Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Duratec Performance ASP, URD, SHO out of the way heres FISHER PULLEY!!! must read...

Aloha my Contour brethren!!! For those that aren't up to date on Fisher Dampers, I am currently working with Fisher to make a specific damper for the Duratec.

Measurements have already been taken and the guys at Fisher are starting on project Contour!!! Just an update on what the damper will do for our vehicles.

A stock dampers purpose is to help alleviate many of the harmonics that exist in the engine. The stock pulley is made up of an inner and an outer ring, both seperated by an elastic rubber which main purpose is to absorb harmonics, although effective the stock damper is limited in it's ability, particularly in the low and high end ( especially for those going beyond the factory rpm limit ). There are a number of aftermarket dampers, like FluidDamper which uses fluid to Dampen, a good product but said by many to be to heavy, which is definatley not good for our engines. Theres also another company out there that's design is nearly identical to a stock design except they use rubber o-rings between the innner and outer ring. So why Fisher Damper? This is the only Damper I have come across that can be underdriven, lightweight and still dampen better than a factory damper. There have been a few concerns about this Damper in our community, but I can assure you these will all be addressed. Basically this damper is made up of an Aluminum piece it, will be underdriven at 20% (update on possible further changes) and will have an inner inertia ring seperated from the pulley inself in a way. It will be torqued down in the pulley to a tightness allowing it to kind of be free from the rest of the unit. A special friction material between the pulley and the inertia ring itself will allow the pulley to act similar to a Clutch. When Harmonics are detected the ring will press onto the pulley, thanks to this friction material, and absorb the harmonics. So you see, contrary to a stock damper which was set at a specific range, which is all what a piece of elastic rubber can do, the Fisher Damper will detect no matter what range of RPM from idle to 8k rpm and beyond. The Friction material will not wear as some may suspect, so this is not any of my concerns.

Currently we have a few people in line to pick one up, but I need more. I know there are 100's, if not 1000's of CEG'ers who are modding there cars. Let me just say that a stock damper was only designed to dampen at stock levels, when you start to increase hp/tq, these decrease the dampers effectiveness. Those that are installing chips which are raising the REV limiter, you are going beyond the stock dampers range. I am not saying in anyway that the stock damper will not help but it's ability will greatly diminish. So for those that would like to invest in a quality damper, PLZ jump on board. We are looking for as many people as possible, this will help decrease the price. Price hasn't been set, but we are looking at somewhere in the range of $300-350, basically depending on order quantity.

I would like to mention that the damper is SFI approved, and is used by many roadrace teams and rally teams. On the dyno it has shown to help flatten out the power curve, which will make for a more smoother powerband. I have seen a bit of an increase in power with my URD pulley I currently have on. So less harmonics means more hp/tq and durability, underdriven means less parasitic drag, and aluminum means it's gonna be a few #'s lighter. What does all this add up to? You figure it OUT!!! Mahalo Nui' Loa (Thank You Very Much)

Availibility should be in a month, I will update on further info......

For those interested in seeing what the rubber torsion ring looks like on the stock damper, here's a pic (courtesy of ScottK):
http://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~gtwang/contour/torsionring.JPG

OK, there are dual mode dampers for the stock engine. A stock damper is tuned for a specific frequency, but that does not mean it does nothing for the rest of the harmonics. It just does a better job at the tuned freq. Unless you have seriously modified your car (Vortec, turbo, nos, that stuff) the stock damper is a good unit. Obviously the Fisher is more effective if you have built your engine drastically, I say go for it. If you want peace of mind, go for it, if you want 5hp from the underdrive capability, that is an expensive swap.

Judge it seems you're great at repeating things, sounds like you're more a parrot than a Judge.

As far as I've read, I think I've said clearly that a stock damper is effective, in other words it works. I did also say that it is limited in it's ability, which is also true, stock or not, it doesn't matter. If you push you're engine hard, the stock damper can only do so much, even more so on a modded Duratech, from the basic mods all the way to the Big Babys Bottle (NOS). Thank You for at least agreeing on one thing, "If you want piece of mind, go for it."

The fact is this unit gives more than just piece of mind, besides increased durability, it provides a smotther power band by smoothing out the engine, harmonics rob power, especially in the low and peak RPM levels (for those goin beyond the stock RPM limit this is very useful), that in turn means more hp/tq, an underdriven pulley means less parasitic drive, in turn more hp/tq, less weight also means more hp/tq as well as less stress on the crank, simply put the whole design of this unit adresses the basic concept of allowing the engine to run more efficiently, the same reason we put intakes an exhausts systems on our cars to allow the air to go in and out as quick as possible, allowing it run more efficiently. What does this all in turn mean, MORE HP/TQ.
I think Judge you need to start misinforming everyone that the underdriven is the only means of getting hp/tq out of this pulley. Personally I don't see how you can conclude, by telling people you feel it's an expensive swap, I'm working hard hear trying to help the Contour community out and you only seem to be down playing the product, for those you feel don't need it. Well if someone goes out and purchases a URD Pulley for there stock motor, which many will despite the issue of harmonics, that'll run them about $230. Fisher is offering a solution to this issue, and if someone can justify buying a pulley for $230, I'm sure they can justify spending about 70-100 bucks more after they realize how much better this will be for that wonderful DURATECH!!!

Brian (Judge),tell em who you are & what you do for a living and with what Co!

Well I'm a Longshoreman and I work Construction on the side, oops I thought that was referred to the BULLITT!!!

Ola I ka Wai', Mahalo Nui' Loa!

Yeah I think you're a little too excited there Silva Bullit..you really may want to take back some of the things you are saying to judge b/c you are gonna feel like an a$$ when you find out what he does.

Personally, I wouldn't mind getting a Fisher damper but your way of going about this GB is frankly turning me off to buying one right now. I just feel like you are trying to shove this down everyones throats and not allowing for calm discussion of the pros and cons of such a mod....and before you go saying that there are no downsides might I remind that this unit does cost over $300.

If you want this GB to be effective you really need to relax with the propoganda and insults to other people and calmly state the facts and let everyone else make their own opinions.

Just my $.02

'Fighting with engineers is like fighting with a pig,you both get covered in s**t and the engineer LOVES it !'

I admit I tihnk I went to far with that last comment, so I deleted it from the post. Although I was only joking, I think not knowing Judge personally makes it wrong!

Krafty I don't think it really matters if I was excited or not, but than again that's your opinion, so I guess I can't respond to that.

As far as a discussion, I am open for it, that's what it's here for. I get a little itchy with other peoples comments sometimes, Need to Find a Cure , but I'm definately a nice guy, Terry would know I've spoken to him a few times.

I think I got a little uptight on a portion of Judges comment, and responded, but I think I went to far on the last comment, so I deleted it!!! Aloha

So no I am not SHOVING anything down anyones throat!!!! If you asked my Old Lady that, she tell you I was LYING!