I just made the solid mounts on the lathe to be honest, nothing much to them. No worries with the updates, its quite easy to upload the pics etc these days and if people are interested then I've thousands lol.
The eagle eyed of you might have noticed that at some point I've moved over works MK3 style engine mounts. So more like a MK1. For ease and speed I used a Rally Design XE engine mount kit for the basic parts plus part of one of their 4 link for watts linkage kit (can't remember exactly which as I tend to have at least one of each in stock as they are useful). Firstly I set up an engine block and gearbox cases (thanks Hotgolf :-)) on the std (or Vibratec in this case) engine mounts. I started on the drivers side and fitted a std MK1 mount to see what we were working with. Then I cut the bush and housing off and fitted the solid XE one. Then made up a mounting bracket and braces from the EX parts and some other bits and welded it all up to plate (To ease installation). Then once all bolted up, tacked it on and after removing the engine mount welded it all up, then moved over to the gear box side........to be continued.
Kept the mounting brackets on the sub frame, just in case I swop parts but the front cross member is all gone now, made a bespoke setup and don't need a front mount anymore....part of another update when I upload some pics
To be clear none of the original mounts are used, just a left and right chassis mount and a bottom mount from the gear box back to the subframe.....more info to follow.
............so here are the other two engine moults as promised, pretty much as described before. at the bottom a pic of the finished install, that is pretty much it, one mount either side and the dog-bone type mount at the bottom. The whole front end is pretty much there to hold the grill, lights and radiator in place.....and sump guard if you are using one. As I have been using the car for Hill climbs and Sprints not really essential at present so running without it, I'll upload some pics of the radiator and sump guard mounts at some point.
One additional change was to add some 3.2mm steel discs between the mount and the rubber bush, as the engine moved too much for my liking. As the bushes are for a longitudinal mounting, not a transverse mounting I think they have a bit more rubber in them than ideal when the load is in line with the centreline as opposed to 90 degrees. In fact MK1's have a similar large rubber discs that serve the same function I guess....never thought about it before. The discs could be made in a heavy rubber or nylon etc. I just had some steel the right thickness and a hole cutter the right dia. to hand. The beauty of the steel ones is they sit tight up against the center stiffener on the mount, slip over the steel core of the rubber bush and up against the solid face on the rubber, so very effectively stop any fore and aft movement.
Next mods were suspension related. I was using a set of Bilstein Grp A dampers with set of Peugeot Sport 205 inserts in the fronts, as the originals had some pitting on the tubes. The fronts were adjustable on threaded bodies but the rears were the Bilstein circlip and groove set up, which didn't offer enough adjustment for my needs, and made it impossible to adjust for corner weights etc. So I got hold of a coilover conversion kit and rather than weld it on and possibly damage the damper wall or worse I hand made a new grove near the base of the damper and moved the original spring mount down and bonded the tube on. I swaped out the bugpack top mounts for some polybush black competition ones and re fitted them. At the same time I changed the rear silencer as the original one for Sailsbury Manifolds was just too big and heavy. I got hold of a 2.75" stainless steel one to match the system and added that, moulted it on rubber bobbins as this is the best exhaust mounting system I have found.
The issue at the front of the car was that with the car set t the right height there was virtually no movement left in the dampers even with shorter motorsport dampers, so I needed an alternative. I managed to picked up a few sets of VWMS kitcar 3way adjustable Bilstein tarmac dampers with remote reservoirs which were much shorter than normal ones, all I had to do was make some bodies to fit! One issue was they were approx 41mm dia not 40mm which was a bit of a problem, plus the shorter insert needed a normal motorsport damper housing shortened. I had a spare set of Bilstein sport Housings, which had been converted to coilover adjustment, the issue with these is they are not double thickness mounting brackets like the motorsport ones, and of course too long. So I machined them down, re welded the top section back on to hold the lip seal and made some stiffener plates for the mounting brackets, welded them all up and sprayed them blue......as I had a tin of TSR engine block Blue on the shelf
Haha, not advisable to be me.............ask my wife! Well to be fair the blue has never caused me any bad luck, so does it for me. Its a nice colour and I always seem to have a tin floating about when I prep a new block
Holy moly. So I read some of this the other night but it seems i missed A LOT of stuff. Love how you've mounted the engine, it's a great idea. I'm going to steal the idea of a rose joined subframe mount as the stock one is a tad to long for my liking.
Realised I haven't actually put any of the car up as it is presently, plus a few interior shots. Full interior of course as its been running in Rally car class, or recently Road Modified class...so the mods are limited by class rules.
No idea to be honest Tristan. I would imagine slight less than stock, but not much. The cage adds quite a bit, the competition exhaust is probably a bit more as is the beefed up box and diff and you have to use std glass, keep the sun roof and it has some underbody skidding etc., but the front seats are light, no sound proofing, bumper irons and much of the front sub frame stripped out, a lot of plastic trim bits removed, central locking etc. I generally run without the sump guard for the hills and sprints. Maybe 50kgs lighter than stock but not supper light. Gets down the road ok though :-). Took her over the Black mountains and around Tro Cwcw last weekend and she was going well, keeps on pulling up to 8.5k hard (but only rev to 60/70mph of course). No drop off through the gears, she makes the next gear feel like the last. I've made some more suspension mods to stop her snatching right under acceleration, she's tamer now but still a bit lively in the first few gears, but doesn't do anything daft, just wanders a little under hard acceleration. No problem on an event, but on public roads you have to be aware there are other road users coming the other way! I guess with 253bhp going through the front wheels on an 80's hatch you have to expect that a little lol. I have the diff set a bit light as well, as I was trying something different, but really I should get it set tighter, but they become a bit more difficult to drive around normally then as the wheels chatter and groan as the plates in the diff fight the wheels She's geared for about 112mph at 8250 rpm in top so too not high geared, I think she'll might be on the limiter in top at a few Uk sprints.
Go some new (secondhand) wheels for the car as well. Rally wheels, so not super light but not too heavy either, but will be strong. Been nicely powder coated so hopefully be ok. Problem with a lot of my wheels is clearing the callipers as the discs are 304mm. Its not really the Dia that's the problem, more the thickness of the calipers, as detailed earlier they have been modified, but there is a limit to what you can take off before it affects the performance of course! Got a set of Avon CR28's for wet and a set of soft VR2 Extremes for the dry......should do ok. Only available in 195 though, so a bit skinny really, but the compound is good.
