XRAY - Model racing cars

I hear that!

Been using AE oil in the shocks and diffs and it works the same to me. I change shock and diff oil every other race due to how nasty looking it gets by letting it go any longer then that. I doubt I would notice a quality difference in oils changing as often as I like to so getting 3x as much oil for 1/3 the cost is better for me.

Also I use a light smear of grease on the diff gears which will change the characteristics of the oil slightly so if what makes the Xray oil so good is it being consistent when rated on the world accepted CST scale that still wouldnt make me choose it over the cost savings in other brands.

As far as the shocks go I think they are big enough as they are and in between the older smaller style and the huge style currently coming out. They feel great as they are with the 4 holes that I drilled in the pistons and the quality seems there.

I do hate the rinky dink G-clip they use to retain the O-rings but I cant say I have had any issue with it so it must work just fine the way it is. I did find that I have to adjust the plastic shims after installation so that they arent tilted cause I found that causes the shafts to bind a very tinny bit and throws off how much the rebound once bled. This threw me off for a long time and I couldnt figure why if all shocks were bled the same how some would rebound more or less but then found it was due to the tilted shims.

I'm, uhhh, not sure about the whole dead spot thing....

The bladders, you'd be surprised, Ralph was telling me that Teemu Leino (the onroad driver that won the foam class at the IIC) replaced his bladders every day... I'm not saying do that, but the bladders do have a significant impact on how the shocks work. I am going to be replacing the bladders before every race after seeing how brand new ones changed my car.

I wouldn't suggest a hole in the cap, because (like I said) these bladders have a very significant affect on the shock. If anything I would run some foam inserts in the shocks (that go between the bladder and the cap) like we run in the on-road car.

Gonna change my bladders next time then. That may take care of my dead spot feel becuase it could in some way be linked to a stretched bladder or something.

I didnt know that the bladders had such an impact like this. I figured if they arent leaking they would be ok but I guess not. I will buy some more spares to keep doing this on a regular basis.