Does Fitting An Engine Damper Cause Structual Stress To The Engine?

[sonicz]

I was looking at buying an engine damper for my Skyline. However had a look at where the damper mounts to the engine, and based on the pics it seems to mount somewhere on the head of the engine. I thought Engine Dampers are usually mounted close to the engine mounts, i.e the support would be on the block, not on the head.

It got me thinking, wouldn't this cause extra stress to the head bolts on the side its mounted and cauld cause a failure or damage under hard shifting conditions? Sort of like trying to Pry open the head from the block with a pry bar?

Edited December 26, 2014 by sonicz

[89CAL]

Think about where the pivot point of the engine is and what the damper is actually doing. You are trying to take some load off the engine mounts by 'dampening' the force put on them at a higher point. When the head bolts are done up, the clamping force is strong enough that you aren't really going to bother them at all given the force exerted on them (The damper absorbs some load it doesn't act as a solid brace)

If they caused damage to the engine people wouldn't buy them and use them. As for how much difference they actually make, this I cannot tell you. I have heard some people say they are great and other say they do next to nothing. Without ever having actually fitted one, I cant really be sure

[WantGTR]

I guess you will feel a massive difference if your current engine mounts are sloppy/worn. Probably a better idea to swap them over. The engine bay is crowded enough. Don't need to ad anything unnecessary.

[GTSBoy]

Do you have 500+ ftlb of torque?

If not, then don't bother.

[hardsteppa]

I put in new nismo mounts, and then one of these braces, and did notice a difference with it. My car is auto though, so i couldn't say for manual, but it did get rid of some of the 'slush'. They look like a gas shock but are just a metal rod going into the tube, with a hard rubber block in the middle. So it doesn't actually move more than a couple of mm under compression and fixes the engine in place while still not making it rigid with no vibration/small movement absorption.

[JustinP]

It looks like it bolts to the head where you would usually bolt on the engine removal hook for the drivers side. Given that when removing the engine you are hanging the entire engine (and maybe the gearbox as well) from that same point, I don't think the damper is going to give you much grief! That being said, I don't think I would even bother installing one of these...