Has anyone drilled holes in the shock piston set included with the Mojave EXB?

[Knightfall]

A set of plastic plates (example pictured above) were in the box with my Mojave EXB. It took some time to realize they were for my shocks. So far, I've learned this much:

• 4x 1.2mm pistons (2 are already mounted in the front shocks)
• 4x 1.3mm pistons
• 4x 1.4mm pistons (2 are already mounted in the rear shocks)
• Another 4 blank ones to drill your own

I'm playing around and really didn't find a difference between the 1.2s from the 1.4s in the rear. Visually I just can't see the difference in hole size, but I suppose 0.2 to 0.4 of a millimetre is pretty minute.

Has anyone drilled their own holes in the blank plates? I saw a thread from four years ago but no one said they actually did this, just that you can.

Is it worthwhile doing? Or should I just head to my LHS and spend $10 (Canadian) on heavier oil? I'm trying to add some strength to the rear end of my Mojave.

 

[KnowAir]

View attachment 231190
A set of plastic plates (example pictured above) were in the box with my Mojave EXB. It took some time to realize they were for my shocks. So far, I've learned this much:

• 4x 1.2mm pistons (2 are already mounted in the front shocks)
• 4x 1.3mm pistons
• 4x 1.4mm pistons (2 are already mounted in the rear shocks)
• Another 4 blank ones to drill your own

I'm playing around and really didn't find a difference between the 1.2s from the 1.4s in the rear. Visually I just can't see the difference in hole size, but I suppose 0.2 to 0.4 of a millimetre is pretty minute.

Has anyone drilled their own holes in the blank plates? I saw a thread from four years ago but no one said they actually did this, just that you can.

Is it worthwhile doing? Or should I just head to my LHS and spend $10 (Canadian) on heavier oil? I'm trying to add some strength to the rear end of my Mojave.

I usually just change fluid weight to tune and save the extra pistons for if/when I break one..
The extra pistons make good washers and spacers too

 

[Hector_Fisher]

Curious as well. I remember a @razorrc video a while back where he recommended softening up the shocks by drilling 2 extra holes in the pistons (from 4 to 6). Can't remember which truck it was. But that's a 50% increase, so i could see that being more noticeable. 1.2 to 1.4mm is only 17%, so probably why it's not as noticeable.

I usually just change fluid weight to tune and save the extra pistons for if/when I break one..
The extra pistons make good washers and spacers too

That's kind of what i was thinking. Is there any reason you would want to modify pistons instead of just change the shock oil? (it might be slightly cheaper to try and reuse shock oil and then just add a little extra when filling back up after you drill holes)

 

[Knightfall]

there any reason you would want to modify pistons instead of just change the shock oil? (it might be slightly cheaper to try and reuse shock oil and then just add a little extra when filling back up after you drill holes)

Simply curious, really. It's not expensive or a big distance for me to travel to get thicker oil. These came with the Mojave so I wondered if anyone bothered with them.

 

[Hector_Fisher]

Simply curious, really. It's not expensive or a big distance for me to travel to get thicker oil. These came with the Mojave so I wondered if anyone bothered with them.

The question was more of a rhetorical one... Wondering if there are any specific circumstances under which it would be a good to drill holes instead of switching oil, or vice versa.

 

[KnowAir]

Curious as well. I remember a @razorrc video a while back where he recommended softening up the shocks by drilling 2 extra holes in the pistons (from 4 to 6). Can't remember which truck it was. But that's a 50% increase, so i could see that being more noticeable. 1.2 to 1.4mm is only 17%, so probably why it's not as noticeable.


That's kind of what i was thinking. Is there any reason you would want to modify pistons instead of just change the shock oil? (it might be slightly cheaper to try and reuse shock oil and then just add a little extra when filling back up after you drill holes)

Ive done some experiments with drilling out the pistons on kaiju and xmaxx..
With the kaiju, the stock setup is waay too slow for my liking. So rather than put thin oil in, which would almost certainly leak out eventually, I drilled the pistons to speed up the shocks without using thin oil. Has worked out well there.
On the X, stock setup is great for me, unfortunately the front shocks were leaking in the box, before I even bought it..I've put new seals in and they still leak..so, drill the pistons, swapped in some 60 weight (stock is 30) still leaking past the shaft seals..IDK. I gave up, she's just a filthy pig with oil all over the front suspension now
I just top em off from time to time.

 

[Hector_Fisher]

Ive done some experiments with drilling out the pistons on kaiju and xmaxx..
With the kaiju, the stock setup is waay too slow for my liking. So rather than put thin oil in, which would almost certainly leak out eventually, I drilled the pistons to speed up the shocks without using thin oil. Has worked out well there.
On the X, stock setup is great for me, unfortunately the front shocks were leaking in the box, before I even bought it..I've put new seals in and they still leak..so, drill the pistons, swapped in some 60 weight (stock is 30) still leaking past the shaft seals..IDK. I gave up, she's just a filthy pig with oil all over the front suspension now
I just top em off from time to time.

Same with my MT410... The shock bladders keep getting unseated for some reason and then oil spurts out of the shock cap relief hole. Super messy.... And yes, i think i remember now razor's video being about the kaiju where he drilled the extra holes. Agreed, the kaiju is suuuuper slow on the rebound.

Interesting idea about the thicker shock oil though. thinking a little more deeply on this, and I realized that might be an opportunity to consolidate to one type of shock oil. I'm sure the hardcore racers would murder me for that... But you could just run 50 or 60wt oil in all your rigs and then tune the shock pistons accordingly.

I'm actually kind of liking that idea....

