Hmmm . . . If the trans. Y brace is there to protect the exhaust flex joints from the motor twisting due to the soft motor mounts, I wonder if maybe putting the engine dampener on would allow me to forego reinstalling the Y brace in order to protect my flex joints, since the dampener would be "nippin' it in the bud" as Barney Fife would say?

All of these discussions seem to be connected in relation to the problem of engine vibration:
1-They made the motor mounts soft to keep cabin vibration down
2-That in turn made the twisting of the motor tear up the exhaust flex joints (which is what happened to me after around 4k miles w/o the trans. Y brace).
3-So then they put the trans. Y brace in to stop the destruction of the flex joints
4-But the Y brace transmits all the vibration of the engine directly into the trans. and up through the shifter into your hand, which not only makes your hand numb but can't be too good for the tranny either.
5-At this point, Nissan obviously said "f@# it, close enough" and here we are.
Who knows . . . maybe they tried the dampener idea too but then noticed other problems such as mentioned in the previous posts such as more cabin vibrations, vibrations in the gas pedal at certain rps, and so on.

Looks to me like a long string of "solving one problem and creating another."

Is anyone else out there running w/o the Y brace, and have you had any problems with your flex joints or anything else after a few thousand miles? If so, your input would be most appreciated.

 

I have not noticed any increase in vibration after doing the dampener.

I also noticed that the movement I was getting in my shifter is now virtually gone. As in, when I engaged the clutch and gave it some throttle in low gears, I would feel the shifter move around (usually it would pull towards the front a little). Now it's basically stable and smooth all the time.

I also know that if the engine is being allowed to twist around then that is wasted energy that could be going to the wheels. No sir not anymore, not on my car

 

can't wait to install on mine now
Hope the rattle from my Short shift will dissapear Btw let us know when u install the Flywheels will have a faint Cement mixer sound like after the Engine Dampener

Cheers

 

cement sound still there.....but if you know anything about the Z and you hear it youll stay away....LOL

 

Ic Does it Quiet it down abit though? Or it's nothing different?

 

I don't think that putting the engine damper on will help with the rattle sound of a short shifter. I'm unaware of anything really that helps with the short shift rattle. One of the reasons I got rid of my B/M.
But my stock one does it too every now and then, but it's usually only if my TI **** is loosened a tad bit or something...

 

No noticeable cabin vibration? Great!

If your shifter movement is gone, it would seem that if you're doing a hard shift you would be less likely to miss a gear since everytime you go to shift and lift throttle then the engine's flopping around and consequently twisting the tranny around with it and if you're going for say 2nd gear and the tranny MOVES while you're doing it then the "slot" on the shifter you were going for is no longer in the same place as it was just before you lifted the throttle!

Which must be why - I swear - I miss less gears SPEED SHIFTING than I ever do lifting the throttle!

 

I see where several of you making posts are running the (Kinetix?) hi-flow cat's. What did you do about the trans. Y brace not being able to mount to the hi-flow cat's? I left mine off, but now some 4k miles later my flex joints are making noise and the wire mesh around them is deteriorating. I sure would like to hear from others who are running the hi-flow cat's to see how you dealt with this dilemma . . .

 

LOL!~

 

Installed my Stillen Engine Damper last week...

Noticed a slight vibration at start up and at low RPM's...

The "Jerky-ness" from not rev-matching exactly with the Tilton set up is less noticible...

Flywheel chatter is reduced slightly as well as vibration in the shift ****...

A++++ on this mod in my book for cost & function value!

 

I know this is off-topic from the engine damper discussion, but folks have brought it up so I wanted to continue with it. I'm not seeing how using (or not using) the cat-tranny brace would affect the y-pipe flex pipes. The cats (whether stock or aftermarket) are rigid pieces that don't flex. To my knowledge, the only reason that cat-tranny brace is there is to take some of the load off the cats that the exhaust might place on them. Seems like any stresses on the y-pipe flex pipes would be the same regardless.

However, one thing to note: Kinetx cats are often known for a very slight fitment issue. On mine, they were very *slightly* angled inward by a degree or so. It's very slight, but when you bolt down the y-pipe to it squishes the flex pipes a bit since they have to compensate for the weird cat angles. I guess over time this could wear out the flex pipes a bit. However, I had my Kinetix cats on my stock exhaust for maybe 7 or 8 thousand miles and had no problems. I only took them off when I got my Nismo because the Nismo is too loud with anything other than stock cats.

