The damper fails by slipping on the hub or the elastomeric hardens so its function is reduced.
The damper and the hub are one piece. What matters is if you are at the harmonic frequency of the crank or not. That depends on the rigitity of the crank and the pulse frequancy of the cylinders firing.
With a bad damper all you need to do is hold the RPM at the harmonic frequancy to cause damage. The harmonic occurs within the normal operating RPM of the motor, if it didnt the factory would not have put a damper on. Once your above ( below) the criticle frequency you dont need the damper.
So a high RPM V6 that is racing probably wont have this problem.
Just go past the bad RPM fast enough and you wont have a problem! No I did not make that up, it was a trick that was used in tehh 60's to get inline sixes work as race motors in boats. Once past that RPM the motor worked just fine at 7000 RPM.
Also since all elastomeric dampers age and lose efficancy every older V6 could have this issue.
This easily could contribute the the crank bolt failures we have seen since the connection to the crank will see a much greater stress with a poorly operating damper.
A loose or sheared front pulley, a flywheel coming loose, a fatigued clutch cover etc. can be sure signs of running an undamped or incorrectly engineered damper.
Add that to a crank thats been re ground that removed the factroy rolled fillets and you might be able to explain a lot of broken engines.
Kevin
