Vibration damper - a regular maintenance item?

[RobertRO]

The Aug. 2013 issue of Roundel magazine includes an article about the rebuild of an E9 3.0CSL, by Dinan.
Here's an interesting quote:
"It is important to change the harmonic damper every time you rebuild the engine - or every year, if the car is not being raced - because in a long inline six, the cylinder has a lot of crankshaft warp-up at high rpm. [...] At a certain rpm, those harmonics will reach a critical level [...] With the help of the harmonic damper, this oscilation will quickly dissipate; however, the rubber gets hard over time, and the damper loses its elasticity. Because of this phenomenon, an inline six-cylinder engine needs maintenance on the damper."

Which leads to two questions:
(1) Is the vibration damper on S54 engines (p/n 11237834425) a regular maintenance item? If yes, how often should it be replaced?
(2) Using a single-mass lightened flywheel on an S54 engine, instead of the OEM dual-mass flywheel, does it impact the harmonics of the crankshaft? I wonder if the vibration damper is tuned for the OEM setup, and a different flywheel mass may ruin that balance.

[StickMon]

Good question. I'm trying to put anything with a lot of rubber on my "replace at 100-125K mile" list.

I've put 200k+ miles on 3 cars without even thinking of this.
Until now, didn't realize rubber was involved, but I guess it makes sense.

Wikipedia says:
"Over time, the energy dissipating (rubber/clutch/fluid) element can deteriorate from age, heat, cold, or exposure to oil or chemicals. Unless rebuilt or replaced, this can cause the crankshaft to develop cracks, resulting in crankshaft failure."

[inTgr8r]

been seeing more of this on the E46 M3 forums....
This is what they look like when they fail.
From what I could see it was only on cars that were tracked a lot and saw high RPMs a lot more often.

[Beedub]

the fluid filled ATI unit looks like an awesome upgrade!

[inTgr8r]

Originally Posted by Beedub

the fluid filled ATI unit looks like an awesome upgrade!

I agree, interesting unit with 10yr maintenance cycle
where did you see info on ATI being fluid fill????


Also; interesting read on Gtfour's old E46 M3 failed balancer




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[Beedub]

Originally Posted by inTgr8r

I agree, interesting unit with 10yr maintenance cycle
where did you see info on ATI being fluid fill????


Also; interesting read on Gtfour's old E46 M3 failed balancer




.

i emailed and was told its a fluid filled unit.... ???

[seank]

Excuse my ignorance. Where is this located?

[StickMon]

Behind the crank pulley.