Engine Mounts - good source anyone?

[peterako]

Hi Guys,

Happy New Year!

Just drove 120km to Dublin this morning. -5 C most of the way and all but a small part of the windscreen stayed frozen nearly all the way.

BUT, the car performed faultlessly as usual

BUT...another but, when I got to Dublin traffic I noticed a knocking from the engine bay.
At my final destination my worries were confirmed as the engine mount on the exhaust side had failed.

In November, barely 11 months after fitting new engine mounts to my engine the carb side failed.

Now just over a year after it being fitted the exhaust side failed.

In the carb situation I just put my old (and seemingly better mount back in and all is well on that side). When I get home from Dublin I'll be putting the other old one back in on the the exhaust side

BIG question -

Does anyone know of a source for GOOD quality engine mounts.

While changing them is easy enough it's not something I want to do on an annual basis!

Thanks in advance,
Peter

[CBUEB1771]

You should consider the TTR reinforced engine mounts.

[bcmc33]

You have to remember that the engine mount design is well over 50 years old, and rubber manufacturing quality has progressively deteriorated over that time.

I fitted TTR uprated mounts a few months ago and am sure they are standard items with the gaps filled-in to make the more difficult to collapse. BTW the ones I took off ( the exhaust side having collapsed), were of the uprated variety ? but cannot say how old they were or if they were from TTR.

As is my want, I stripped the old mounts down to their inner and outer pressings in order to use them for a brilliant re-design. Having mocked up my redesign I had the need to go to TTR and noticed some fancy bits on a rack in the stockroom ? Tony said they were his race mounts. What a bummer ? they were of the same design principle as my brilliant design. I was too embaressed to say anything to Tony.

One of the things I shall do amongst other jobs this winter is to make a tin cover for the exhaust mount and cover it in HeatMat from: http://www.nfauto.co.uk/download/catalogue.pdf

It may be worth talking with TTR to see if the race mounts are suitable for road use as they would be much easier to maintain.

[peterako]

Hi Guys,

Thank you very much for the replies above.

Nursed the car home this evening, fretting about the fact that when off power the engine was resting on the manifold on teh chassis

Then couldn't find my old mount from that side when I got home (no doubt it's become an integral part of my 3 year old's latest project).

In the mean time my 'saviour' came to my rescue again.

I have mentioned Susan Miller as my favourite supplier a number of times on this and other fora....she's still my favourite!

While speaking to her this evening she mentioned that her late husband, Mick, used to do a mod very like the one you (bmcc33) mentioned as the TTR 'uprated' mount mod.

So, as soon as my new mounts arrive I'll be doing as Susan says Mick used to do....back when rubber wasn't quite as 'rubbish'

Thank you Sue Miller!!

Peter

[SADLOTUS]

Hi Peter and BCMC,
Any chance you let us in on the secret mod?

...or will we be seeing your new engine mounts on a stand at Donnington?

[peterako]

Not sure what Brian's mod is but Sue said that Mick used to fill the space at the top of the engine mount with rubber from the old mount to support the structure.

Whether this will stop or slow the parting of rubber from metal only time will tell....

More like the TTR uprated mount than Brian's/TTR's racing mount.

Take care,
Peter

Damn......what I could have made at Donnington.....?????.....darn!

[collins_dan]

I just replaced my engine mounts and made a sheet metal cover for the exhaust side. Very simple to construct. Time will tell if it helps. My design was very similar to this one from the elanfactory:

http://www.elanfactory.com.au/pdf/produ ... shield.pdf

Dan

[steveww]

The last engine mount I had came from Sue Miller and so it is holding up well. Certainly the quality of this type of rubber part is no where near as good as they used to be.

I think the TTR race type engine mount may be too harsh for road use?

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

The last engine mount I had came from Sue Miller and so it is holding up well. Certainly the quality of this type of rubber part is no where near as good as they used to be.

I think the TTR race type engine mount may be too harsh for road use?

I can confirm that they do take some getting used to.
They are, for want of a better description, practically a metal to metal mounting.
My Zetec ripped new standard mounts apart within a few miles.
Tony noticed this whilst setting up the suspension for me & fitted the race parts.
The engine let's you know it's in there, that's for sure, but you soon get used to it.
No problems since

Cheers
John

[bcmc33]

I forgot to mention until seeing Dan's message that when I stripped-down the failed mount the failure had occurred on the side that faced the exhaust manifold. A major part of that side had extreme deterioration of the rubber as far as the centre pressing ? the opposite side was still good.

The cover I?ve made goes over the complete mount, but seeing the Elan Factory picture, I will only need to put HeatMat on one side and top.

Any chance you let us in on the secret mod?

When I get time I shall look to see if I can find the mock-up of my "brilliant" design ? I sure it?s in the shed somewhere.