What shocks do I buy?

[Chris Cole]

I own a 1990 Chevy K1500 Silverado 4WD, 5.7L 350 V8. I am installing a leveling kit on it with a 3" in the front and 2" in the rear. I need to know what shocks to buy as the ones now are 30 years old. My budget is to stay between $50-$300. Anything helps.

 

[df2x4]

If this "leveling kit" consists of torsion bar keys in the front and lift blocks in the rear, do yourself a favor and don't buy it. Aftermarket keys offer zero improvement or height gain over the stock ones on these trucks. You can crank to the droop stops with factory keys, and the aftermarket ones aren't going to ride any better. Cranking up 3" in the front is going to ride awful. My suggestion would be to crank the front up no more than 2" on the factory keys and leave the rear alone. That will level the truck as the rear rides about 1.5-2" higher than the front from the factory. The ride quality is still going to suck.

All that said, Bilstein makes the best shocks for these trucks IMO. I run the 4600 series on both of my '97s and they're great.

 

[Chris Cole]

OK. Thank you so much for the response. I will crank the factory keys then.

 

[Chris Cole]

I have settled on these shocks. The spring assisted ones in the rear and the regular shocks in the front. Is it an issue if I mix two brands of shocks? Are these two brands reliable?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C53RVM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077NM6VTC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A22LWEMCXESXCG&psc=1

 

[Eveready]

It never ceases to amaze me when someone asks for advice here, gets really good advice, and then proceeds to announce that they are not following the advice. I guess the Monroe shocks would be better than 30 plus year old originals but not for long. I guess the other possibility is that the post is not so subtle SPAM.

 

[CHEVYS4ME]

Fronts are ok. I don't like Monroe shocks at all.

 

[alpinecrick]

I own a 1990 Chevy K1500 Silverado 4WD, 5.7L 350 V8. I am installing a leveling kit on it with a 3" in the front and 2" in the rear. I need to know what shocks to buy as the ones now are 30 years old. My budget is to stay between $50-$300. Anything helps.

There's Bilsteins, and there is everybody else.

I wouldn't trust those Monroes as far as you could bounce them..........

 

[df2x4]

There's Bilsteins, and there is everybody else.

I wouldn't trust those Monroes as far as you could bounce them..........

X2.

 

[454cid]

Those KYBs aren't that great, and definitely not that price. That's KYB's base shock, and they're $20 each on Rockauto.... under $50 for a pair shipped to me.

They're probably a decent base shock, but when I removed my Bilsteins that I assumed were getting tired, the Bilsteins required more effort to compress than the brand new KYBs. I cleaned up the Bilsteins and put them on my parts shelf. I've been thinking of putting them back on the truck.

I'd stay away from those spring shocks. The shock mounts may not handle the extra force the springs put on them for long.

 

[delta_p]

I run KYB excel G on front and rear on my '96. I've always run them on everything I've replaced shocks on over the years. Don't know if their worse than Bilsteins, never tried anything but KYB.