General Choosing The Right Oil For Shocks

[bigone5500]

How do you determine the right viscosity of oil for a particular model? What factors are involved in making this decision? I ask this because I need to refill the shocks on this bandit I bought.

 

[Tony]

It is all about testing. I always start with 40wt and go from there. If I notice after a jump that it bounces up like the tires are forcing it up, then I will either go down on the weight of the shock oil, or I will go with a larger diameter hole in the shock piston. If the vehicle is bottoming out, then I will either go with heavier oil, smaller holes or even stiffer springs. It really just depends on how it responds.

Now this is not the only factors to consider for shock oil. Transitions going into a turn, transitions in the center of a turn and transitions exiting the turn also play a huge role in oil selection.

But for a beater, just go with 40wt and stick with a middle size on the pistons and you should be golden.

 

[bigone5500]

When you say middle size do you mean the two hole pistons?

 

[Tony]

Pistons usually come not only with two or three holes, but also the diameter of the holes can vary. You can also drill out the holes, put chamfers on them and so on to tune them exactly to what you want the vehicle to do. Now this is way beyond anything that any normal sane person would do to a backyard basher, but coming from a racing guy like myself, it's what I think of.

Since this is for that buggy, see if you can get a shock rebuild kit with tool (little thing to help seat the O-Rings in the base), rebuild the shocks and just put some 40wt in there. You should be fine. You can even skip the rebuild kit and just put the oil in there and see what ones leak and only fix those.

 

[bigone5500]

These shocks don't have signs of leakage. However, they are not full. I took the tops off a couple and the least was about 5/8 full, maybe 3/4.

Any shock oil should work right? Is there a better brand? Where is the cheapest place you have purchased yours?

Thanks Tony.

 

[Tony]

I only use Team Losi oil. As for cheapest, not sure. I just get it from the LHS.

 

[bigone5500]

I went with 40wt. silicone shock oil. It's not the team losi stuff but should be just as good. It's made by Lucas so I know it's good quality.

 

[Tony]

Actually it's Factory Team Associated where the product is made by Lucas. And it's pretty good oil, but in my testing cavitation is worse with Associated vs losi.