WHO HAS a STILLEN engine damper brace

[Tollboothwilley]

Has anyone that installed this run into a problem?

you know the brackets underneath the power steering reservoir that part of it mounts to? I DO NOT HAVE THIS BRACKET. WTF??

Where the bracket should be are 3 holes (well, there are actually 4) The one in the middle is threaded but the other 3 are not. Also, because the factory brackets are non-existant the bracket for the STILLEN damper doesn't sit flush...

HELP.

Looks like i either need factory brackets (if they connect up) or else I will have to weld something in. I don't have the equipment to weld, so I really don't want to do that.


Has this happened to anybody else?

[Joe_Camel]

I've just ordered one actually, should have it Monday. It would probably help if you mentioned what year your car is, and maybe a pic of the affected area.

[Tollboothwilley]

2003 Sedan

I didnt take any pics. Anybody who has installed this would be able to understand I think. The damper holds to the Timing Chain Cover and the other side attaches to a bracket that is part of the install kit. This bracket attaches to the frame rail on the passenger side. Mine was missing the factory brackets.

[Joe_Camel]

Gotcha, I was hoping you had a pic so I could go out and see if my car has the brackets or not. I'm sure a few people around here have the damper installed and can give a helpful response.

[naughty240]

Hmm Id also like to know about this.

[6MTFTW]

I just snapped some pictures of mine. I remember that it was an EXTREMELY tight working space, but it was pretty straight forward. All of those holes should be threaded.

Hope this helps.

-Jerome

[Tollboothwilley]

Jerome

These holes werre larger than the screws included. They are NOT threaded. There was no existing bracket as per instructions.

I'm assuming you had brackets there that you removed bolts from. The bracket included that you can see in your picture doesn't sit flat because the factory brackets are missing.

[6MTFTW]

I don't recall a factory bracket, but its been a while. I purchased mine from Ebay and the included allen head bolts threaded right into the frame rail (as pictured in the instructions). I'm not sure what's going on with yours...

[ttrank]

I had one but removed it because the Greddy pass side turbo intake pipe went there. Mine looked just like the pic above and bolted right in.

[Tollboothwilley]

So why would my frame rail not be the same? The instructions from STILLEN say that there is a bracket that has bolts. You are supposed to remove the bolts but leave the brackets...

[Joe_Camel]

Hey I just put on the damper yesterday. The factory bracket they reference is a flat silver-colored one that sits on the frame rail and has one bolt in it. There are two more holes right next to/behind it with no bolts. The bracket looks like it wraps around the frame rail and goes toward the front of the car on the outside of the rail and holds something else waaay down there behind the bumper. Looking at 6MTFTW's snapshots, it seems to me that he doesn't have this bracket at all. So basically you remove the single bolt holding that flat bracket down (if you even have it, seems it's not required), and put the big shiny new bracket on top of it and it'll line up perfectly with the 3 holes in the frame rail (one hole in the front that had a bolt in it, and two that were empty).

I hope that helps, let me know if more pics would help.

BTW, this damper has two effects that I can detect:

1. engine idle can be felt through the steering wheel now, used to be you couldn't feel anything
2. acceleration in 1st and 2nd gear feels more direct, it's just a tad more responsive than without, like the millisecond you hit the gas pedal it wants to go go go! It's sort of like a fraction of the effect of a performance clutch, it's more direct with less slack, just not as harsh.


Edit: one more thing, to install the big bracket on the frame rail, it's really handy if you have 5 and 6mm hex sockets and a few socket wrench extensions, cuz yeah, it's pretty tight down there.

[lilindienplaya]

whats the purpose of this?

[Joe_Camel]

http://www.stillen.com/product.asp?i...P01&c=PE&m=all

When an engine moves excessively in its mounts, energy is wasted. Stillen's engine stabilizer converts this wasted motion into forward momentum. An isolastic mount acts as a shock absorber and dampens unwanted motion. With no hydraulic parts to wear or fade in use, this is a long term solution. Easy mounting uses existing holes and complete instructions are provided.

[ba_reefer]

how do you know how much to adjust on the dampener?

[GT-ER]

You have a sedan and sedans don't have the bracket and only have one hole threaded ( don't know if all sedans though but mine was like yours ). When I had my sedan I just installed it using just the threaded bolt and left the other two out. I worked fine this way.