Piston size and oil thickness

[Dworski]

I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me on this subject.
Wouldn`t putting in pistons with larger holes have the same effect as changing the shockoil to a lighter oil?
And: I notice that some are drilling extra holes in the pistons. Wouldn`t they achive the same effect just by putting in pistons with larger holes?

My last question is: I`m running on a indoor clay track with a bumpy straigth and some big jumps. On the straigth I want the car to go smooth over the bumps(obviousely) and on the jumps I want the car to land smooth and not rebound to quick. Are those to things even possible to achive at the same time?
:-)
So far I have just tried it with 27,5 wt front and back with red springs front and yellow rear. (mid motor car that is) 55 piston front and 54 rear. The car is ok on the long straight but rebounds to quick on harder landings resulting in lost control for a split second.

thanks,
Jon

[Robby]

Originally Posted by Dworski

I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me on this subject.
Wouldn`t putting in pistons with larger holes have the same effect as changing the shockoil to a lighter oil?
And: I notice that some are drilling extra holes in the pistons. Wouldn`t they achive the same effect just by putting in pistons with larger holes?

Yes, that's the basic concept.

Originally Posted by Dworski

My last question is: I`m running on a indoor clay track with a bumpy straigth and some big jumps. On the straigth I want the car to go smooth over the bumps(obviousely) and on the jumps I want the car to land smooth and not rebound to quick. Are those to things even possible to achive at the same time?

Yes and No, at some point or another any set-up is about compromise.
You're asking for perfection, and as one world-class driver was once quoted as saying, "You can't have a perfect set-up unless the track surface is perfect."

Originally Posted by Dworski

So far I have just tried it with 27,5 wt front and back with red springs front and yellow rear. (mid motor car that is) 55 piston front and 54 rear. The car is ok on the long straight but rebounds to quick on harder landings resulting in lost control for a split second.

To me it's about compromising (there's that nasty word again), while figuring out where I lose the most time comparatively.
If I'm losing so much time on the big jumps that I can't make it up with my set-up relative to the rest of the track, then I'll go stiffer so as to not sacrifice so much in the jump section. Whereas if I'm sacrificing so much time on the rest of the track and only the big jump section is perfect, then I'll soften my set-up to gain back time on the rest of the track.
But in few situations have a set of jumps dominated a layout that it was worth having it land perfectly off a couple of big jumps, where the other 75% percent of the layout (where the big jumps didn't come into play) that the rest of the course didn't take precedence and take higher priority in my set-up.

[Razer]

Originally Posted by Dworski

I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me on this subject.
Wouldn`t putting in pistons with larger holes have the same effect as changing the shockoil to a lighter oil?
And: I notice that some are drilling extra holes in the pistons. Wouldn`t they achive the same effect just by putting in pistons with larger holes?

Yes, but no. One thing is the feel of the shock in your hands, but when jumping, landing and riding over bumps the way we do, it's a huge difference.

The thing is, even though it feels the same with a light oil and 4 holes, compared to a heavier oil with 6 holes, try to imagine how this works when you land a jump.

With the fewer holes, you'll have more pack, during compression, the fewer holes make the damper lock up more, even though the oil is lighter.

With heavier oil and more holes, your damper will just compress a lot slower, and not rebound near as quick. This is pretty bad for jumping, and your will feel slow and heavy...

I'd say go with 55 pistons, 27.5 oil, and if you haven't done it yet, change your O-rings. On clay they tend to go sticky after less than a day of driving. Even on astro I change them quite often.

And if this didn't enlighten you, I'll do it in Norwegian tomorrow at the track