I finally got around to installing the fluidampr that I had bought several months ago. Initially I was impressed but ran into some issues. Several claims have been made about them including a quieter smoother running engine. Eyes and ears can be deceiving so I figured I would borrow a decibel meter to find out if the engine is actually quieter. More on that below.
I had read other posts where people had some issues with the Damper being loose on install. Mine was compeletely opposite. It was a bear to get started and once I did it took some force to tighten it down with the Damper installer. I have replaced many Factory dampers and never have I found one that was as tight as this one was.
Second After I finally got it installed and was putting the Crank pulley on I ran into two issues with the Bolt holes in the damper. First one of the holes was not tapped deep enough into the balancer and would get to about 3/8 of an inch from being tight before it stopped. Second was a hole that had threads which were not cut well. The threads were there but it looked as if when they were cutting them they were using a dull bit. You could not thread the bolt in more than 1/4 to 1/2 turn before it started binding in the hole.
The other two pulley bolt holes were also tight but the bolt would thread all the way down with a little effort..
First problem I cut about 1/2 inch off the bolt and it allowed it to seat deep enough into the damper with enough threads engaged to hold it.
Luckily I had a m10x1.5 tap from my turbo retrofit and I chased the three good holes and cleaned up the threads in them. The bad hole took about 10 minutes to cut standing on a latter leaning into the engine bay. After tapping everything was able to be threaded in like it should and I torqued them down.
Now as to the claim that the motor is quieter with a fluidampr.
To not skew the results I took several different readings from each side of the engine bay. I fully warmed up the motor before each test and then took the readings. To see what effect the accessories had on noise I took readings both with and without the belt on.
One note is that most will not have readings this loud I am waiting on an exhaust flange for my hx35w so for now it is just dumping into the engine bay. I have no doubt that the readings will be less once I have a functioning downpipe as the readings on the passenger side where the turbo is are about 3 decibels higher than the driver's side.
Factory Damper HPCA Activated Cold Motor Passenger Side 99 Decibels : Driver's Side 97-98 Decibels
Factory Damper Fully Warmed motor HPCA Deactivated Passenger Side 97 Decibels : Drivers Side 94 Decibels
Factory Damper Warm Motor No Belt (Accessories) Passenger side 96 Decibels : Driver's Side 93 Decibels
Fluidampr Fully Warmed Motor No HPCA Passenger Side 96-97 Decibels : Drivers Side 93-94 Decibels
Fluidampr Fully Warmed Motor No Belt (Accessories) Passenger Side 96 Decibels : Drivers Side 92-93 Decibels
So there is about a .5 decibel reduction. Once I have a functioning downpipe I will retake the readings as The ambient noise from the exhaust is skewing the readings making them higher than they would normally be. .5 is barely discernable at that Ambient noise level (90+). So Its hard to say if its the placebo effect that some people are hearing. I will say that it did quiet down my gear drive, It no longer has a metallic sound to it. In fact I cant here it over the diesel rattle now.
I also compared the weight of the two dampers. The stock long snout damper for the Non-electronic motors weighed in at 12.8 lbs. The fluidampr on the other hand weighed in at 18 lbs with the non-electronic spacer for the crank.
There is no Timing notch on my damper however it is scribed with degrees. Those with a Lumy Mag style timing meter will be SOL (Me and my now somewhat useless Snapon MT480) with this damper unless you wish to install your factory damper to time then replace with the fluidampr. This is the latest style I got from PMD Cables Group buy back over the summer. It came fresh from the factory this way. So they evidently redesigned them as some of the older Fluidamprs have the Timing notch.
I cant really comment on acceleration improvements since I dont want to be dumping 800-1000 degree exhaust in my engine compartment. Gonna be a couple weeks yet before I can drive it. Ill update once I get some more readings with the exhaust on.
Would I buy it again...... Yes, however for 400+ for this thing I would expect the quality control to be better. I have seen these in action on Race motors and am a believer in their benefits. At 18 lbs it is almost 50 percent heavier than the factory damper which probably has alot to do with it and i am also a believer in dynamic balancing after playing around with a wheel balancer at a friends shop. So to each his own.
