Yep, Solid mounts for engine and trans.

 

Really good work and write-up, Adam.

 

Today I put the torque tube, crossmember, and trans combo in.

First, I adjusted the shifter, making sure I could grab all the gears. I'm sure it could be done with the trans in the car, but looks like a nasty job compared to how simple it is at this stage.

Next, I filled the trans with oil. Again, very easy to do with the trans out of the car.

Finally, the whole assembly was positioned, the body lifted, and then the trans slid underneath. I used my creeper to hold the bell housing end because it is very low to the ground.

Finally I lowered the body a bit, then used the trans jack to raise the trans up to the point where I could install the bolts.

Some notes:

1. I always use blue loctite on all body and suspension bolts, even if they have lock washers. Cheap insurance.

2. You will have a dilemma with proper torquing; the dilemma is this: The rear crossmember holes are slightly larger than the bolts that go into them. The Trans to crossmember holes are slotted. The reason for this is so that you can fine tune the position of all these WHEN THE ENGINE IS INSTALLED.

There is not much play, but there is a millimeter or two in there. Ideally, you would bolt the engine to the TT and leave all the major bolts loose so that you can slightly fine tune the alignment of all three pieces. I don't have an engine at the moment, so i can't do that.

What I do instead is use the witness marks from where the crossmember used to bolt, and then I torque EVERYTHING to spec. The reason I do this is in case I forget to come back and tighten everything. I see it like this - when i get the motor, if I have a slight fitment or alignment issue, I can loosen just the bolts I need to in order to fix it.

At least I have eliminated the risk of leaving critical bolts un-torqued, which is always a possibility if you don't religiously torque down one component at a time until everything on that component is torqued, then moving on to the next item.

You can always loosen it later, but you may not remember to torque it!

 

Finished up the hoses after my Summit delivery came with the AN fittings I had ordered.

To do: Bolt down both fuel pumps and surge tank, connect fuel pump to main line.

One thing we never talked about was that Bob made an AN8 hard line that runs from the back of the car all the way up to the engine bay. He also made an AN6 return line. Material looks like stainless, but I haven't really investigated it much. I'm going to blow these lines out with air within the next couple days then hook everything up.

 

Not worried about breaking things?

 

It's always a possibility with solid mounts, but I feel that in this type of car, the benefits outweigh the risks.

First of all, Porsche Motorsport NA makes solid engine and trans mounts for the cup cars. All cup cars currently racing use solid mounts.

Secondly, aftermarket solid mounts are widely available for many applications;
http://www.rennline.com/Rennline-Sol...oductinfo/M02/

and they are very well reviewed.

Lastly, my experience with these comes from the Camaro world. I know that sometimes on the Porsche boards we think we are pushing big power, but we really aren't, comparatively speaking. My car has semi-solid mounts (because it is a street car), but there are many, many 1500-2000 horsepower builds that are running solid mounts front and rear without any issues. I personally know of at least two.

Like anything there are no guarantees; just something that needs to be monitored and checked to see how it performs and correct as necessary.

 

The 911s and the Camaros don't have a torque tubes like the 928 so, solid mounts create a lot less stress than when the chassis wants to twist the transmission off the engine. There is a lot of leverage in the 928 setup.

 

The vettes do; there are a couple in the X class PCA running solid mounts; they are among the fastest cars time wise of the day.

https://gspeed.com/product/c6-corvet...engine-mounts/

The bottom line is that we are going to need to see how they behave and go from there. First 6 months will be autocross almost exclusively; short enough duration runs, less intense, easy to see what's going on.

 

To all Rennlisters: Happy New Year to all of you, may 2017 be an awesome year for you all.

To Bob Devore: Happy New Year, wherever you are, and thanks for leaving me so much to work with. I am really standing on the shoulders of a giant here.

To Der Panzerwagen / Highwayman / Devore Car: Happy New Year; after sitting patiently for God only knows how long, 2017 is the year that you WILL start and WILL run under your own power again.

 

Today I put each rear corner on.

First, I prepped the hardware I needed for the day. The large through bolt that goes through each hub has a number of washers, and each of them was nasty and corroded, so I had to re-plate them. This looks easy in pictures but is evil work; I spent over a half hour on the bench grinder with the wire wheel getting the rust off before they were ready to be replated.

The following is the sequence I used to put on the suspension hardware:

1. Install lower control arm
2. Install coilover, letting it hang loose.
3. Install wheel hub, leaving all bolts loose, and the wheel hub floppy.
4. Install through bolt through hub, joining coilover to hub.
4. Install axle, threading the splined end through the hub first.
5. Install Banana Arm

All in all a pretty simple job, just time consuming. Once again, torque is a consideration here and I torqued EVERYTHING to spec, even bolts that my alignment guy will have to loosen to perform the alignment. It's just so none are accidentally forgotten.

Camber and toe are not set during this phase. I won't even bother with these until the car hits the alignment shop.

The net result: ULTIMATE PEACE OF MIND. The whole rear suspension, trans, and torque tube were disassembled, inspected, and in some cases repaired and rehabbed.

There is no corrosion on any parts anymore, and everything turns easily and freely. I looked at every critical bolt, washer, and nut. I torqued everything to factory specs.

Now I can stand behind it, because it's right. I wouldn't have it any other way!

 

Not to bring up an old issue, but recall there were a bunch of people insisting that the ride height was so tall because the suspension wasn't settled, which i mentioned off the bat was a bunch of horse ****.

Bob couldn't get the car any lower because he ran out of adjustment on the coilovers he was using....they were bottomed out at the lowest setting. My guess is that in 1993 (date on the coilovers) that is all he could get, and I said right from the start the ride height was wrong for a race car, much less a street car.

VINDICATION.

Look at the ride height now. Unsettled suspension, just some bouncing. It still has 1.5" of travel on the coilover. This is more like it!!!!

Also note the front end, which is high because it has no motor in it, but also because it's out of travel as well.

I'll work to get this even lower, maintaining the minimum ride height necessary (not much). The results of taking the entire *** end of the car down this much, and its effects on lowering the CG is incalculable. All that weight, now a good two inches lower than it was.

Stay tuned!

 

Looks fantastic. Great progress!
Thanks for sharing,
Dave

 

Thanks Dave!

 

Cool thread, best of luck Adam!

 

Thanks so much Erik!