newworld

lizard....

you mentioned "leave mount bolts to chassis loose" you mean the top bolt you see from above?

my exhaust headers are one both sides, you do you go back in there and tighten them later or you let them a bit loose as the weight of the engine will sit on them?

thanks...

Rob Edwards

Whaa? Those never get within a foot of each other. Unless you're lowering the car onto the motor.....

Lizard928

No, the bottom nut on the motor mounts. Leave this loose. The top one should be tightened.
This lets the motor mount hats have some left/right/fore/aft movement making install much easier.

newworld

rob....i meant top strut brace, i called it the sway bar. or maybe we can call it top sway bar, the one across top of engine. the mounts on both sides i left there, but the passenger side gets in the way. i should have removed it.


lizard.....
if you leave the bottom bolts loose, then you leave open that whole assembly area as that bolt is covered as i recall....

thanks for the clarification, i thought u were referring to top bolt of the mounts.

Rob Edwards

No problemo!

The only downside to loosening the lower motor mount bolt is that you have to have had dropped the steering rack to be able to loosen and tighten it. Which is fine if you were R&R'ing motor mounts as part of the engine R&R, but it's kind of a PITA extra step if you're not.

Still think that for DIY engine R&R the easiest configuration is to have the car up off all 4 wheels and level, so the transmission can be slid back. Takes 2 bolts and all of 5 minutes once the car's in the air. Why not create as much space and wiggle room as possible?

Lizard928

Rob,

I tended to agree before. But not anymore.

I have done tons of pulls/installs, and you dont have to fully remove the rack, just remove the plate, and the rack can drop down enough to access.
Trust me, it saves MUCH more time than it costs.

The benefit to doing it this way is that it allows you to partially roll the mounts forward which allows the hats to sit up and into their spot on the block so then as you lower the engine further it automatically pulls the block backwards and into the correct place. As well, you are no longer having to try and fight separating the mounts in order to get the oil pan between them.

Give it a try next time, last 3 motor installs I've done this way, and I'll never go back!

Rob Edwards

Hey Colin-

Huh, I can see where having 'tilting' mounts would be nice. As it happens, I am going to get another chance to install my interim motor back into the Anderson racer, which was set up with a custom crossmember and mounts to lower the engine with its fancypants drysump pan. Turns out that a stock pan and spacer is too tall to use the lowered mounts, so the pan just sits on the crossmember:







So I'm going to have to put a stock crossmember back in to house the interim motor.

The other fun thing about engine R&R's in the White Zombie is the additional cage tubes- the motor has to go in, then back, then down. WIth the stock mounts I think I'm just going to have to drop the crossmember, suspend the engine in place, and put the crossmember up and in from below.

Bill Ball

Looks like fun and games there Rob.