Guest bobnagga Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 yeah. I've been thinking on solind mounting my 305. it'd be easy, quick and my car would look mean when I tap the gas at a light and the whole front of the car dips. It's called psychological warfare. Intimidation is the key. But anyway. I'm more than a little worried about that much torque warping my car. There are simple ways to beef up the unibody, but even more, I'm worried about that torque breaking a weld and having my engine flop around in there. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleeper-Z Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 i'm running solid motor mounts as well as solid diff. mount. very shaky at idle, and if the doors are open, you can see them vibrate. you can go the easy route and have a weld in cage, and/or you can stitch weld the seams of the body. on my setup i'm not worried about breaking any welds, then again, i'm not using a JTR style setup. -steven m. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 There's a lot of on-going maintenance with a solidly mounted engine. The additional vibration through the chassis tends to loosen fasteners all over the car and things that don't like vibration will break (stereos, guages, etc.). If you're not willing to periodically check nuts and bolts throughout the car then I suggest you stick with rubber engine mounts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilRufusKay Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 Are you familiar with one of our members..... "BlueovalZ"? He has a solid mounted setup and has a link to his website showing all the mounting points ( I think..) do a search for his screenname and check out his site. Even if all of his setup is not there he has a ton of useful / cool pics. Good Luck!! Rufus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bobnagga Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 I don't know about the JTR style setup... I never even looked at that. I'm using a '78 chevy 305 and a turbo350 automatic. The tranny crossmember was easy. I just welded a 5 inch square plate to the bottom of it to extend it to fit the 350. I have the cradle style mounts. A piece of square tube iron actually fits right in there. It's a little tall, but it fits... It's not the biggest engine I could stuff in there, but better safe than sorry, you know. I was thinkin on putting diagonal plates in in the corners of under my hood... but my radiator support. The driver's side is bondoed together! It was in a wreck before I got it and the driver's side front clip is all crumpled in. Fine job the body shop did, I tell ya. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heavy Z Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 Keep in mind that with a built motor, your car will shake plenty at idle with rubber mounts as well. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zfan Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 Boy do I know all about that one. Rattle, rattle, even with rubber ones. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bobnagga Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 heavyZ, WHAT IS THAT HOOD SCOOP? that's dope! That is exactly what I envisioned for my ZX! O'course, no one around here has stuff like that... I see yours is a 1stgen... anyway. I think I'ma solid mount it. it'll be fun. But it'll smooth out at speed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heavy Z Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 Thanks Bob, the scoop is from a '69 comet grabber. Good luck with your ZX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
materchan Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 you could put an engine dampener on the engine, that might be able to torque the car around but not rattle the crap out of everything. diesel maximas have them. i bet you could find a ton if you know what car to look at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bobnagga Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 '69 comet? huh. Odd how it kinda perfectly fits the contours of that lump thingy. Engine dampener? what is that? i never heard of it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueovalz Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 Something to consider in the solid mounting in regards to chassis stiffening is the "front and rear plate" method. When the engine is mounted onto the frame rails at four separate rigid points, the frame rails then become tied together via the engine and thus all of these parts act as a single unit. In a high torque application the twisting then is spread out behind the firewall, instead of forward of the firewall if you were using the typical two point soft mount. The rear plate in this instance is tied to the joint where the frame rail and the firewall meet, and this keeps the rails parallel. This then is where a cage really comes in handy in stiffening the chassis behind the firewall. BTW, vibrations have never been a problem with the solid mounting on my car. I was afraid the rear-view mirror would be useless with this set-up, but I find its view to be very clear. I added further stiffening into the chassis by solidly mounting the tranny as well. The engine/tranny combination provides a "spine" so to speak for the tunnel area, which reduces any up and down flexing. I can jack my car up completely off the ground with jack-tubes positioned at the exact center point between the front and rear axles, and the door jams will not change at all from the normal "on the ground" position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
materchan Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 its just basicly a shock absorver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavyZ Posted June 26, 2004 Share Posted June 26, 2004 its just basicly a shock absorver. Yes, I have seen such shock absorbers on engines like diesels (still trying to figure out which ones...) in the past. I suppose it would work, but if you want some true stiffness with minor deflection, you can always go with poly urethane mounts available at Northern Auto Parts or Summit. There are guys running them here on the forum. I have a set, but I have no idea what the part numbers are because I bought them new from a member who accidentally purchased two sets. They are stiffffff.... Davy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bobnagga Posted June 26, 2004 Share Posted June 26, 2004 well, too late, it's done. I got up at the butt crack of dawn so I didn't have to do it in the heat... It was a lot easier than I thought. just a couple of pieces of 4x4 square iron tubing fits right up in the chevy cradle style mounts and a stud thru the ZX's mount tower is all it took. easy. The guy I talked to tried telling me all this complicated stuff "first get the stud type mounts... then make your self NEW mount towers and then put it in there. Simple." uh huh. And Blueovalz, I'm not sure I get what you're talking about... Four mount points? I only see two. where would the other ones be? the tranny itself? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueovalz Posted June 26, 2004 Share Posted June 26, 2004 The solid mounting method I was espousing uses two sheet metal plates that bolt onto the front and rear of the engine block (between the water pump up front and between the bellhousing at the rear) which then bolt onto receivers at the crossmember and rear part of the engine bay's frame rails. This basically turns the engine block into a part of the unibody. My personal thoughts (and this has been debated) is that once you use a solid mount on any specific part, than all other mountings for this part should be solid as well. In other words, you may want to consider solid mounting the tranny as well. To have the tail of the tranny moving around whilst the solid motor mounts try to restrict this movement will eventually lead to fatique and failure of the solid mounts (cracking, breaks in welds, etc) or crossmember towers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bobnagga Posted June 27, 2004 Share Posted June 27, 2004 makes sense now. thanks for clarifying. I prolly will end up solid mounting the tranny, but right now my main concern is getting it to run on it's own power, that is, fuel delivery, pulleys, and charging system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.