Anyone using solid engine mounts? If so could you post some pics or details? I plan to use all 4 bolt holes on each side of the block to bolt up too. I think it will be stronger that way. Royden
From the looks of the rear suspension in the other post (T350 behind the BBB) I'm guessing your car will be a street runner. Imho - you don't want solid mounts on the street. Some kind of cushioned through bolt setup so the mount can't separate like a bonded rubber one would is the way to go. As a small example, my little brother runs a 500" DRCE powered Henry J at the drags (8.13 @ 166 mph) and it has solid engine mounts. There's a vibration that comes in about 1200-1500 rpm. Pretty much of a harmonics deal, but it does set the Dzus retained aluminum floors to buzzing. Not a big deal in a race car, but it would drive you crazy in a street runner. Go back to the T350 post and look at the pic of the 31's motor mounts. These are similar to the 48 Ford style through-bolt mounts although the cushions are UHMW. (UHMW is a plastic and the acronym stands for Ultra High Molecular Weight. It's also 70% stronger than the Teflon it resembles. You can buy the stuff in sheets of varying thickness - plus it's a lot cheaper than Teflon - and cut out what you need with hole saws or other style saws and drill the mounting holes with common twist drills. You can't see it in the pic, but there is an additional - smaller - UHMW mount on the underside. Bolts are 1/2 - 13 and retained with Nylocks. As hard as the UHMW is you'd think there wouldn't be much in the way of vibration damping capabilities, but there is. I got tired of the 48 Ford rubber biscuits that were originally on the 32's motor mounts going south and made a set of UHMW mounts for it. They run very smooth - in fact smoother than the rubber biscuits and that's a fairly objective opinion. As far as how tough they are? The pics in the other post show the 1 1/2" OD steel piece sitting directly on the UHMW piece. The engine sat like this for 7 months. I finally got around to making an aluminum top piece so as to spread the load. When I jacked up the engine for the install, the UHMW was unmarked. Fwiwi - the engine and trans are complete, crank & rods in etc. The pic below shows the aluminum spreader plate.
solid versus rubber I personally run new rubber mounts for the shear convenience and vibration factor. I welded a nut to the back side of the mount so the long bolt simply needs to be tightened. Ran a chain from a mounting hole in block with a 3/8" bolt, wrapped the chain around frame and welded that together. Now when the motor torques over, it stops and it acts like a soild mount. Best of both worlds I guess. Kelly.
On my street driven '70 GS I installed a solid motor mount on only the drivers side, and kept a rubber mount on the pass. side and also for the trans mount, I drive this car quite a bit during the summer months and it is fine, I do not feel any additional viberation in the car, (other then the KB107 cam), I originally done this so the clutch linkage would not bind, I now have an automatic in it, but have left the solid mount in. Finishline motorsports (616-765-5101) makes a solid motor mount that is a direct replacement for the factory mounts. On a side note my wife went a 12.20 in this car at the Morocco meet, and drives this car as well with no complaint about a viberation.
Thanks for all your input guys. The car will see some strip duty as I plan to run a tri-sheild perf Level 3 engine, but will rebuild the engine I have currently to get the setup right and get the car on the road sooner. Also it will aid in getting the car certified with a more docile engine in it. Royden
