This: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/pfs-80000/reviews/

vs: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/a...make/chevrolet

vs: ?

I'm OK spending a little extra $ for something noticeably better in some way.

 

To answer your question, no. All dampers are not created equal.
As it was taught to me, when you're talking about the OEM stuff, it's been demonstrated that the largest heaviest available produced the better ETs. A little counter intuitive isn't it? This is mostly in reference to your mild street build.
Outside of that, when getting into the aftermarket, I'm a name brand with a proven reputation kind of person. And SFI approved too if it doesn't break the bank. An SFI Fluipdamper is what I have on the current lump now.
As for Professional Products, isn't there something floating around the internet about their not being the best? From a durability standpoint?

 

This seems like a good price for a Fluidamper but they sure are expensive. I would love the engine to be smoother if this helps. Maybe this is not for that.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/f...maro/year/1988

 

Nothing bad to say about them.
Thing is, with a damper, you never really know if its doing a good job or not as long as the crank doesn't break. The real benefit is one which does a good enough job so as to keep whatever oscillations to a minimum and prevent them from being transferred to the cam and valve train. It's valve train stability that is affected the most and this is where the performance gains are found. But again, this being a mild street build, with little or no time spent above 6000 RPM, that part of the decision making process isn't quite as critical as it would be for an all out racing effort.
Select a new, name brand balancer, skip the SFI rating and go with that. The OEM units do a perfectly functional job in that regard.

PS. Keep in mind that your choice in damper may affect the timing pointer location. It'll help to verify your TDC , check where the timing marks are relative to the keyway and try to ensure your replacement is the same. Otherwise, as I've done, a custom pointer may need to be installed and TDC aligned appropriately.

 

I am running the Delco OE balancer you linked.

I see no reason for your build do to anything else but use the OE one really. It works, well, isn't too expensive, and is tried and tested. I doubt 6k rpm will be a common thing.

Don't expect to throw an extra $200 at a damper and make the engine noticeably smoother or anything.

 

x2 a good balance job will get you a smoother engine
As said no need for a super expensive one for regualr duty but the cheap ones, like converters they are cheap for a reason.
Had one come apart on me it was like a small grenade went off, caused a ton of damage

 

Great info. Ill stick to a quality OE one.

 

Good choice Tootie. But to add to what the others have said -
Stay away from Professional Products - a friend of mine had one come apart.
Fluid Dampr has a street version that is less expensive. https://fluidampr.com/streetdampr/
Do you really need it? Probably not. I just thought you might like the option.

Streetdampr

Designed just for mildly built small block Chevys and Fords Streetdampr harmonic dampers use silicone fluid in a sealed, laser-welded housing to control crankshaft vibration at all engine rpm, just like their race-ready brothers. That means more accurate spark and valve timing and reduced bearing and valvetrain wear. About the only difference between the Streetdampr and Fluidampr is that the Streetdamprs are not SFI-approved for racing.

 

Anything I care about gets a Fluidampr. SFI approved, and they etch it right into the unit. The ATI units have a sticker which likes to fall off and then they have to be "tuned" with different "elastomers" (o-rings ). The build quality of the Fluidampr sells itself once you have seen it in person.

GD

 

Harmonic Balancers are one of those things that will "speak" to me from the back of my mind, like an angel or a devil on my shoulder, every time I punch the throttle. I'm going to step up to the Fluidamper and sleep a tiny bit better at night even though I'll be a little bit poorer while I am awake. BTW, this is a good video on the topic.

 

I put a FluidDampner on my C3 Corvette and it's a nice piece but hindsight tells me a nice large OEM style form someone like Pioneer would have worked just as well and saved me at least a 100 bucks.

As enthusiestes we are bombarded by vendor advertising for using the best and not much for what is good enough. What the FluidDampner does going for it is that it should live well enough for the next engine you build. If you have future plans for building a sbc then it's a practical buy. If your on on a budget then a Pioneer dampner is all that's needed.

 

any group thoughts on the PowerBond dampers by Dayco ?
http://www.daycoproducts.com/powerbo...monic-balancer

 

IROCZman, you have a serious engine and need a serious damper. I'd get ATI. Don't order from catalog. Call them up and get custom advice which rubber durometer to order. You'll likely need to rebuild it every 5 years to keep it working in top condition.

 

The Fluidampr doesn't require tuning or rebuilding.

