Quote:
Originally Posted by Ecky
I had to check, and the Insight's 1.0L 3 cylinder has a harmonic damper. That surprised me a bit as I imagine it's probably an accessory loss, turning some crank motion into heat.
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I think the way to think about crank harmonics is that they are the residual \angular vibrations in the crank. Most of that energy isn't going to make it into moving the car if it's connected directly to the wheels, since it'll just rock things back and forth in a perfectly rigid drivetrain. In real life, it just goes through the sprung hub, dual mass flywheel springs (if applicable), gear lash, etc.
The downside apart from the crank being under more stress is that ignition timing goes off. I think it's pretty normal to observe more power from a damped engine on a dyno because the ignition timing variance is reduced.