[TR] [6pack] Aftermarket damper for TR6

[Robert Lang]

Hi,

A while back, maybe 6 years ago, I asked my machinist to look into 
alternate dampeners that'll fit the crank. It turns out that there is a 
Ford V6 application which uses the same size "snout" as TR6. 
Unfortunately, I cannot recall which Ford V6 it was, but the dimensions 
were extremely close if not exact.

The purpose of my search at the time was twofold.

First, at that time, there was NO source for new dampeners for TR6, so you 
had to go used or "rebuilt". The consensus at the time was that rebuilt 
meant something between "serviceable" and useless.

Second, I was building a motor that would very likely see bursts to 7k 
rpm. So I wanted something to help tune out the known bad harmonics in the 
crank - I was looking for something like the ATI dampeners, but at a 
Summit Racing price. I actually contacted ATI at the time, and they quoted 
me a price for a custom dampener, but I had to get them crank snout 
dimensions to the .0001" of an inch. Yes, that 10-thousandths of an inch 
(which is easy to do with a micrometer. The cost was around $500, but then 
you had to figure out how to rin the belt to the alternator and water 
pump.

Bottom line - this is do-able using off the shelf stuff and some minor 
customizations (like the bottom pulley and the water pump. The alternator 
part is easy, especially if you run a Delco alt. where you can get all 
sorts of different pulleys. Richard Good has done this on his car and I'd 
love to see him produce a kit for such a setup. But the cost will be high 
because the dampener itself is not cheap... figure $1k. That works out to 
about the cost of a reasonably worked over TR6 crankshaft (balanced, 
polish journals and some other stuff), BUT once you update the dampener 
you don't have to worry about replacing the crank every time you buzz the 
motor.

Me, for one, would love to see a kit to do this. But I imagine a critical 
mass for such an endeavore would be a lot more than "one".

:-)

rml
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Bob Lang              NER/SCCA                 |  This space for rent
Solo Chair 2008       TR6 40 F Prepared        |  Triumph!
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