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Got mine installed finally. News to everyone with a C6 Z06, you have to do some trimming to get the bracket to fit. Ended up bolting on top of the tunnel plate instead of cutting to avoid too much trimming of the new bracket plate. Something for ECS to think about is that with the plate bolting to the top of the tunnel plate and adding camper tape for NVH, there is very little thread left for the nylon nuts and washer for the tunnel strap. I was able to get threads all the way into the nut but I'd suggest more threads to account for that since it looks like the z06 crowd will be using the new instruction per my discussion with Alex. I'll take some pictures of it installed tomorrow.
Just got mine installed and not even started the car from the winter build. I'll follow up with pictures of it installed and my assessment of any tamer specific changes once we are up and running. As of now, my big feedback is that it does not fit the Z06 without modification (cutting/trimming)
Where is it hitting on the z06? I have a c5 with a c6 drivetrain so I’m curious if it will do the same for me.
It has everything to do with the metal lip on the tunnel transition for the c6z06 so you may not have any problem with your c5. It had nothing to do with the trans or torque tube in the c6 drivetrain setup.
Some pictures of where I had to cut and it re-installed. Mine is installed ON TOP of the existing tunnel plate per ECS direction and uses longer bolts and some (3) washers between the tamer bracket and the newly added river nuts that I drilled and put into the tunnel lip, also per ECS direction. All looks and feels solid. Still had to shave the top corners of the tamer plate to avoid interference with the tunnel part of the car, but it's solid. The self locking nuts are barely on to the Teflon, but should be ok... hoping Doug or someone can chime in on that. I did not want to over tighten. Between the added spaces from the camper tape for the strap and the mounting on top of the stock tunnel plate, the threads really should be another 1/2" longer.
Last edited by EnginerdVT; 03-17-2019 at 01:26 PM.
Thanks for the photos and the install tips. I wonder if it’s a straight bolt on for the steel chassis cars?
I’m probably going to order one of these tomorrow along with a replacement tensioner. I’ll report on how the install goes on my car.
I think you’re good with the stud flush like that in the nylock nut. If you want to be sure it won’t drop off, then just put some red locktite on the studs, lol.
The non Z06/ZR1 C6 and all C5 cars have not been an issue as far as I understand. I did think about and may go back and at leas blue locktight the studs. I'll know more once I get the car running in a week or two and will report back with any feedback. I don't expect any issues now that the fitment has been sorted out.
Thanks for the pics, this was originally made for the C5 and we have not changed the design since, but I will look into the chamfering of all of them so they fit everything. We really appreciate that kind of feedback so we can better the products!
We will add a 1/4" of threads to take up for the vibration dampener material also. We always tried to keep those very short so they did not interfere with any exhaust systems.
I also had to modify mine to fit the C6Z tunnel. I figure the aluminum frame cars must have slightly different dimensions in that area due to them using thicker aluminum vs steel. Install was pretty challenging with the driveline in place due to trans cooler lines and shifter rod, but dropping the rear cradle a bit helped. I made sure the U-brace was a tiny bit loose to allow the drivetrain to vibrate some. Hard telling if this made more noise in the cabin though, since I did a new shifter setup at the same time and everything got louder.
Just ordered one of these myself. I forgot to ask Chris if it came with the upgrades Doug mentioned on here, but that’s not a biggie for me. If it’s the original design, I have a steel frame car, so we’ll know soon enough if the chamfer is only needed for the Z cars.
Finally got my torque tamer from UPS on Friday. It appears to be the same older version as the others posted on here.
It wasn’t as straightforward as I would’ve liked it, and even though it fit decently into the frame on my car, I still had to chamfer the corners on the top side to get it to sit as flat as possible on the frame of the car.
I wanted to insulate the strap from the tube to cut down on some of the noise being transmitted into the car, but after trying to glue a strip of rubber to the inside of the strap and making a total mess, I abandoned that and instead used some some high abrasion thermal insulation sleeve I slipped that over the strap and used electrical tape to secure it in place. Hopefully that holds up. I simply snugged the strap down onto the torque tube and then backed each bolt off about a 1/4 turn.
Below are some pictures of the install. Got it all buttoned up tonight and everything fits without any interference with the exhaust hangers etc.
