Engine mounts

[Leo Zugner]

My front and rear engine mounts seem to be just slightly out of alignment. Did anyone have to modify either of these spots to make them work out?

 

[Rttoys]

Make sure all mounts are loose, including the ones on the sides of the frame, plus loosen the subframe too. It’ll all wiggle together.

 

[Leo Zugner]

oh man. ok. My help is gone so I'll have to figure out how to do it by myself. For the rear mount, do all three of those long bolts go into the subframe? That one seems like it will be super cramped with all three bolts.

 

[Robinjo]

Mine is so tight that I have to loosen all the points and then use a jack and board to get the mount between the engine and firewall line up.

 

[Leo Zugner]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm tempted to modify the holes instead of moving the engine again because I think the rear mount still wouldn't line up with the three bolts.

 

[Ross]

Lift the engine when the bolts are loose. Either jack it up from the floor, or lift it from above. Made a big difference on mine.

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

Drilling holes and modifying things should be the last resort - always. Loosen everything and get a jack and pry bar and try to move everything around to line up BEFORE you change something that cannot be fixed.

 

[Rttoys]

Are you on the correct holes on the frame to engine? i’m not sure what doner you have to help on that part.

as others have aside, just loosen the engine mount bolts, but don’t remove them. Then it’s a jack, ratchet straps and/or pry bar to wiggle into place.

 

[Leo Zugner]

I’ll try that tonight. Thanks guys

 

[Markm]

I left the front of engine and rear of trans mounts loose. I installed the bolts in the front of the subframe first and attached the front and rear trans mounts then used a small ratchet strap to align the rear subframe bolts. Not too difficult just creative

 

[Sluggonaut]

It was a big challenge for me as well. The biggest issue is always ensuring that the rear frame downtubes align with the subframe. Doing it solo, I always have to use ratchet straps to get the last downtube bolt in, but you definitely need all bolts started and loose to get the motor mounts to line up.

 

[duthehustle93]

I was not able to get the holes to line up with a combination of 4ft prybars and every other bolt loose. My donor was in a pretty bad front end crash (the front mounting point on the transmission was broken off and needed to be welded back on). I was hoping that was the only failure point, but it looked like the front pickup point on the subframe was also bent. I stacked two 4' pry bars on that pickup point, and lowered the car on the pry bars to help bend it back, but I still ended up needing to cut apart and reweld the front solid mount to get everything to line up properly. Don't rule out a slightly bent subframe if your donor was crashed at the front.

 

[Leo Zugner]

After wrestling with it for a while I finally elongated the holes a bit and the bolts went in. Not ideal but I think both front and rear mounts still do the job. Thanks for all the input y'all.

 

[Gtstorey]

When I bought my kit, I didn't order the DF moto to subframe mounts since they seemed expensive for what they were. I just mounted everything and made mounts to where the motor was setting based upon the engine hanging from the frame. I don't see elongating the holes slightly causing a problem.

 

[Leo Zugner]

When I bought my kit, I didn't order the DF moto to subframe mounts since they seemed expensive for what they were. I just mounted everything and made mounts to where the motor was setting based upon the engine hanging from the frame. I don't see elongating the holes slightly causing a problem.

That tube subframe seems like a good call! The amount of material I removed doesn’t seem like it will be an issue.