My understanding is when fitting emulators, extra holes are required at the base of the damper rod, the reason for this is to allow the oil to be unrestricted by the damper rod and flow freely to the emulator, the emulator with its spring loaded flap then determines how quickly or how slowly the oil flows past the emulator, so emulator is controlling compression damping, how quickly the oil flows back through the small holes around the middle of the emulator is determined by the CST ( centistoke value) of the oil, this is a measure of how easiliy oil flows, this flow back of oil is the rebound damping, it is controlled by the oil CST, not the emulator. Obviously there is a big chuffing spring that also directly affects how much the forks compress and how quickly they want to rebound, so spring weights and spring types are also important.
It really depends on the type of riding you do, going for it in the rough, you'll probably want fairly stiff forks, cruising round nice tarmac, a soft set up, I'm riding on predominantly crap potholes roads and occasional tracks, my personal preference is for a medium to soft medium set up.
At one stage I had 3 sets of forks with different settings to try to find the best. I was rotating forks every other day to test different build ups. My best set up was, and remains, a bespoke Zedling set up, this is matched to my Zedling monoshock, the two together work really well.
Running a Zedling monoshock ( bespoke to my settings) I found:
A. the stock spring, with unchanged damper rod and a change of oil to a CST around the 20-30 mark, sag set to 28% to be an improvement, pretty good.
B.As above but with the heavy spring from HMC, pretty good and even better for my weight.
C.I found the stock spring, damper rod drilled, emulator set to 3 turns and same oil, sag set to 28% very similar to the stock set up.
D.I found that Hitchcocks heavy spring (10% stronger than stock) drilled out base of damper rod, YSS emulator set to 2 1/2 turns and oil with a CST in the 20 to 30 range ( I think I used Motul 5W light fork oil) and adjustable fork cap, setting my sag to 28%, was better for my weight, but again not massively different from the stock variation with the HMC spring.
E.The Zedling set up is simply better than all variations...for me!
My take is; if you are happy with stock, just try a thinner oil, you may find improving the rebound will give you better grip.( others go the other way, with higher CST rated oils, that's a mistake IMHO, with or without an emulator, heavier weight oil is just slowing up rebound damping,)
If your a bit of a unit, try HMC 10% heavier spring and thinner oil. Works pretty good.
I won't push Zedling, even though I think its my best set up, and my reasoning for this is important, its all very subjective, what one person likes or feels, may not suit your needs.
Try simple hacks first, play with fork oil weights, next is new springs, or heavier springs, after that try emulators. Then your into linear, 2 stage or progressive springs, but once a question of springs comes up ( other than HMC 10 stronger, or weaker depending on your weight), probably better to go bespoke.
If you think bespoke is for you, go to those specialist where you live, you'll pay a bit more, but that way you will be able to communicate easier and hopefully find what works for you, just be realistic on what surfaces and how you ride when going bespoke ( over egging your off road riding and abilities will likely result in a set of forks way to stiff for your liking, be honest with yourself and the supplier).
Finally, Himalayan forks are seriously old tech, don't expect to get too much out of them, that doesn't stand for the rear monoshock, there are some good monoshock units out there that are a significant improvement on stock.
That's my take on it all.
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