RacerZack

I got the Weapon-R engine damper installed (finally). Here are my thoughts:

I am very disappointed with Weapon-R as a company. My kit arrived with no instructions. After getting them e-mailed to me, I got the car up in the air and found that the kit was missing the all-important mounting bolts. Plus the washers included with the kit appeared to have been used. One was warped/bent and another had an obvious "ring" around it as though it'd been installed once before.

I contacted Weapon-R to complain. It was even more of a rub when I found out (that same day) that the price on the engine damper was reduced significantly! So, I buy early, get a kit I can't install, and then a week later they lower the price. NOT COOL.

Because of my "inconvenience," Ray said he'd send me some "freebies" along with the missing parts. What he sent has be rather underwhelmed: a lanyard (obviously left over from a trade show) and a cheap-feeling cap. Oooo... yah I'm gonna want to wear something with the Weapon-R logo on it now. At least I WOULD have put the Weapon-R sticker (included with the kit) on my car... until I find that it's not vinyl. It's the cheap form of one-piece clear sticker that's been printed. Ew. No thanks.

The install was far from "20 minutes" like it should be. This was because the hand-made engine mounting bracket did not line up right with my tC and was poorly assembled. I had to ultimately put a 3° twist in the bracket and grind away a portion of it.

The twist was to allow the engine damper to line up with the strut-tower bracket. Otherwise, it would have been constantly under a torqued load and the welds may eventually break. The grinding was needed because there was NO way to tighten the inner engine mounting nut. The bracket has a flange on it, and an edge of the flange was sticking out too far to allow access to the nut. I couldn't get a socket on it, I couldn't get a box-end or open-end on it. We even went out and bought some crows feet hoping that would work, but no. Grinding off the obstructing "lip" was the only solution.

Finally, the instructions say to "adjust the length of the engine damper" but no clue is given as to how to do this. It unscrews from both ends, but I had no guidance to let me know which end I should unscrew or how the adjustment should be done. It's kind of a mystery, so I just made sure everything was tight after I was done. Oh, and speaking of tight... torque specs on the engine bolts and strut tower bolts should have been included.

Does it work? Hard to say. I suppose it does. When starting the engine, there is very little shake now. I'd like to see a stock tC again so I can compare. Shifts seem more solid. The engine damper DOES work with my DC Sports Strut Bar, but I had to add a couple of washers on the driver's side so that the strut bar would continue to sit level. Oh and I had to cut away a portion of my carbon fiber engine cover to make everything fit, too.

I also now have a small buzz which I have to track down. The fit is very tight, so it's possible that under load one of the pieces of the engine damper is touching and buzzing against another piece of the car. It could be this "buzz" is simply more engine noise coming into the cabin, but I won't assume that. It's very minor, but if I can find it and stop it then that would be great.

All in all, I am disappointed with Weapon-R. I will need to live with the engine damper a bit and do some comparisons with stock tCs to try and get an idea if the engine damper actually DOES anything. Visually it does look nice in the engine bay.

JasonH

I read just about everything on their website a while back when researching intakes. They tend to make a lot of dubious scientific claims and use made up words like "velocitize". Based on that and some of the user experiences, I don't think I'll buy any Weapon-R stuff in the near future.

scrap

I was going to buy one this week, until I just read this article. Ray what do you have to say, why was the install so hard and whats up w/ the hardware.

DGTLLVR

I bought a WeaponR intake about a year ago. I had similar issues. They didn't have the parts in the kit to even make an install possible. They charged ME the consumer $15 shipping to return it to them....


Needless to say, I bought the Injen Short Ram intake. I'm so glad I didn't get stuck with the WeaponR intake.

iowagary

Yeah... I haven't bought any WR stuff, but I've definitely looked over the intake and the engine dampers - they just seem like a small amateur company. I tend to only buy rock-solid gear for my car. My tC is my baby and if it isn't going to perform better than stock without any additional problems, I'm not going near it. It's embarassing that WR can't ship even their mediocre gear without pieces missing.

tckurt

Yea Im with scrap... I was considering buying this but not anymore...

mrbridge

Damn zack, that's some crap. I'm sorry man, but I'm glad you wrote this article, helped out the rest of us.

You sir, are a brave guinea pig!

*Crosses out an imaginary "Weapon R" on an imaginary list of possible companies to purchase from on an imaginary piece of paper in an imaginary notebook*

I like to use my imagination. =p

-s

engifineer

I have been leary of them, and this just adds to it. They try what many cheap companys try: they create an overly flash and sound ridden web site to make themselves appear more upscale. Second, they quote (poorly) laws of physics very loosely, as to camoflauge the fact that they don't themselves understand them. And as someone pointed out, they seem to make up their own laws and words. All of this added to their homeade shop equipment that is supposedly "more precise" than a full fledged flow bench and thier lack of proof reading and proper editing make them look all the more amateur to me. And I found all this from a 5 minute tour of their site.

Regarding the buzzing or rattling from the damper; many times you will cause more rattles and vibration with dampers, as you are adding one more tie-point between the engine and the unibody. But it sounds like overall their kit was complete junk! Sorry to hear about that experience.

RacerZack

thanx for the posts of encouragement, and i'm glad my comments have helped. i expected some additional vibration and noise from the damper so the buzz i'm hearing could just be that. however, since it was a tight fit i also know of at least 2 places where i might be getting an unnecessary vibration (which can be fixed).

the principle of the engine damper is one which has been around for a while, so it is very possible that i AM getting a benefit. like i said, if the install had gone smoothly then i would have measured my engine's motion prior to the install, put on the damper, then seen the change. (obviously this would only be doable when the engine starts, not while moving -- but that's at least SOME kind of benchmark)

regrettably, with missing parts and the need to fiddle with the bracket, i kinda got distracted from doing the kind of photos and measurements i wanted to do.

at the next scinergy or socal-tc-club meet, i'll find a stock (or stockish) tC and at least get a visual on engine shake @ start. then i can have a little idea what kind of damping i'm getting (if any).

and hey, if i don't get anything out of this -- the weapon-r engine damper is worth at least 10 visual horsepower plus 10 mental foot-pounds of torque!

Dr_Isotope

iTrader: (1)

After finally seeing their mounting brackets, I am in the process of fabricating my own, to use a Fox Vanilla Float air shock (a pressure-adjustable MTB rear shock) for the damper. Total cost, about $25. Then if it doesn't work well, I'll only have wasted my time.

And I do that all the time anyway.

Sorry to hear of your Weapon-R related experience. Beware of those who velocitize.

hahaitzskippy

cant we jus use brackets from different toyota's? such as from teh camry V6?