Here’s the kit. There were no instructions with it, so I just used the ones off the ECS website. Here’s what I used as a form of insulation between the strap and the torque tube. This stuff is pretty abrasion resistant and should cut down slightly on noise being transmitted, hopefully. VERY IMPORTANT: On the A6 cars, the transmission harness is clipped onto the top of the torque tube and is barely visible. I simply slid the harness up and out of the clip and rotated the strap up and around the tube underneath the harness. You have to do this or the strap will go over the harness and when you tighten it down, it will bear down on the harness and mash it against the tube. No bueno. Here’s the chamfer that I put on my plate to get it to sit flatter. This is necessary because the corner of the frame that the plate sits into is rounded. This is after I had drilled the rearmost holes and installed the threaded inserts. In my view, those rearmost holes need to be slightly more outboard so the the holes aren’t so close to the corner/edge of the frame bracket that you have to drill into. This is after I had reinstalled the exhaust hangers. Removing them is necessary in order to make space to get the strap rotated up and over the torque tube. By doing this, I avoided having to drop the cradle down and just took my time and carefully worked the strap up over the tube at an angle at first and then it literally fell into place. I used on washer as a shim on each bolt above the plate. It sits perfectly flat and solid like that. I used the Torque Tamer plate as a template and scribed a line on the backside of the Elite Thermo Abs plate and then used a jigsaw to cut the end of the plate with the same contoured “V” shape as the TT plate, rather than simply cutting 4” off straight across the plate as per ECS; instructions. Looks much better that way and keeps more exhaust heat out of the tunnel too.
Just wanted to report back on here that I tested this Torque Tamer thing at the track and was able to launch my car straight out of the hole for the first time on nitrous, resulting in a PB for me: 6.09 @ 117, even though it spun slightly with a iffy 1.49 short time.
I’m also happy to report that, driving on the road, there is barely any discernible increase in NVH, although I have to admit, it would probably be hard to notice since I have spherical bearings installed in the rear suspension.
But, and this is the part I’m happy about, the wheel-hop/tire shake phenomenon that I was experiencing is gone. This leads me to believe that it is possible that what was happening was that the torque torque was flexing up and them snapping back such that it was oscillating back and forth during first gear. I can only imagine that would cause the kind of vibration that I was experiencing consistently throughout first. Not to mention what damage that kind of flexing of the torque tube does to the driveshaft and couplers. In any event, it’s gone, so I’m happy.
Just wanted to report back on here that I tested this Torque Tamer thing at the track and was able to launch my car straight out of the hole for the first time on nitrous, resulting in a PB for me: 6.09 @ 117, even though it spun slightly with a iffy 1.49 short time.
I’m also happy to report that, driving on the road, there is barely any discernible increase in NVH, although I have to admit, it would probably be hard to notice since I have spherical bearings installed in the rear suspension.
But, and this is the part I’m happy about, the wheel-hop/tire shake phenomenon that I was experiencing is gone. This leads me to believe that it is possible that what was happening was that the torque torque was flexing up and them snapping back such that it was oscillating back and forth during first gear. I can only imagine that would cause the kind of vibration that I was experiencing consistently throughout first. Not to mention what damage that kind of flexing of the torque tube does to the driveshaft and couplers. In any event, it’s gone, so I’m happy.
Sweet.
I haven't had a chance to test anything on my car in a few years but it's all coming together next week so I hope between the torque tamer, brace and completely built drivetrain it'll be able to run some good times. I'll of course report back.
Good Morning ... Just wondering how you found the vibration after you installed the Torque tube tamer ??
Thanks
As I said in my earlier post, I didn’t experience any noticeable increase in vibration.
That might be because I already had installed Hinson poly engine and trans mounts (which aren’t much different in NVH from stock anyhow) and I have pfadt spherical bearings in the rear, which did increase NVH fairly significantly.
It may have also helped that I wrapped the hoop with the Hot Rod Sleeve as well.
I’m very glad I installed this very neat little contraption and I’m glad that ECS makes things like this and their axle straps for our cars.
Just wanted to report back on here that I tested this Torque Tamer thing at the track and was able to launch my car straight out of the hole for the first time on nitrous, resulting in a PB for me: 6.09 @ 117, even though it spun slightly with a iffy 1.49 short time.
I’m also happy to report that, driving on the road, there is barely any discernible increase in NVH, although I have to admit, it would probably be hard to notice since I have spherical bearings installed in the rear suspension.
But, and this is the part I’m happy about, the wheel-hop/tire shake phenomenon that I was experiencing is gone. This leads me to believe that it is possible that what was happening was that the torque torque was flexing up and them snapping back such that it was oscillating back and forth during first gear. I can only imagine that would cause the kind of vibration that I was experiencing consistently throughout first. Not to mention what damage that kind of flexing of the torque tube does to the driveshaft and couplers. In any event, it’s gone, so I’m happy.
What kind of power are you making? Are you still running the Heartbeat?
What kind of power are you making? Are you still running the Heartbeat?
I don’t know how much power it’s making, since we don’t have a dyno down here anymore. It traps a 114 on boost and 119 on spray in the 1/8, so if I had to guess, I would say it makes around 700whp on boost only and 775 or so on spray. Yes, still running the heartbeat making ~13psi @ peak.
I don’t know how much power it’s making, since we don’t have a dyno down here anymore. It traps a 114 on boost and 119 on spray in the 1/8, so if I had to guess, I would say it makes around 700whp on boost only and 775 or so on spray. Yes, still running the heartbeat making ~13psi @ peak.
I thought these PD supercharges couldn't run? Very nice! Think you'll ever get a 5.99?
03-11-2019, 05:27 AM
