rojizostang

BadCon and I were talking at the races Friday about harmonic balancers. It is indeed a fact that at least on the new Roush supercharger kits that they are shipped with the '18gt harmonic balancers. Some are aware of the issues I had with the ATI prodamper eating blower belts, so I had to re-install the original damper which eliminated the problem. The reason for the post is that Roush Performance confirmed that the fluid dampers installed on the '18 mustang gt's are indeed interchangeable with the older Gen I coyote motors, specifically I asked about my truck a 2013 5.0. Here's their short email:

Hello Russell


Thank you for contacting ROUSH Performance.

I just spoke with our head engineer and have confirmed that you can indeed swap out the balancer.

Thank you,

Roger Cole
Customer Support Agent
ROUSH Performance & SLP Performance
800.59.ROUSH

I'm going to make the assumption here that the reason for the fluid dampers being installed now with the Roush blowers is to help protect oil pump gears. They're cheap, so it may be a worthwhile swap for those of us with supercharged 5.0 Gen I motors.

Carry on.....

crankinaway

On that note are there any particular dampers that would bolt on a 18+ or 15+ for that matter?

rojizostang

that isn't something I would know. The issue I had was after the ati superdamper install, the truck started eating blower belts fairly consistently. It would start peeling the belt from the back by the blower and eventually strip the whole rib off the belt all the way around. There was no obvious misalignment. The shoulders where the belt rides on the stock damper are chamfered or beveled, while those same edges on the prodamper are completely square and allow no room for any slight misalignment at all. IMO

I'm thinking of making the switch to the '18gt damper

rojizostang

plus $23 shipping to where I am

rojizostang

rojizostang

before I buy one, I'm going to email roush performance asking why the switch to the '18 balancer. I mean that I want to confirm that the 18gt damper is indeed a fluid damper first instead of elastomeric, and if there would be any advantage to switch.

BadCon

I'm pretty confident the 18+ damper is a fluid damper. As for why that is, I do not know. I originally assumed it was due to the increased redline of the 18+ GT, but when you look at the old Boss Road Runner engine, that did not use a fluid damper and revved to the same RPM or higher and is basically the same engine minus direct injectors. I then figured maybe they were trying to correct some sort of imbalance...possible the increased compression ratio + the increased redline necessitated the need for a better crank damper, or maybe some strange harmonics from the direct injection.

I've been looking into this, but I'm not sure it would be an upgrade for the older Coyotes as its hard to know the reasons Ford switched to it on the 18+ GT. I'd be curious what the fluid damper weighs vs. the standard damper. I know on my generation Roush kit it came with the 15-17 mustang crank damper, part # FR3Z-6312, which incidentally is also the same damper used on the GT350 with the 5.2l Voodoo, which is good for 8200rpm.

As for why Roush switches to the Mustang damper, I think it has to do with it being a better part overall then what comes on the trucks. Since it has to come off for the install anyways, they figure a $100 part that could potentially increase reliability why not. Oddly enough on my kit they also required the install of an 11-14 Mustang AC clutch pulley.

rojizostang

isn't the f150 belt for the AC a 4 rib belt originally on your truck, and the mustang belt a 6 rib pulley? that may be the reason right there....the location of the blower pulley works with the mustang pulley and not the f150 pulley because of the location of the damper with the 4 rib ac pulley on it?

both belts on my truck ('13 ym) are 6 rib to start with, so it didn't need to change for the pulleys to line up, perhaps that's why, But that's hard to understand also because the belt closest to the motor runs the blower on my truck. That would mean the blower for your truck and mine have different length snouts on them and aren't interchangeable, unless perhaps the timing chain cover is what makes the difference.

so the real question then specifically for me that I need to ask Roush is if there's any advantage of one over the other besides belt alignment, I think. Time to send another email.

You know I'm curious also as to the rate of incidents of opg failures, Roush versus other superchargers....Whipple, Procharger...whatever.

rojizostang

no the damper for the voodoo motor is a Gr3z-6312

they put a 56 dollar damper on the voodoo motors and a 150 dollar damper on the '18 gt motors. Weird. Perhaps the cranks for the flat plane voodoo motors are balanced different making the '18gt damper ineffective.

it makes me think voodoo motor has the same balancer I already have. gotta check more numbers.

voodoo damper is GR3Z-6312 $56 double six rib pulley
'13 F150 is BR3Z-6312-A $69 IIRC double six rib pulley
'18gt is JR3Z-6312-A $156 double six rib pulley
'17gt is FR3Z-6312-A $53 double six rib pulley
'16 f150 EL3Z-6312-A a six and 4 rib pulley (your original, if i'm not mistaken)

Maybe Roush just puts the damper on there that they can upcharge the most money for now

I'm sure yours necessitates a change because of the 4 rib vs 6 rib issue. probably any of the double 6 rib dampers would have worked, just guessing

anyway I sent Roush another email asking for more details. i'm honestly surprised they even answered the first one.

thanks for your help in this. maybe together we can figure it out if it's a worthwhile switch for both of us

rojizostang

'13 f150 damper

'18gt damper. The front "collar" appears to bge substantially thicker or heavier