Can I mismatch hood struts?

[Daryl]

Replacing my old, rusty MRT hood struts (cheaper to buy a new set vs powder coating). I have 2 new sets to work with: one with Ford Racing stamped struts from a 2014 model ; the other is a Redline Racing for my year car.

Obviously the Redline will work, but I’d really like to have the Ford Racing struts on there. Problem is… the FR struts are considerably shorter. So how can I “Frankenstein” these 2 kits to make this work?

 

[cobrajeff96]

Don't attempt to powder coat gas-filled struts.

 

[castine917]

Replacing my old, rusty MRT hood struts (cheaper to buy a new set vs powder coating). I have 2 new sets to work with: one with Ford Racing stamped struts from a 2014 model ; the other is a Redline Racing for my year car.

Obviously the Redline will work, but I’d really like to have the Ford Racing struts on there. Problem is… the FR struts are considerably shorter. So how can I “Frankenstein” these 2 kits to make this work?

Can you move your mounting points to match thee set you want to use?

 

[Daryl]

Don't attempt to powder coat gas-filled struts.

No, obviously! The bases and hardware

 

[Daryl]

Can you move your mounting points to match thee set you want to use?

I was thinking that’s probably my only option. I’ll measure the difference and see if there are solid mounting points

 

[Daryl]

I decided I would just stick with the kit made for my year car, the Tedline kit, and not try to Frankenstein something then hope it works. If you know my track record on doing such things, you wouldn’t blame me the decision!!

Is there a trick to collapsing the strut (1/2”) so I can pop it onto the hood bracket ball?

 

[cobrajeff96]

Man strength

 

[Daryl]

Thought so, but didn’t want to go animal on it before asking it’s ok. Thx!

 

[cobrajeff96]

It helps to cycle them a few times by just pushing down on it real hard with one end on the ground or against a solid wall.

 

[ttocs]

I would not recommend running two different brands, ages of the shocks or lengths myself. Either of these will lead to it pulling on one side more than the other and in the best case scenario it only ends up warping the hood or something weird or worst case if one binds up you might have a hard time getting the hood up. I would replace them both or not at all.

 

[Daryl]

Done! Stuck with the Redline kit 100%

 

[Daryl]

Does what it’s supposed to, but I immediately noticed that it doesn’t lift the hood near as well as the MRT kit did. With the MRT kit, I’d crack the hood and lift it maybe 12” and the struts would take over from there and raise it all the way up. About the opposite with the Redline kit. The struts don’t seem to kick in until well past the half-way up point. I’m thinking it’s the difference between the shorter, probably stronger MRT struts vs the much longer, weaker Redline struts (geometry)

 

[cobrajeff96]

I went from one Redline kit to the next about 18 months ago. Old one was fine and all but I wanted some extra grunt and the new one certainly had it; launched the hood up the instant I'd unhook the OEM latch. But you see over time as with most things they wear out. 18 months later, I'll now have to lightly assist them by raising the hood about 3 or 4 inches and then they take over (but they don't launch the hood upward anymore, rather it's more like a nice easy lift).