I got the PM. Thanks Scott.

As I said before man, props on your DIY. It's cool to always try something new.

 

please listen to the moderators.

 

yep no problem Joe

thanks matty. im sticking by my word here too.

and agreed with Joe, cool mod Dr.
keep up the good work

scott

 

Since its probably not in your best interest to sell these could you at least tell us how to make them? Would you be able to make the brackets that go to the shock?

 

Nice DIY Doc!!!!

That type of damper may just work quite well for cars with modest HP gains and good street tires

If you start looking into boost and or R compound tires you will need to do more that just that I learned the hard way.

I went through several design phases and locations for dampers on my Turbo Matrix(250WHP) with Kumho V700 tires in 235/40/17, never got rid of the wheel hop issues. I spent alot of time and a couple of hundred bucks on parts and some machine work.

The wheels would move nearly 2.5" on dyno runs, even with a solid unit at the base of the engine up front. The problem is the upper motor mounts are basically pivot points, the motor rocks back and forth on. The front and rear mounts are what allow it to move so much that the wheel hop and other issues are induced by.

So, I removed the front and rear mounts and since drop in eurathane ones were not available I made my own using two part mold grade eurathane. I went a bit to far and removed all the counter weights and most of the stock rubber and filled the drivers side upper mount as well. The version of filler I used was way to stiff, fixed the problem for sure, put down power much better, better shifting, etc, etc.....

BUT, just starting and idling put the visors into a panic attack, buzzed like crazy along with many other things in the car, I had to pull them out and drill some holes to loosen them up a bit and weld the counter weights back on, then it was sweet.

I used Flexane 92 by Devcon on the Matrix which is quite stiff, probably to stiff. I have the 80 version now for the tC and only plan on doing the front and rear only, leaving all the rubber in place and all the counter weights. This should work out great, will make adjustments if needed but I feel I will have the results I want.

If you really want to fix the problem and have plans for much in the way of power and sticky tires, motor mounts are the way to go.

I will have enough material to fill a second set of mounts when I do mine;)

Rick

 

Trust me on this one, folks-- I don't put a tremendous amount of thought into the design of these things... I just wing it. There's barely enough room to drop a pencil on the lefthand side of the motor-- the design of the brackets came out of that (working within the space) more than anything. So without further ado, I present to you: a terrible drawing!!


I will go so far as to say that you'll need one 3' length of 1/8" x 1" plate steel, about $3.50 at Home Depot. I don't have access to a welder at the moment, so my joints are bolted (there are 2 spots that would otherwise be welded). It's a pretty simple design. Getting each individual damper to fit is the tricky part.

And to whoever mentioned that it will "blow out" because it's an air shock... umm, no. It's an elastomer shock with an air preload. Which is why it's so smoooooooooth, and doesn't make weird rattling noises like some other engine dampers. Just FYI.

 

I certainly hope you were not offended in the least with my comments, I think what you have done is great I know it can work with modest gains, by modest I mean not boosted(well the TRD unit will be something we will find out about someday I hear) but a turbo setup will probably overpower what it can do if you have sticky tires.

I did have an LSD as well and will on the tC shortly, as soon as I have time to install it.

For something dug up from the parts bin, bravo!!!!

Rick

 

No, I understand completely where you're coming from-- pretty much the opposite end of the hallway from me. It is highly unlikely that my tC will ever see anything but city streets, and thanks in large part to my state of residence, there won't be any significant power mods made until the "legal" versions come out-- that's a risk I can't take in this state. The "whoever" I referred to earler was a different person.

 

Cool, just wanted to make sure we were on the right track here buddy I know how you feel, I was busted back in 2002, Novemer 31, my last day in the USNavy, retired with just over 20 years service. My guys at worked bugged me to bring the car in to check it out one last time, it had only been there once due to the Gestapo (spelling?) in the area. Got pulled over for a loud exhuast which was totally BS, it was quieter than stock!

Anyway, got popped, had to pull it all off, see a referee 45 miles away, waited a month for an appointment, cost me a few bucks, had to see a judge, got a $300 suspended fine but 6 months probation, over an f'ing turbo that ran cleaner than all the thoughsands of old beaters coming accross the border everyday. So, I went home and put the turbo back on that night, all night

It was a pain but also was a part that led me to finally decide to get out of there for good.

I was there nearly another year in Oceanside, never pulled over once but only drove on the streets rarely, usually on the way to a show or race.

Rick

 

So I've been driving with the damper installed for about a week now, the first half @ 90psi (which allowed about 1/4" of travel), and the last 2 days @ 150psi, and I have to say 150psi is the ticket. It occured to me that the motor doesn't need to shift anywhere near 1/4" at rest, so I figured I'd up the pressure.

It's like relearning to drive the car... I keep giving it way to much throttle when I take off from intersections-- I feel like I'm launching every time I accelerate from a dead stop. Throttle response is better even at freeway speeds (particularly now with the higher air charge pressure).

Aside from a slightly unnerving noise at startup (the shock appears to lock itself out after sitting idle for a few hours-- so when the motor starts, there's no motion in the mounts at all), there is no downside. As soon as the car moves at all, the scary noise goes away.

I recommend that everyone hit eBay, pick up a cheap shock (air shock is the luxury, air shock w/ clicker adj. damping is the super luxury), $4 worth of 1/8" steel , and rock out. DIY fo life, yo.

 

Being a lifelong DIY guy I certainly appreciate your projects and sharing them with others

Amazing what a simple device can do to transform a car;)

Rick

 

I believe it was my post that was deleted, ooops. I had to speak my mind about it though. You just want to rip people apart who act like that. Anyway, so um since you can't sell these on here, how's about you sell me a really expensive paperclip and include the engine damper as a free gift, hehe, ebay style.

 

or maybe just a donation, and receive the engine damper as a free gift for my really nice donation. I would be donating to the Dr. Isotope xB Modders Foundation.

 

Hey Doc how bout some more pictures of that damper????

 

Ah, it looks right at home.