Here is some elaboration from another thread - forgive the double post.
The "crank whip" issue was talked about by Terry & Judge for some time but I think few were listening. Judge was involved in figuring out the harmonics problem & developing the "dual mode damper" to solve the problem. It was implimented on Cougar & new Mondeo but as Contour was about to be discontinued... well you can draw your own conclusion. I am now investigating what part(s) to buy to make the conversion. But, I went to the Cougar forum and found that NOBODY had heard of spun bearings their except some guy who did a bunch of stupid stuff to his car. So, IMHO the problem was sucessfully proven fixed.
As far as oil starvation, I think it may occasionaly happen on the street but I believe that low oil level contributed to several of those cases were hard cornering was involved. I talked to 4 different Duratec racers (Bondurant, Mirko, Reinke, Capaldi) during my "investigation" of oil starvation and all agreed it happened on the track BUT most seemed surprised it could happen on the street. The Accusump worked for all, although partial benefit was reported for a baffeled pan (it reduced but did not eliminate oil pressure flux @ high g load). Interestingly, (and I should have paid more attention to this), 2 of these racers said oil starvation lead to loss of lifter pressure as the first symptom NOT BEARING FAILURE. Lifters fell off. And this was also described in the C&D article "night of the Iguana" 1996, where they were testing prototype SVT Contours under racing conditions - they lost oil pressure to hydrolic lifters! I should note that one racer did report bearing failure as a result of oil starvation (or so he thought). So, this is why I believe that oil starvation may not be the big deal I thought it was.
And as far as oil filters - I investigated that too (hard to believe I spent so much tiome figuring out this engine failure problem)....The OEM is tested to 3 GPM, & most filters including Mobil One, Purolator, etc are only tested to 3-4 GPM. Only a few racing filters are tested higher & the only one that has a Duratec application is K&N - tested to 11 GPM IIRC. Is this important? well, I dont know for sure because I never could get Duratec oil pump flow specs. BUT a FAQ on SHOtimes webpage talked about this issue in the V6 SHO ( a similar high RPM v6, recall that most US engines cant rev to 7 K RPM - only the Duratec & Cobra 4.6). That SHO pump is rated at like 9 GPM at 7000 RPM & the Ford OEM filter, like ours is only tested to 3 GPM. The OEM filter rep when questioned said something like it may not be a bad idea to have a better flowing filter. Raised a few eyebrows. So, this seems a POTENTIAL reason for occasional high RPM oil starvation but NOT PROVEN.
So to summerize again.
1)Strongly consider Cougar crank damper if it turns out to fit OK (it should)
2)Check oil often & keep full or even slightly over (say 6.0 q) Synthetics provide best viscosity indexes (which correlates with the thickness of the oil film on the bearings) Amsoil BTW has highest VI, though Mobil One is good.
3)K&N filter not a bad idea if you can afford a few extra bucks.
Comments invited, useless bickering is not.
Happy motoring!
. These two changes negate eachother for HP/TQ increase, but are probably what accounts for the different damper numbers. Don't hold me to that ... just a guess.
