Stillen Engine damper... WTF!!!
Stillen Engine damper... WTF!!!
WTF HAPPENED TO MY ENGINE DAMPER?
I am going to send an email to them. I expected a much better quality from a such a reputed company.
I didn't pay $120+Shipping to Canada for nothing!!!
I am going to send an email to them. I expected a much better quality from a such a reputed company.
I didn't pay $120+Shipping to Canada for nothing!!!
That would mean it didnt quite dampen all the way. From the looks of it, the piston acted like a pivot and it bend like a V enough to destroy it. AKA "catrostophic failure". I've only seen this one other time when the damper was not aligned properly.
The engine moves on the center line of the crank wich creats an arc. The radius of this arc is the key part. The damper has to be perfectly perpindicular to this in order to work properly. If its off by even a fraction of an inch it will try to bend, using the piston as a pivot point.
From the looks of the threads it was wearing for a while before it gave. Im guessing the White plastic peice is the actual piston. It was damaged in the direction of the bend. The initial damage is more than likely the smaller groove and was probably rotated due to the pressure. The Deeper groove is most likely where the shaft sat during the final failure of the damper. That would definately corrispond with the damage on the housing. The extra play due to the wear allowed the shaft to wiggle more. So the more it wiggled the deeper the groove, the deeper grove allowed the shaft to wiggle more. A vicious cycle until it finaly gave.
The rubber peices above and below the piston were to basicly provide friction and atempt to keep the shaft centered. The top peice is crushed because it couldnt hold up the all the perssuer and movement of the shaft. You should also have slight damage on the bottom piece on the lower most portion, but not too much. There wasnt enough leverage to cause too much pressure. Simple physics, the farther away you get from the fulcrom of a lever the greater the force thats applied. So say the distance from the center of the piston to the bottom of the shaft is 12.5 mm (1/2 inch) and the distance from the center of the piston to the connection point on the block is 87.5 mm (3.5 inches) your pressure exurted on the pop top side of the piston surface where the shaft contacted it was 7 times the amount of force as the back side. Plus you got that backing plate there which will dispers the pressure in the oposite direction of movement almost evenly on that half of the surface so the pressure is divided out (reducing the pressure in any given area) So depending on the accelerated movement of the block, engine weight, and torque applied to the engine you could have easly of had 2000lbs of pressure on that shaft trying to bend it. Which by all accounts it was semi successful.
The engine moves on the center line of the crank wich creats an arc. The radius of this arc is the key part. The damper has to be perfectly perpindicular to this in order to work properly. If its off by even a fraction of an inch it will try to bend, using the piston as a pivot point.
From the looks of the threads it was wearing for a while before it gave. Im guessing the White plastic peice is the actual piston. It was damaged in the direction of the bend. The initial damage is more than likely the smaller groove and was probably rotated due to the pressure. The Deeper groove is most likely where the shaft sat during the final failure of the damper. That would definately corrispond with the damage on the housing. The extra play due to the wear allowed the shaft to wiggle more. So the more it wiggled the deeper the groove, the deeper grove allowed the shaft to wiggle more. A vicious cycle until it finaly gave.
The rubber peices above and below the piston were to basicly provide friction and atempt to keep the shaft centered. The top peice is crushed because it couldnt hold up the all the perssuer and movement of the shaft. You should also have slight damage on the bottom piece on the lower most portion, but not too much. There wasnt enough leverage to cause too much pressure. Simple physics, the farther away you get from the fulcrom of a lever the greater the force thats applied. So say the distance from the center of the piston to the bottom of the shaft is 12.5 mm (1/2 inch) and the distance from the center of the piston to the connection point on the block is 87.5 mm (3.5 inches) your pressure exurted on the pop top side of the piston surface where the shaft contacted it was 7 times the amount of force as the back side. Plus you got that backing plate there which will dispers the pressure in the oposite direction of movement almost evenly on that half of the surface so the pressure is divided out (reducing the pressure in any given area) So depending on the accelerated movement of the block, engine weight, and torque applied to the engine you could have easly of had 2000lbs of pressure on that shaft trying to bend it. Which by all accounts it was semi successful.
Last edited by punish_her; Mar 29, 2007 at 01:10 AM.
A non-technical answer: I think your engine moved, and the damper did not.
I have had mine on for two years, under a FI application, and it looks the same as when I put it in. Either it was installed incorrectly, or it was defective, or you have a broken motor mount.
I have had mine on for two years, under a FI application, and it looks the same as when I put it in. Either it was installed incorrectly, or it was defective, or you have a broken motor mount.
That was pretty funny though w the pics 
.. WTF..
I guess it didnt want to dampen= 
I've heard of the Stillen dampner breaking only a couple of times...probably installation...but could be quality...definately worth calling them about.
It just goes to show that if you wrestle with the Z, you're gonna lose!!
It just goes to show that if you wrestle with the Z, you're gonna lose!!
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Originally Posted by punish_her
That would mean it didnt quite dampen all the way. From the looks of it, the piston acted like a pivot and it bend like a V enough to destroy it. AKA "catrostophic failure". I've only seen this one other time when the damper was not aligned properly.
The engine moves on the center line of the crank wich creats an arc. The radius of this arc is the key part. The damper has to be perfectly perpindicular to this in order to work properly. If its off by even a fraction of an inch it will try to bend, using the piston as a pivot point.
