So, I've always wondered, can the Fliudampr fail? Have you ever seen one fail? I have not. And I mean the name brand, not a knockoff. I think if anybody has seen one fail or tore one up, you'd know about it.
Early on there were some failures but those end user induced.
Ive seen them split at the keyway because the end user didn’t measure and fit the damper. Too much press fit and they split.
The other issue I’ve seen is not enough press. With not enough press fit, the damper can’t absorb the harmonics and the crank fails. Sometimes to the point the end of the crank came off.
This was also when the chicom cranks really started being used and they had shitty quality control. So a loose fit and you got a crank failure and the damper got the blame.
I bought my first FD in 1988 and I used it until I sold my stuff off in 2006ish. I never shifted lower than 8200 and 8800 later on. Several times I’d be screwing around and I’d throw the lever at 9k. And never once did I have bearing issues.
My buddy was running his SBC and shifting his engine at 8200. He had the small FD. He never had a bearing issue even though everyone around promised us we’d be crapping rod bearings all the time. We both ran sticks so we were unloading the engine 3 times each run, plus he left about 7000 and I left between 7500 and 8000, depending on how the bite was.
All my rod bearing failures were oil timing induced.
