Following on from my last post on engine mounts which, in turn, led on to discussing under bonnet clearance, I've been in discussion with a company specialising in, you guessed it, custom made Polyurethane engine mounts.
I can, apparently, get a set made up to any particular shore hardness (they've suggested 75A to me) and any particular thickness.
Now I'm in the lucky position of having yet to weld the mounting plates to the chassis so can easily get a set made to, for example, half the thickness of the standard mounts thereby increasing under bonnet clearance by a reasonable distance.
It also occurred to me, that with a bit of fabrication, an adaptor plate could easily be made to fit between the actual mount and the chassis plate thereby allowing owners to have the engine sit lower in the chassis than it does with standard mounts. It would also, hopefully, overcome the problem of the short life that many of the available new mount appear to suffer from.
The question is, is this something that might be of interest to other owners??
By lowering the engine, you also lower the exhaust downpipe. As you know, ground clearance for exhausts is a major issue on our cars, so I suggest reconsidering. When using the original mounts, also fit the mount rubbers reinforcement bracket, part number 106428. My mounts and brackets were difficult to fit but they do fit. The new rubbers will be taller due to lack of compression, hence they don't align so easily. Stand them in hot water first.
All the best,
Gary
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Rust Never Sleeps - Cavity Wax and Valium Should Do It
Well, having taken Gary's point on exhaust clearance, I decided to have a look to see how mine sat. I've got a s/s tubular manifold which I'd never tried on the engine until now. Much to my surprise, I found that there was so much clearance, I could run the exhaust inside the car. The bottom of the manifold was just above the floor! Something very wrong there. I next tried the grp gearbox cover which fitted perfectly prior to installing the engine and box. It wouldn't touch the floor and was sitting on top of the box. Something definitely wrong.
So I dug out the old engine which has been sitting in a corner of the workshop under a dust sheet.
To cut a long story short, I've discovered the my new, re-built engine has a TR4/4A engine front plate as opposed to the TR2/3/3A engine front plate.
Is there a difference, I hear you ask?
Yes, there certainly is. The engine mount legs on the TR4/4A engine front plate are far longer than those on the TR2/3/3a engine front plate hence the reason why my engine is presently sitting higher than it should.
It's a bit of a PITA, but nothing that can't be overcome with a bit of time and effort swapping one for another. Hopefully there will be no further surprises and the engine will, at last, sit where it should.
With regard to the poly mounts, this is something I'm still considering and I can't believe that no big manufacturer hasn't gone down this route already. Obviously, I now don't need undersize ones but would other owners be interested in a set of poly engine mounts and at what kind of hardness?
I've been given a ballpark price for one set which admittedly is high but much of the cost is in making up the tooling jig. A bulk buy would obviously reduce the price.