 

Well I did have some success with quieting my B&M down significantly, although there is still some rattling at WOT. The most effective things I have done so far were to replace the lube with thick high temperature grease, and wrap the spring with a thin duct tape. I'm still trying to find a solution for dampening the metal sleeve and bolt, which I believe is the last thing that I need to do, more details in this thread

 

I believe the the OE cat brace was probably multi purpose: help support/stabilize the ultra heavy stock ypipe and also help with engine torque.

Going with an aftermarket ypipe or catback system eliminates the first issue, and the dampener takes care of the second

 

Same: the faster I shift, especially speed shifting at high RPM's (drag racing) it shifts so smooth and nice, like a quality transmission!

The original transmission ('03 model) seemed to do better on slower and lower RPM shifts and would sometimes miss 3rd trying to drag race. It finally went out and I got the new one installed about 3 weeks ago. Now, it likes high speed/RPM fast shifts and is notchy on slow and easy shifts especially when cold, I need to upgrade my tranny/rear oils.

If the engine damper will just take vibration outta my shifter I will be happy. That is all I want it to do for now, and later when I install an upper intake plenum it will be in place to help prevent the rubbing due to the very close tolerances. And I am not paying $320 or whatever for blue paint (5Zigen), Stillen FTW, I like red better anyway for my engine bay theme.

 

Xephiron, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the vibration in the shifter is from the Y brace on the transmission that bolts the cat's to the tranny. My Kinetix cat's did not come with brackets, so I left the Y brace off and immediatly noticed that all the shifter vibration had vanished!

I just got off the phone with Kinetix (been trying for days to get them) and I spoke with the guy who does most of the actual fabrication on the cat's and he said that they stopped putting mount points on the cat's many months ago and have had no reports of flex joint problems like I thought I had. But like he said maybe it's just my underside heat shield rubbing or something which I'll be able to determine in a couple of days when it goes up on a rack.

 

Close on the first one: Kinetix said the Y brace was there to add extra support for the heavy-*** factory cat's, and since the hi-flows are lighter weight it's not really needed.

On the second statement, I do have a Nismo cat-back (maybe not truly aftermarket, but not the original).

 

jreiter, you're right on that first part; I just got off the phone with Kinetix's main fabricator who does most of the cat's and he said they stopped putting mounting points on the hi-flow cat's somthing like 6 mos. ago. He said the Y brace was there to help support the heavy OEM cat's, and since the hi-flow's are lighter the Y brace is not really needed. And he said they've run cars w/o the Y brace for thousands of miles with no problems, so maybe, hopefully, it's just a heat shield rubbing or something. Weird how spraying the flex joints with dry graphite spray seemed to help though . . .

I'll have it on a rack Thurs. or Fri. and should be able to get to the bottom of it then.
(Note: your second statement about fitment doesn't apply here since I have no bracket on my Kinetix cat's).

PS- No offense, but I don't see how this is all that far off subject, for we're talking engine vibration & engine movement, and some have even referred to it as one in the same. Furthermore a lot of people are mistakenly thinking and hoping that the dampener will stop the shifter vibration problem which is not going to happen because that's all from the Y brace.

 

Well, I don't have those support brackets either, and my Kinetix have the slight fitment issue I mentioned up above. I was speaking from first hand experience. It's not a huge problem, and the flex joints in the y-pipe compensate for the bad fitment of the cats. However, I did try to use a Kinetix y-pipe and it rubbed due to that improper cat fitment. The Kinetix y-pipe doesn't follow the normal shape, but is actually in the form of a Y. This means it passes much closer to the bottom of the car and doesn't run inside of the normal "tunnel" that other y-pipes use. The driver's side of the y-pipe was pushed up just slightly enough that it rubbed the underside of the car.

 

Not doubting you on the fitment problem. Just curious: Were you bolting them to a stock y pipe (before you tried the Kinetix), or something aftermarket?
Thanks for the warning!

 

jreiter:

RE: (Note: your second statement about fitment doesn't apply here since I have no bracket on my Kinetix cat's)."

Scratch that; my bad. I was thinking of the fitment of the Y brace to the cat's, but upon re-examination I see you were referring to bolting the cat's to the y-PIPE.