Pretty interesting information on how dampers work.
I'm getting close to the time I need to get a harmonic damper and been doing some reading into the fluidampers and rattlers.
I don't know how much energy the viscous fluid dampers eat up compared to the rattlers. I got the impression that the rattlers can return energy to the system, whereas the viscous fluid dampers dissipate it as heat. Is anyone able to either confirm or refute that?
Even if the viscous fluid dampers consume some energy compared to the rattler style, I get the impression that it's a little better for long term life of the engine. I'd love to hear your guys' thoughts and experiences on the matter. I'm going to talk to some of the engineers at work on this over the next few weeks.
Thats why I started use the FD in the first place. I called ATI to order a damper with an 1850 gram bobweight (which is LIGHT for a 340) and a shift RPM of 8500 and they wanted to sell me the same damper they would sell to a guy with a 2000 gram bobweight and shifting at 6800. I called bullcrap and he said it makes no difference. But it does.
I forget the name of the guy who owns Scat Crankshafts, but he did a webinar a few months ago. It was interesting in that he didn’t recommend that ATI damper because of the way it behaves at higher RPM. I know the Pro Stock and Comp guys don’t buy what us mere mortals get.
And I know on the dyno the FD doesn’t make as much power as the ATI. That is because of the limits of water brake dyno testing. When the dyno controls the rate of engine acceleration you have to understand its limits. No engine ever has a steady RPM gain, of say 300 or 600 RPM/second.
That’s why sometimes something makes more power (or less power) on the dyno yet it runs the same at the track. That’s a dyno operator issue, not a dyno issue.