I had read other posts where people had some issues with the Damper being loose on install. Mine was compeletely opposite. It was a bear to get started and once I did it took some force to tighten it down with the Damper installer. I have replaced many Factory dampers and never have I found one that was as tight as this one was.
Second After I finally got it installed and was putting the Crank pulley on I ran into two issues with the Bolt holes in the damper. First one of the holes was not tapped deep enough into the balancer and would get to about 3/8 of an inch from being tight before it stopped. Second was a hole that had threads which were not cut well. The threads were there but it looked as if when they were cutting them they were using a dull bit. You could not thread the bolt in more than 1/4 to 1/2 turn before it started binding in the hole.
The other two pulley bolt holes were also tight but the bolt would thread all the way down with a little effort..
First problem I cut about 1/2 inch off the bolt and it allowed it to seat deep enough into the damper with enough threads engaged to hold it.
Luckily I had a m10x1.5 tap from my turbo retrofit and I chased the three good holes and cleaned up the threads in them. The bad hole took about 10 minutes to cut standing on a latter leaning into the engine bay. After tapping everything was able to be threaded in like it should and I torqued them down.
Now as to the claim that the motor is quieter with a fluidampr.
To not skew the results I took several different readings from each side of the engine bay. I fully warmed up the motor before each test and then took the readings. To see what effect the accessories had on noise I took readings both with and without the belt on.
One note is that most will not have readings this loud I am waiting on an exhaust flange for my hx35w so for now it is just dumping into the engine bay. I have no doubt that the readings will be less once I have a functioning downpipe as the readings on the passenger side where the turbo is are about 3 decibels higher than the driver's side.
Factory Damper HPCA Activated Cold Motor Passenger Side 99 Decibels : Driver's Side 97-98 Decibels
Factory Damper Fully Warmed motor HPCA Deactivated Passenger Side 97 Decibels : Drivers Side 94 Decibels
Factory Damper Warm Motor No Belt (Accessories) Passenger side 96 Decibels : Driver's Side 93 Decibels
Fluidampr Fully Warmed Motor No HPCA Passenger Side 96-97 Decibels : Drivers Side 93-94 Decibels
Fluidampr Fully Warmed Motor No Belt (Accessories) Passenger Side 96 Decibels : Drivers Side 92-93 Decibels
So there is about a .5 decibel reduction. Once I have a functioning downpipe I will retake the readings as The ambient noise from the exhaust is skewing the readings making them higher than they would normally be. .5 is barely discernable at that Ambient noise level (90+). So Its hard to say if its the placebo effect that some people are hearing. I will say that it did quiet down my gear drive, It no longer has a metallic sound to it. In fact I cant here it over the diesel rattle now.
I also compared the weight of the two dampers. The stock long snout damper for the Non-electronic motors weighed in at 12.8 lbs. The fluidampr on the other hand weighed in at 18 lbs with the non-electronic spacer for the crank.
There is no Timing notch on my damper however it is scribed with degrees. Those with a Lumy Mag style timing meter will be SOL (Me and my now somewhat useless Snapon MT480) with this damper unless you wish to install your factory damper to time then replace with the fluidampr. This is the latest style I got from PMD Cables Group buy back over the summer. It came fresh from the factory this way. So they evidently redesigned them as some of the older Fluidamprs have the Timing notch.
I cant really comment on acceleration improvements since I dont want to be dumping 800-1000 degree exhaust in my engine compartment. Gonna be a couple weeks yet before I can drive it. Ill update once I get some more readings with the exhaust on.
Would I buy it again...... Yes, however for 400+ for this thing I would expect the quality control to be better. I have seen these in action on Race motors and am a believer in their benefits. At 18 lbs it is almost 50 percent heavier than the factory damper which probably has alot to do with it and i am also a believer in dynamic balancing after playing around with a wheel balancer at a friends shop. So to each his own.