 

[KnowAir]

Same with my MT410... The shock bladders keep getting unseated for some reason and then oil spurts out of the shock cap relief hole. Super messy.... And yes, i think i remember now razor's video being about the kaiju where he drilled the extra holes. Agreed, the kaiju is suuuuper slow on the rebound.

Interesting idea about the thicker shock oil though. thinking a little more deeply on this, and I realized that might be an opportunity to consolidate to one type of shock oil. I'm sure the hardcore racers would murder me for that... But you could just run 50 or 60wt oil in all your rigs and then tune the shock pistons accordingly.

I'm actually kind of liking that idea....

Bingo!! I have a crap ton of 50 and 60 weight, and virtually no others for the reason that thin fluids leak past worn seals much quicker. My maintenance program is fix when needed, soo..
With the mt410, only leaks I've had were a loose lower seal cap and a broken one, which it's currently sidelined because of..awaiting As Slow As Possible hobbies.com on parts for a week now..

 

[razorrc]

Curious as well. I remember a @razorrc video a while back where he recommended softening up the shocks by drilling 2 extra holes in the pistons (from 4 to 6). Can't remember which truck it was. But that's a 50% increase, so i could see that being more noticeable. 1.2 to 1.4mm is only 17%, so probably why it's not as noticeable.


That's kind of what i was thinking. Is there any reason you would want to modify pistons instead of just change the shock oil? (it might be slightly cheaper to try and reuse shock oil and then just add a little extra when filling back up after you drill holes)

Yeah, that was the Kaiju. I do lots of shock tuning with all my cars.

Piston hole size is a long topic, but the basics is that shocks perform differently at different piston speeds, in other words they might dampen one way at slow shock movements (driving over rough terrain, braking, rolling side to side) and dampen different at high shock movements (landing huge jumps).

Thick oil and big holes might act the same as thin oil and small oils at normal driving, but will "pack" differently when landing huge jumps.

In general, the smaller holes will pack faster even with light oil. So if you want it soft and light on rough terrain AND you want it to pack and stiffen dramatically when landing huge jumps, you would want many small holes and light oil.

So the whole art to shock tuning is getting the right damping characteristics across the whole range/spectrum of all of the piston speeds in every situation where the shock does something. And the shocks do tons of stuff in all phases of driving (acceleration, braking, rolling side-to-side, absorbing terrain, landing jumps). Add in a million other adjustments (spring rate, spring progression, low-frequency/high-frequency springs, shock mounting location, piston thickness, piston taper, shock shaft thickness, in addition to obviously oil viscosity), and it gets extremely complicated extremely fast.

Or you could just run 80wt and call it a day.

 

[Knightfall]

Yeah, that was the Kaiju. I do lots of shock tuning with all my cars.

Piston hole size is a long topic, but the basics is that shocks perform differently at different piston speeds, in other words they might dampen one way at slow shock movements (driving over rough terrain, braking, rolling side to side) and dampen different at high shock movements (landing huge jumps).

Thick oil and big holes might act the same as thin oil and small oils at normal driving, but will "pack" differently when landing huge jumps.

In general, the smaller holes will pack faster even with light oil. So if you want it soft and light on rough terrain AND you want it to pack and stiffen dramatically when landing huge jumps, you would want many small holes and light oil.

So the whole art to shock tuning is getting the right damping characteristics across the whole range/spectrum of all of the piston speeds in every situation where the shock does something. And the shocks do tons of stuff in all phases of driving (acceleration, braking, rolling side-to-side, absorbing terrain, landing jumps). Add in a million other adjustments (spring rate, spring progression, low-frequency/high-frequency springs, shock mounting location, piston thickness, piston taper, shock shaft thickness, in addition to obviously oil viscosity), and it gets extremely complicated extremely fast.

Or you could just run 80wt and call it a day.

Ha! I think the 70 or 80w is what I leading up to. Plus as I kept looking online, seems a good majority of people are happy with that weight.

What helps kick-up in the rear? Should I keep the front end with heavier, lighter, or equal weight in the shocks?

 

[KnowAir]

Yeah, that was the Kaiju. I do lots of shock tuning with all my cars.

Piston hole size is a long topic, but the basics is that shocks perform differently at different piston speeds, in other words they might dampen one way at slow shock movements (driving over rough terrain, braking, rolling side to side) and dampen different at high shock movements (landing huge jumps).

Thick oil and big holes might act the same as thin oil and small oils at normal driving, but will "pack" differently when landing huge jumps.

In general, the smaller holes will pack faster even with light oil. So if you want it soft and light on rough terrain AND you want it to pack and stiffen dramatically when landing huge jumps, you would want many small holes and light oil.

So the whole art to shock tuning is getting the right damping characteristics across the whole range/spectrum of all of the piston speeds in every situation where the shock does something. And the shocks do tons of stuff in all phases of driving (acceleration, braking, rolling side-to-side, absorbing terrain, landing jumps). Add in a million other adjustments (spring rate, spring progression, low-frequency/high-frequency springs, shock mounting location, piston thickness, piston taper, shock shaft thickness, in addition to obviously oil viscosity), and it gets extremely complicated extremely fast.

Or you could just run 80wt and call it a day.

Like me? AKA "Meathead"

 

[razorrc]

Ha! I think the 70 or 80w is what I leading up to. Plus as I kept looking online, seems a good majority of people are happy with that weight.

What helps kick-up in the rear? Should I keep the front end with heavier, lighter, or equal weight in the shocks?

I've never driven a Mojave or seen one in action, so I have no idea what that truck needs.