Engine Damper

[jjman]

So I put my engine damper in on the weekend.

I am wondering if i have installed it correctly based on the tension that it is at. (of course i have mounted it correctly etc)

Due to the limited adjustment in the thing I would say that there is a reasonable amount of tension/pressure already in it, and therefore on the motor, as i mounted it and did it up- essentially it is pushing on the motor a bit just sitting there.

Is this fine or is it meant to be sitting there with little or no static pressure on the engine?

Not too keen on hurting the engine mounts if this is what might happen based on this scenario...

[SiR_RB]

what do these dampers actualy do anywayz?

[jjman]

they brace the engine to reduce the force of the engine 'torquing' when the accelerator is pressed (ever watched a motor when someone revs it in neutral?- how it rocks from side to side)

so this braces the motor to reduce that thereby reducing stress on the engine mounts and components and also then delivering more of the drive into the transmission and more smoothly...

[75coupe]

the force has to go somewhere, so are you saying that little damper shock takes the punishment...???

wouldn't the damper just put more pressure but less movement on the mounts?

I rarely see these things on big budget builds, if they were a good thing surely the big name workshops would be using them?

[jjman]

the damper just helps in the equation. Not totally taking the punishment.

Also because it is a shock absorbing unit it is taking force not simply resisting the movement and therefor transferring more force to the engine mounts.

All of the physics of it im not sure about, but rationally reducing that overall movement and force on the engine mounts has to be good.

As for how much it does and in comparison to big engine builds i couldnt say. Id say in the process of doing a decent build the engine mounts would be replaced and/or upgraded. This, therefore doing a similar job for the engine movement and corresponding transfer of force into the driveline as the engine damper in my case.

It is noted that if you make it all too stiff (such as through upgrading engine mounts to stiffer ones) it means your get more vibration into the car as a trade off for the stiffness and reduced torquing of the motor.

I noticed this effect myself in that at idle more of the engine vibration is going into the car, however iv also noticed that the accelaration force/driveline is also smoother. The vibration increase is barely noticable and im happy with the improvement so a good mod outcome in my books...

anybody else had experience with engine dampers to either answer my initial question about the mounted tension of my unit or these changed characteristics from it?