From the looks of the threads it was wearing for a while before it gave. Im guessing the White plastic peice is the actual piston. It was damaged in the direction of the bend. The initial damage is more than likely the smaller groove and was probably rotated due to the pressure. The Deeper groove is most likely where the shaft sat during the final failure of the damper. That would definately corrispond with the damage on the housing. The extra play due to the wear allowed the shaft to wiggle more. So the more it wiggled the deeper the groove, the deeper grove allowed the shaft to wiggle more. A vicious cycle until it finaly gave.
The rubber peices above and below the piston were to basicly provide friction and atempt to keep the shaft centered. The top peice is crushed because it couldnt hold up the all the perssuer and movement of the shaft. You should also have slight damage on the bottom piece on the lower most portion, but not too much. There wasnt enough leverage to cause too much pressure. Simple physics, the farther away you get from the fulcrom of a lever the greater the force thats applied. So say the distance from the center of the piston to the bottom of the shaft is 12.5 mm (1/2 inch) and the distance from the center of the piston to the connection point on the block is 87.5 mm (3.5 inches) your pressure exurted on the pop top side of the piston surface where the shaft contacted it was 7 times the amount of force as the back side. Plus you got that backing plate there which will dispers the pressure in the oposite direction of movement almost evenly on that half of the surface so the pressure is divided out (reducing the pressure in any given area) So depending on the accelerated movement of the block, engine weight, and torque applied to the engine you could have easly of had 2000lbs of pressure on that shaft trying to bend it. Which by all accounts it was semi successful.
The engine moves on the center line of the crank wich creats an arc. The radius of this arc is the key part. The damper has to be perfectly perpindicular to this in order to work properly. If its off by even a fraction of an inch it will try to bend, using the piston as a pivot point.
From the looks of the threads it was wearing for a while before it gave. Im guessing the White plastic peice is the actual piston. It was damaged in the direction of the bend. The initial damage is more than likely the smaller groove and was probably rotated due to the pressure. The Deeper groove is most likely where the shaft sat during the final failure of the damper. That would definately corrispond with the damage on the housing. The extra play due to the wear allowed the shaft to wiggle more. So the more it wiggled the deeper the groove, the deeper grove allowed the shaft to wiggle more. A vicious cycle until it finaly gave.
The rubber peices above and below the piston were to basicly provide friction and atempt to keep the shaft centered. The top peice is crushed because it couldnt hold up the all the perssuer and movement of the shaft. You should also have slight damage on the bottom piece on the lower most portion, but not too much. There wasnt enough leverage to cause too much pressure. Simple physics, the farther away you get from the fulcrom of a lever the greater the force thats applied. So say the distance from the center of the piston to the bottom of the shaft is 12.5 mm (1/2 inch) and the distance from the center of the piston to the connection point on the block is 87.5 mm (3.5 inches) your pressure exurted on the pop top side of the piston surface where the shaft contacted it was 7 times the amount of force as the back side. Plus you got that backing plate there which will dispers the pressure in the oposite direction of movement almost evenly on that half of the surface so the pressure is divided out (reducing the pressure in any given area) So depending on the accelerated movement of the block, engine weight, and torque applied to the engine you could have easly of had 2000lbs of pressure on that shaft trying to bend it. Which by all accounts it was semi successful.
But You are right, when I opened the hood to check some things, I found the damper in a "V" position, it was actually quite a struggle to get it out.
As for installing. I simply adjusted the length to the point where both ends of the damper lined up with the mount holes and then bolted it in. Is that the wrong way? Was I suppose to tighten it?
The car has seen a few track days last year, (around 7 events) and has seen daily redlining. But nothing I can think of that can stress the engine so much to bent the damper.
I haven't sent an email to Stillen yet, but I am just wondering if this thing has warranty? I bought it in a private sales, but it was new in packaging.
The main issue with the Stillen (or knockoffs) is that there are a lot of threaded parts on it. With time and vibration, the threads can loosen. Looks like this is what happened here. I'd say the chance of this being a defect is quite low.
Originally Posted by XuperXero
I haven't sent an email to Stillen yet, but I am just wondering if this thing has warranty? I bought it in a private sales, but it was new in packaging.
I have noticed that on mine it absorbs a lot of the movement but like mentioned because it is threaded it will come loose. The fix was to apply some lock tite on it but unfortunetly for you it got destroyed. Mine just jiggled lose and I was able to put it back together.
Originally Posted by gringott
I bought one a couple of years ago, when I called Stillen to purchase some body parts, and asked why I should buy the parts from them and not some dealer, he said, "it is like your Stillen engine damper, if something goes wrong and you purchased it from us, we will take care of it even if you lost the receipt". That sounds to me like they will take care of you. Did you purchase it from them directly?
Stillen is crap, I bought a real Stillen and and Egay knock off and geuss what... They are %100 down to the tee identical!
Buy NRG, alot of my Honda buddies have these and they have had zero problems whatsoever. Excellent quality dampers with better color choices too.
Stillen always FTL
Buy NRG, alot of my Honda buddies have these and they have had zero problems whatsoever. Excellent quality dampers with better color choices too.
Stillen always FTL
