Installing the Ingalls Engine Torque Damper

The Ingalls Engine Torque Damper is a nifty little device that helps dampen vibrations from the engine. For many people, this is a great alternative to replacing motor mounts to stiffer ones, however not many people have used the ITD with stiffer mounts as it is understood that it does relatively the same thing.

Once I replaced my motor mounts, I started to consider the long term effects of having a stiff mount. When examining the orientation of the mounts of the RX8, one will recognize that the mounts are actually sitting lower than the center of the engine.

With the mounts sitting lower than the centerline of the engine, the mounts will naturally be doing more work to stabilize the engine as the central vibrations will be offset by the weight of components that sit at the top of the engine. As a remedy, Mazda decided to use rubber mounts with a mineral oil based medium. This creates a "floating" mount for the engine which helps to balance and dampen the vibrations through the chasis.

Although replacing those oem mounts with stiffer mounts can create a stronger drivetrain feel since the engine moves less on acceleration, and more power is theoretically transferred through the chassis, it re-introduces the imbalance of the engine. For many people, this will not be a significant issue, but for engines that frequent higher rpms, and race conditions, the stresses caused by hardened oem mounts could cause them to fail.

The theory behind this claim is this; By stiffening the oem mounts, we help stiffen the lower hemisphere of the engine. Remember though, the mounts sit lower than the engine's center line, therefore, the lower hemisphere of the engine naturally becomes smaller to the upper hemisphere of the engine. The vibrations of an engine need to escape, and although the thought is that those vibrations are escaping through the chasis, realistically, the vibrations will also be escaping through the upper hemisphere of the engine since there is less resistance. This creates the same effect as grabbing a ruler lower than its center point with a stiff grip, and shaking it. The top part of the ruler will sway far more than the lower. Now grab that same ruler with a very light grip and shake ... less imbalance.

This is where the torque damper plays an important role in helping to balance the effects of a stiffer mount on the Renesis.

Package Contents

Installation

The first step in installing the torque damper is to disconnect the passenger side of the front strut bar. If you have an aftermarket strut bar, it may be possible to do this without having to remove the driver side mount for the strut bar. Else, you want to remove the entire oem strut bar

Next, if you had a bar like the Mazdaspeed bar, you will want to remove the strut bar mount plate from the passenger side. The OEM bar will have a small horseshoe like bracket that you will need to remove

The next step is to take the Torque Damper chasis bracket and install it onto the passenger strut tower. This will essentially be sandwhiched between the chasis and the strut bar bracket.

Next, you will want to remove the alternator adjustment nut that sits in the front of the adjustment slot and then remove the lower alternator mounting bolt. Once this is done, you can then install the engine bracket for the torque damper. The kit included a slightly longer alternator mounting bolt. Make sure you use this bolt to ensure enough thread engagement for the alternator now that the bracket is taking up some space. Make sure after installation that the belt tension wasn't changed.

Once the two brackets have been installed, you can then start installing the torque damper. The package included a long bolt and a few washers and rubber rings. On the engine side, you will want to use the long bolt, and place it through the damper. Next slide on a rubber ring and start to slide the bolt through the bracket. The package included a metal spacer which is what you will want to install next. Then, once the bolt is through, you will use one of the black lock nuts to support the bolt.

You will want to follow a similar pattern for the chasis side of the torque damper. You will more than likely need to adjust the length of the damper at this point. Simply do this by unlocking the adjustment nut on the engine side of the damper. When installing this side, make sure that the damper is installed on the inside of the bracket, i.e. the side closest to the strut bar. You will note in my image that I installed this incorrectly at first.

Lastly, go back and ensure that all bolts are tightened and you are done!