Engine mounting bush replacement methodology

[types26/36]

Have I understood that correctly - Spyder say to use the engine mounts upside down, thereby bypassing the U bracket failsafe bit of the design? .

I think the fitting of the mountings are being misunderstood, with Spyder chassis doesn't the four mounting bolts bolt onto the chassis and the two bolts bolt onto the engine with some sort of bracket? the mounting is then "upside down" but is still fail-safe as when/if the mounting fails the weight of the engine sits in the "U"
I seem to remember it was the same on the Europa I used to own or am I completely wrong? I just can not believe Spyder would make something so obviously wrong.

[rgh0]

Hi Stuart'
The Spyder chassis reverses the engine mount so the 4 bolt flange goes on the chassis and the 2 bolt flange goes on an arm to the engine block. Thus you need to turn the engine mount upside down to achieve the same fail design which Spyder do

Using the arm means that you can use a single type of engine mount and different arms depending on what car its for. Also easier to mount a different engine as all you need do is change the arm design.

cheers
Rohan

[Chancer]

Using the arm means that you can use a single type of engine mount and different arms depending on what car its for. Also easier to mount a different engine as all you need do is change the arm design.

cheers
Rohan

Makes sense and it what Lotus did with the 7 and it carries on today with the Caterhams although why stick with the 105E mountings I cannot understand, the A35 ones on the Lotus/Caterham are much better until the slightest of o?l contamination, pretty much any modern mounting would be far Superior.

My first Westfield used the later 711M mountings and they were rubbish also, i converted it using round doughnut mountings off of I think an RS2000 rally car (long time ago) and the location and NVH were much improved and they never degraded.

At what price originality especially if its hidden away?

[69S4]

Thanks guys, after your explanations I can see that reversing the mount in two planes would get you back to where you started from. I didn't know about reversing it on the chassis - engine axis and its been a while since I last looked closely at an Elan with a Spyder chassis.