Terry - you have all the data. But an ignorant guy like me sees that the competition Ford Europe's Mondeo is going against is what - the BMW 3 series? And don't all BMW's have smooth revving DMD damped engines as well? We all know how much work (and money) goes into making cars sound and feel just right - all that sound deadening, rubber isolation mounts, hood blankets, soft rubber bushings... sure don't help performance and they arean't cheap either - but they are standard items on every car you buy.
Remember the last year of the SVT - one of the auto mags reported the engine felt "over worked" and somewhat unrefined. Hardly a characteristic that would help it fight against a BMW. Then you look here in the US, no 2.5L duratecs (MPV, Cougar) get the DMD. Look at the 2.5L Jaguar which has the same block and crank (Maybe different bearings????), no DMD there either.
Obviously the DMD is a huge step up in refinement and NVH, and for the price of only 1 lb of extra weight it's not a huge power dropper either. But, I guess I'm still not convinced that the primary goal of the DMD is not just noise and vibration handling, with maybe a small bit of reliabilty thrown in for good measure. Even the engineer at Adams software who worked on this project with Ford:
http://support.adams.com/kb-files/id_9358/Ford_Complete_Engine_2001_NAUC.pdfindicated (in typical "not going to tell you much about this subject" fashion) that DMD dampers served to reduce noise and vibration in the 3-400 hz region, and "that's all I know about it".
I know there have been a LOT of blown SVT engines, but way back when on the American.edu mail list, before the SVT's were around much there were almost NO stories of low mileage blown 2.5's (even with a bunch of us having MTX's). Brad Hall has mentioned he heard rumors that early cranks may have had more treatment (nitriding? or something) but he never had that verified. Anyway - you obviously have the data and I'm just rambling here. But, I am curious, did you hear about the crank whip problem and DMD solution from internal Ford research, or did it come about from your own research on dead SVTs after you left Ford?
Thanks - Scott Kauffman
