Ford's word on crank damper, OPG, timing components

The following excerpt is from personal email exchanges from April, 2016. It is posted with permission courtesy Mike Robins, Supervisor, Ford Performance:

:ford:>
This is coming from our engineering team and also the party that inspects every engine we look at that has experienced issues.

Uncontrolled torsional vibrations break the oil pumps.
It is not the oil pump gear material or the heavier oil that breaks the pump.

The large mass of the flywheel /pressure plate or flywheel / torque converter control the torsional vibrations at the rear of the crankshaft. The vibration damper controls them at the front of the engine.

The production vibration damper is designed to work within the production vehicles RPM limit and power level.
At 8000 rpm you are past that limit.

Changing engine internal components and or installing power adders can change damper requirements.
Just installing an aftermarket race damper is not always a fix.
Some aftermarket dampers are not tuned correctly and do not control the torsional vibrations.

Why do Ford Performance and other companies sell oil pumps with steel gears?
The steel gears will survive longer in the harsh conditions of uncontrolled torsional vibrations.
Some of the other components that are subjected to the damaging torsional vibrations are the timing gears and chains.

People that blame the oil pump gears or the timing chain gears and chains as being substandard do not understand the damaging effect of uncontrolled torsional vibrations.

Regarding your ATI damper question, the ATIs seem to be fine, we use them in the Cobra Jets. We've seen issues with other brands I won't name. You can certainly pass the info along! There's no objection on my part as long as the context is fitting, you may even want to paraphrase, etc.

Thanks again!

Best regards,

Mike Robins
Supervisor-Info Center
Ford Performance

Thanks for sharing this information!

Thank You for sharing this email !!

Glad to contribute! Real thanks goes to Mike Robins and the staff at FP Info Center as well as Engineering.
I was hoping to get another Ford Engineer to give permission to quote as well but was told they preferred info be organized and filtered for output by someone such as Mike Robins. I have found he is warmly regarded both in and out of Ford and certainly has my thanks. You can thank Ford Engineers, staff and Mike in this thread as Im sure he will see it.
Thanks Mike and everyone at Ford!

Great information.

ATI Group Buy !

Excelerater said:

ATI Group Buy !

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+ 1

Ford Performance offers their own OPG?

This is the best dam news and tech and I applaud you and Mike Robins for coming out with some solid technical data on this. Know I would like to know since I use the MMR Race damper made by Romac if it's also up to the task and approved. Surely ATI isn't the only quality damper made to control torsional vibrations.

Roh92cp said:

This is the best dam news and tech and I applaud you and Mike Robins for coming out with some solid technical data on this. Know I would like to know since I use the MMR Race damper made by Romac if it's also up to the task and approved. Surely ATI isn't the only quality damper made to control torsional vibrations.

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I also use the MMR damper. I am hoping that is not one of the one's he was referring to when he didn't "name names" lol That would suck.

Thanks for the feedback/email OP :cheers:

Superman15 said:

I also use the MMR damper. I am hoping that is not one of the one's he was referring to when he didn't "name names" lol That would suck.

Thanks for the feedback/email OP :cheers:

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His reply was vague and totally typical of an OEM not wanting to
put his name or brand on the line...ATI is made in usa,Romac is made
overseas..Both work but ATI is nicer IMO

If you read the install instructions for the ATI damper it says you need to measure the crank snout and have the hub honed to fit since they make the damper to work with aftermarket cranks which don't have as tight as tolerances. For me it seemed like there was room for error if I measured incorrectly or it was honed incorrectly.

Excelerater said:

His reply was vague and totally typical of an OEM not wanting to
put his name or brand on the line...ATI is made in usa,Romac is made
overseas..Both work but ATI is nicer IMO

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Romac is made in Australia, and has made quality race SFI balances for a long time.

I believe the Cobra Jets used Innovators West dampers at one time. I may be wrong.

No mass sales company will design for customer intent, or they wont' stay in biz. They warrant what they sell and have no obligation past that. Any mods beyond stock become the responsibility of the owner, not the producer. Duh...