GD

 

Fluidampr is a great product. It does have a long lifespan. It's a fantastic jack of all trades. Fluidampr can overheat during racing (depending what you're doing). And it's not tunable if your engine exceeds its capability (unless they happen to sell a different model that will work for you).

ATI can do a better job of controlling amplitude of oscillation in particular operating conditions. They can easily customize the product for you (both fit and function). But it will require a lot of maintenance over time. And it may not work real well in other driving conditions, but maybe not a big deal if it's not a condition where the engine dwells.

Each has pros and cons. You just have to figure out which aspects are more important to you.

Here's the thing... You can buy a Fluidampr for your stock 200 Hp 305 and it will work fantastic. Now pretend you work for Chevrolet and you go to Fluidampr to spec out a damper for a new engine program using a 421 cubic inch stroker on nitrous. You really think you would walk away with the same part? Hell no.

Now I don't have money to pay Fluidampr to design a product for my homebuilt frankenstein engine. But I can call ATI and get some level of customization for me.

 

The idea behind the Fluidampr is that it is self tuning due to the nature of its moving counter-balance and damping fluid.... Now I personally haven't heard of overheating problems but I suppose that's a possibility but would be a result of insufficient cooling of the engine, engine oil, or engine bay which is an external factor that I would address separately. The ATI can be tuned to a specific frequency but again - it can't self adjust to higher or lower resonance frequencies. The Fluidampr can do this.

GD

 

The posts above raise an interesting point. At least interesting to me anyway.
Will the Fluidamper on the nose of my Gen 1 350 still do what it's supposed to do when it's transferred over to the (proposed) 383?
Never thought about being an issue one way or another.

 

According to the manufacturer, yes. Unlike the ATI it does not require tuning. It is self tuning by the very nature of it's construction. By not having a single elastomer that is tuned to cancel one specific resonance, it can adjust to cancel all harmonics at all frequencies. Of course it has a range and that range is designed to encompass the vast majority of engines - from stock to race. I would venture to say that anything considered a "street" engine would be well within that range.

GD

 

Much of the heat is generated inside the viscous damper. It's a little friction machine. The more crankshaft oscillations the damper experiences, the more the fluid temp will rise. The fluid can overheat if the damper can't dissipate the heat adequately. That's why you'll see cooling fins on Fluidampr used with heavy duty applications. Your sweet little hot rod engine might be more than what the off-the-shelf damper was meant for.

Fluidampr doesn't "self tune". It just does what it does. Same with ATI or any damper, it just does what it does. And none of them can control all vibrations.

The crankshaft is getting a bunch of force inputs at different frequencies that causes torsional vibration. These are basically short little oscillations of the crankshaft clockwise and counter-clockwise. The engine will be happy as long as the amplitude of the oscillations are kept under a certain threshold. But if the oscillations get radical enough, then the engine begins to accumulate "damage". Once the damage accumulates to a certain level then parts begin to break. If the amplitude of oscillations are close to the threshold where damage begins to accumulate, then damage will accumulate slowly over a long period of time. If the oscillations have huge amplitude, then damage will accumulate very fast and parts fail in a short amount of time.

So.... what's the damper doing? It changes how the crankshaft responds to all the inputs, and hopefully reduces the amplitude of the oscillations.

Fluidampr will knock down the amplitude of crankshaft oscillations across a huge range of frequencies. That's one of its big selling points. But the question is, can it knock it down enough to get below the threshold where damage accumulates? For many engines the answer is yes. But that's not always the case when it comes to high performance engines that are beyond the norm.

ATI has an elastic damper that can knock down big levels of amplitude but only in a narrow band of frequencies. They try to cover the whole range of engine operation by installing multiple elastics within the damper that are tuned at different frequency ranges. It can't cover the wide range of frequency as well as Fluidampr, but they can achieve more damping where it counts. And it may not matter in the other areas as long as the vibration amplitude (or duration of time) is lower than the damage threshold. So ATI is trying to highly attenuate vibration where you need it most, and worrying less about vibration where you need it least.

Yeah.... I think that's over optimistic. ATI dominates racing. Even the OEM's using Fluidamr will change over to ATI when they go racing.

 

They dont have bolts that back out so the dampner flys apart either
Streetdamnper I have now is on its 3rd engine sees over 7k often smooth as silk.
Fluidampner obviously better will use one on the next mill.

 

Ya, it will probably be fine if the engine isn't too wild.

See, that's the subjective part. None of us actually do testing to figure these things out ahead of time.... We all just find out after our sh** breaks, right?