Xe engine mounting issues (long read)

[Jonlem]

Ok finally I have admitted defeat on a problem I've been having with a mates car I'm putting together

This has been bugging me for ages now as I know it will be harder to fix once the conversion is more complete so I've been scratching my head on what to do.

Right here we go, this could be a long so I'll apoligise now

I'm using TAS mounts for the first time on a conversion, I ran both gearbox ones on mine but never the main engine mount.

Basically the engine is not and does not want to sit correctly in the bay, in my eyes there is no way you should have to lever the engine onto all the mounts so its squashed in place rather than sitting nicely

Problem one:

The TAS engine mount only has 1 fixing to the drop mount and it is not threaded like normal nova mounts, so you need to use a nut and bolt to hold the drop mount to it.

here is a pic of the drop mount:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/engmount4.jpg

Anyone know who made these ones ? possibly Brian S off mig ?

Here is a pic of the TAS mount with bolt fitted so the head is on the inside of the mount as it would be when fitted:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/engmount5.jpg

As the engine bay has had the HH kit fitted there is one plate that sits on the inner wing under the front engine mount, pictured here :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/engmount6.jpg

If you look carefully you can see a mark where the bolt head fitted through the TAS mount touches the inner wing, this ofcourse means when the engine moves it will be felt through the whole car, which is crap.

My idea was to simply drill a 20mm hole where it catches so I could access the bolt head from the wheel arch thus also sorting the clearance issue out

The problem is that if I drill a hole there it will go through the bottom half of the inner wing and the top section, which will a: look a bloody mess and b: probably take strength out of that area, not maybe such a problem if the car hadn't been painted but it has so I really dont want to be doing that

So we come to problem 2, although they are all connected problems.

As already mentioned the engine does not fit nicely. It appears that the engine needs to go further to the passenger side to stop the engine putting so much strain on the front engine mount, It also appears that the rear mount is twisting which I also dont believe is good either.

This is the front gearbox mount:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/engmount.jpg

As you can see its maxed out going any further towards the right, also although I have found this plenty of times, the nut that goes onto the bolt to hold the mount to the chassis is VERY close to the gearbox (yes I know I have fitted it the wrong way round)

Is there actually a way round that ? not a huge problem but curious.

Also the TAS mount is narrower than the mounting point it has to sit into, the chassis part of the mount does close up when you do the mount up, I stopped this by fitting a few washers either side of the mount to take the gap up

The rear mount can be seen here:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/engmount3.jpg

Visibly you can see its twisted, it looks as if it actually needs spacing further ? I have heard people say you don't need to run the rear spacer but in this case it doesn't look like that is even enough

The main problem though comes when I fit this

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/adex1.jpg

As due to the engine also being so close to the drivers side this happens:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/adex2.jpg

Now the exhaust was made for a xe fitted to a nova, the only difference being is the previous owner only used rubber mounts, which strangely enough allowed the engine to sit ok and not cause the manifold to foul the tie bar.

I have tried fitting a normal nova tie bar but that still doesn't give enough room and I really don't fancy running 230bhp down 1.2 tie bars

To make matters worse the manifold should ideally be heat wrapped which gives me even less room

I need to know how many xe drop mount kits differ from one another ?

Also pics or suggestions from people using TAS mounts on xe novas ?

Really really holding me up now this is, everything normally is damn simple but this is quite a big issue.

This is sadly as far as things are going right now till this is sorted :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/adnice1.jpg

Any help is hugely appreciated :thumb:

[fearless]

Only quicky read your post - Yes TAS mounts are a pain to fit - Extremely difficult to get all the bolts in !!

Starting with you OSF engine mount - The bush that is housed inside the rubber mount requires grinding down - so the bolt head sits more into the mount - It may be neccessary to grind down the head of the bolt as well !! - I had to grind down a spanner head to slip up between the chassis and the engine mount !!!!! so it could be tighten up
As you say - If the bolt touches the chassis leg - Major Vbrations !!

The NSF gearbox mount bolt has to be ground down - as long as it doesn't touch the gearbox - you should be OK


I'll have another read of the post and have a think !!


Dave

[Jonlem]

Nice one Dave :)

Had also thought of threading the TAS mount so I could just bolt it up that way.

Your idea certainly makes sense though

[graham kirkbride]

hi all!!!! ive got these mounts and thanks for pointing out the problems when fitting them,which i will be doing soon there is a company called bolt forgers that make slim head high tenstile bolts which will stop the bolt in the osf front mount from hitting the chassis leg hope this helps

[fearless]

Just another quick thought ! - If the rear engine mount is at an angle - are you sure the engine is sat straight in the engine bay ?

The N/S/F engine mount must be right - no other place for it to be !

Sounds to me as if the osf 'drop mount' as you call it, is causing all your problems - possibly bringing the engine too far forward at that side (Which would explain why the exhaust manifold is touching the tie bar)

Maybe try a spacer (a couple of Washers will do) between the mount and the block to push the engine back !!!!


Only throwing a few ideas about !! - some may help, some may not !!!


Dave

[Riggy]

lol i had a ****ing nightmare when fitting my xe with tas mounts , took ages lol and had to force the ****er in , yet when ever we have fitted them with std mounts they have been a piece of piss lol think its just the wasy they are fella

[novadicko]

if u dont mind me askin who made the maniifold?

[graham kirkbride]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/engmount5.jpgproblem solved regarding the bolt touching the chassis, just grind the metal bit in the middle of the bush back as far as the bush that gives another 4/5mm clearance from the chassis leg i tried it today

[Jonlem]

if u dont mind me askin who made the maniifold?

www.SimpsonRaceExhausts.com :thumb:

Some positive ideas from people, the main issue is the exhaust hitting the tie bar, if it was any other manifold I'd probably just use brute force but I'm not taking a hammer to that !

Going to make some modifications to the rear mount as suggested by Chris16v, thanks mate :D

Dave- I will try that with the front mount, hopefully it will move it back enough to free up some room. Thanks for the advice on the TAS mount too :thumb:

Shame its dark when I get home from work now, later this week I'll have a refit after I've modified all the mounts at work, should be interesting in the dark lol