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caddy dampers

T

T-REX

Well-known member
is it necessary to use some form of damper on direct drive caddy ??
i saw a picture of a caddy with a surpentine pulley setup off of a ford
mustang/ranger combo looked real sweet and owner stated no damper needed, and lose 5 lbs on the crank.... ive since asked several people and ive been told "not at all " then next person tells me " absolutely needed "
whats the real scoop guys ?
 
I haven't run one on my DD Caddy but I always thought of putting one on it. I did go through a period of breaking the centers out of flex plates (two), breaking timing gear on crank (three), and one crank hub. All of these were separate incidents that left me stranded. These happened with a wood prop and composite prop. Funny thing, I put rubber back under the rear motor mounts and nothing else broke. If you don't run a damper at least have your rotating assembly balanced if you change any part of it.
 
A dampener also known as a harmonic balancer is intended to control or dampen the torsional twisting of the crank shaft between power pulses. In my opinion if you add an 80inch prop to the end of the crankshaft along with all of the vibrations and harmonics induced by a prop or gearbox I recommend improving your dampener I try to install a higher quality balancer on my motors when ever possible. So I would never recommend removing one from any V/8 engine but on an airboat it’s crazy. It’s not going to help the motor snap any quicker because the prop is what limits that.
 
I posted this link on another post somewhere around here but this will take you to a discussion group about Cadillacs:

http://www.cowboyseven.us/forum/index.php

This is a source for good information and you should be able to do a search. I've read quite a bit about dampers on that forum. Some of the top vendors/builders participate in the discussions.
 
New to the whole airboat thing. In fact still building my first boat but I found a fluid dampner on e bay for about $90 thats about $40 more than a stock one . Sounded like a good investment so I went for it. Just my 2 cents worth.
 
Just came back from the Hernando CCAA run and after reading this the other day I notice a vibration. It looks as if I don't have a harmonic balancer. So help me out here. Is this what I need and it goes on the crank somewhere right?

This motor came out of a Enduro Racer so I can't see them not having one.

Mine crank pully has a 2 belt groove but I don't see where it has a harmonic balancer on it and it doesn't look like this one. I don't think I would have the space on the crank and the harmonic balancer.

http://www.damperdoctor.com/Merchant2/m ... egory_Code
=CAD
..
Now I just looked at the 500 i have on the engine stand and it has one but it doesn't look like the one on the web ether.

..
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it is there youre pulley covers it up. it is not large like the ones you are used to seeing because the caddy crank is internally balanced.they are
rebuildable you can get the kit from mts for i think 15 bucks.
 
It all depends on the year of your engine. The early Cads had a harmonic balancer but there were problems with it separating. Call Chris at Cad Company and he can tell you all about it. I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with him last year addressing balancers. You can run a DD Caddy without one but it is better to have it. Without one, any imbalance is going to create a vibration frequency through the crank. I experienced several broke timing gears and flex plates due to vibration in a short peroid of time. I finally corrected the vibration and the problems went away. I continued running DD without a balancer and didn't have any more problems. I'm in the process of swapping to reduction setup and just completed assembling a new Cad. This time I installed a BHJ elasomer damper and had the rotating assembly balanced. The flex plate and damper was included in the balancing process.
 
Just ordered some new rockers for the caddy and spoke with Chris about the damper. He said that you shouldn't need it and my vibration is more likly coming from the prop.
 
Damper Doctors - Dampner s for Cad500 are set at -0 - no need to rebalance !Just add one ! Just very cheap insurance! Dont know about the cad 500 store :evil: Just like the the guy said prop. gear box and everthing thats blows !Your motor will last so much longer !And if you turn your cad where the meat is like some of us do !Well its not a thinking thing !Do it !I w
 
im going to run a small factory dampener, POTTER is sending me one along with a set of his killer aluminum pulleys...this guy makes some real sweet stuff for caddys !!
 
the set of pulleys i believe are cheaper from flashcraft.but richard is a good ol country boy and he loves to talk.he is not afraid to give some of his caddy secrets out either.
 
ive got tall valve covers, PML , but not sure wich rockers i should go with.
which setup is $350 ?
 
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