higher nitrogen charge all around and then backing the compression all the way down again. With rebound settings in the 5 range, that might just get it, for daily driving.

Next step is a two day, American Autocross Series event next weekend when I can start working on the autocross settings. Good news is that Guy Ankeny, who I got the shocks from, and a bunch of other guys with lots of experience with these shocks will be there and I can get in at least 10 runs a day, so I should learn quite a bit.

Anyone else have any follow ups comments to this old thread?

Mike Wood