Fluidamper on AHU/1Z

Has anyone in here gone with a Fluidamper on their AHU or 1Z yet?

I'm finally getting ready to swap my AHU in to my B3 - I already stole its balancer for my AAZ so I need to buy one either way. The price of the Fluidamper is pretty nutso especially given the CAD:USD exchange rate these days but I intend to keep this car for a long time. I also found the stock engine mounts were woefully inadequate for the torque my beast produces when it was in my Jetta - I know I'm going to need stiffer mounts in the Passat too.

Idle and off-idle vibration is what I'm primarily looking to reduce. Things were always pretty smooth once I was moving.

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Someone bought one but I don't recall who that was. I just remember reading a thread where they talked about it.

Seems that in that same thread though there was a comment that said they weren't making anymore...but I could be wrong.

If the prices are still where they were during the initial discussion I'll pass, it's was very nutzo.

Steve

BFI stealth mounts are a good upgrade option to install. OEM Mounts will start becoming unobtanium and for even stock powered 1z/ahu's they would benefit from them. Cabin vibes aren't that bad (nothing like a Poly /Delrin mount), but they help a great deal in regard to slop in the engine. On the dyno you could see the engine start to jump out before the stealth mounts were installed.

Changing idle rpm also helped, you'll have to figure what number works best in your wagon.

I ran my Jetta with stock, BFI stage 0.5 and Stealth front mounts. The stock rubber mounts were waaay too soggy, I managed to find an OEM hydraulic rear mount which helped. The stage 0.5 front mount was insane vibration wise. I literally popped some sheet metal welds in my drivers door running with that. The Stealth mount was acceptable...

On my B3 I'll be running the 16V/AAZ K-member which limits me to Mk2 style rear mounts. I have a B4 VR6/TDI front crossmember I'm planning on installing so I'll keep the BFI stealth front mount along with new rubber crossmember bushings.

The vibration from the AAZ that's in there now is quite substantial. I have no idea how old the mounts that are in there are - they are likely original to the car. The AHU harmonic balancer caused a noticeable reduction in vibration versus the shot "old style" balancer that was on the AAZ when I got the car.

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Some Mk2 GTI's got passenger side rear hydro mounts although they're different from the Mk3 hydro. I suspect that driver side ones are hydro as wel.

Steve

Digital_Corpus installed the fluid damper. It is near the end of his build thread as of March 1, 2017. Think he is happy with it.

I'm following this thread I have black poly BFI mounts in my b4 with a 17 lb flywheel and it vibrates...alot....so I'm listening in for the fluid damper!

Unless you're going to go for stupid power, retrofit a LUK DMF flywheel and clutch - I had one on my B4 (Now Abacus's) and felt a decent improvement in NVH over the previous SMF)

My AHU is pretty much stupid.... ;-)

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cal327 said:

I'm following this thread I have black poly BFI mounts in my b4 with a 17 lb flywheel and it vibrates...alot....so I'm listening in for the fluid damper!

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I wouldn't expect a fluid damper to resolve this.

Steve

Steve Addy said:

I wouldn't expect a fluid damper to resolve this.

Steve

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I figured as much I'm just looking for a mild improvement

Two of us have them on our B4s and posted in the "What did you do..." B4 thread about it within a few days of each other. Issam may not make them anymore due to the amount of work and you need to move over to 11.5x755 mm belts because his design is erroneous.

Do I wish I didn't buy it? Nope. But if you're looking for better NVH characteristics, a DMF is the way to go.

A DMF decouples the crankshaft from the transmission. A viscous damper, which works using the sheer properties of the liquid involved, will average them out. Basically it's like a time-sampled smoothing of quantized data where you get rid of the noise but you then get bumpy lumpiness.

I can describe the physics more for those who wish, which I may do so in my own thread at some point in the future, but won't bore anyone with them now.

I couldn't get a straight answer about how it would work for my non-AC setup... I know it's not particularly common as I think pretty much every US car came with it.

I believe he's still making them but the lead time is about a month, which isn't going to work for my plans.

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Digital Corpus said:

A DMF decouples the crankshaft from the transmission. A viscous damper, which works using the sheer properties of the liquid involved, will average them out. Basically it's like a time-sampled smoothing of quantized data where you get rid of the noise but you then get bumpy lumpiness.

I can describe the physics more for those who wish, which I may do so in my own thread at some point in the future, but won't bore anyone with them now.

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Feel free to bore me as much as you want in more detail...