Engine Mount Problems....again and again

[mityrare]

I got my S2 recently and within 77 miles the driver's side engine mount failed.

Ordered a replacement and had installed along with heat shielding.

100miles and the same mount has failed again.... without any hard use...only highway miles!!!!

Perhaps a defective mount?

What to do?????

Which retrofit suspension mods will work best to eliminate this bothersome issue?

Parts sources for an alternative solution?

Paul in Canada

[andydclements]

I'd suggest looking at the other mounts, it may be that the one that you are replacing is failing due to excessive load as the others are not carrying their weight.

[giorgio67]

Andy is right, generally this happen when the gearbox bushes (mounts) are worn and not capable to take the weight of the box.

Giorgio

[comem47]

I agree with the others opinions about checking into the health of the other mounts first.

I was cooking and losing the left side (drivers side in North America)mount too and when I installed the Dave Bean 4-2-1 SS header and full exhaust system there was no room for the original heat shield. My solution has served me well several thousand miles on. The L shaped shield was removed and I wrapped the hockey puck mount in a few layers of fiberglass insulation (stuff like cotton wool). Over that I wrapped an aluminum foil surrounding and reflecting layer and that is secured with a few copper wire twists. So far the rubber inside has not cooked and later gone on to shear like before. A much better overall solution others have used is using turbo style mounts with adapter brackets , but I have yet to implement this. I know you can purchase kits for this from various Lotus Parts vendors, I think Lotus by Claudius was the first to manufacture them, but I don't know their price.

Call around to the usual parts vendors and inquire.

-Bob

[GavinT]

This is what my LHS engine mount looked like when I got my car, it's gets cooked real quick without the heatshield-

My car originally had no heat shield.

These are the gearbox mounts. You can see that the bushings have moved forward, pushing the engine forward at the same time. This places extra stain on the engine mounts and will cause them to quickly fail.

I removed the mounts and went to my local machine shop and had them re-centered.Then I installed an over-sized grade 8 fender washer between the bolt head and the mount casing to stop the bushing moving forward again. I also installed a rubber washer to help reduce any vibration.

2000 or so miles later all is still good and nothing seems to have moved. Yes I did make up a heatshield and installed it, more or less as Bob describes above.

I believe JAE have made up a turbo engine mount conversion kit but I know that it's not cheap. Maybe $500?. SJs has also made an improved mount too, about $250. The over-sized fender washer is the cheapest route and seems to work just fine.

Edited May 18, 2011 by GavinT

[comem47]

S2 cars had an engine stay rod kit installed somewhere along production and retrofitted at dealers to limit movement and strain on all the engine mounts

Goes between the crossmember frame (welded to a pivot steel bushing)and bell-housing ( a bushing with washers near air pump bracket on Fed cars)

The rod is threaded near the bushing for adjustment. Had to have the rod re-welded to the steel pivot bushing on mine once

[picture below courtesy of Tim Engle from s1s2s3owners group on yahoo. Blue arrow is item described .)

If you join the s1s2s3owners list on yahoogroups you can also find instructions in the files and photos section to make up your own engine mount brackets to use the turbo mounts vs buying the more expensive kits from vendors if you are good at fabricating things. Look for the document entitled REPLACEMENT ENGINE MOUNTS FOR S1.doc Elsewhere there is also a picture showing another approach modifying the stock arms. Some looking about in the files section is necessary to gain the total picture of your options.

Edited May 18, 2011 by comem47

[peteyg]

There should be no problem with the original mounts. In fact I reverted back to original after having issues with a recommended retrofit. If the rubber is cooking then wrap with exhaust insutation, the stuff used on manifolds. I've done this in a similar way to Bob but without the extra ali wrap and it has worked really well.

If it's not heat that's causing the problem, check bushes as suggested by the others but also check the the mounting arms have been attached the right way round. One side is a different length to the other.

Pete

[77 esprit]

Pete,

I'm with you. Like Bob, I made a heat shield to "protect" my exhaust side engine mount. Same one has been on the car since the early eighties. My car is somewhat more sensative to heat related failure due to having the original adjustable lower links on my suspension instead of the fixed links used in most other S1's. Think RD Enterprises has original motor mounts in stock. Might buy one just to keep as a spare.

Lyn

[mityrare]

The new mount was defective and failed immediately... vendor sent a replacement...to avoid a repeat fail I ordered the retrofit kit from SJSportscars which arrived in Canada only 4 days after ordering (amazing).... i also ordered all new bushings for gearbox etc as well as bits for the shift linkage and timing belt tensioner.

All of this is being installed today... cannot wait to get her on the road again.

Paul

[peteyg]

Hi Paul,

Do you have th estandard manifold or tubular? Only as because it was a very tight fit with the new mounts and the tubi manifold so no room for the heatshield. Even when wrapped the polybush would melt. That's why I went back to the original mount and have not had any probs since. Good luck with it all.

Pete

[rogerch]

SJ are excellent, I get my stuff within the week, way down here in OZ.

[marode]

Here´s a few pictures of the "uprated" engine mounts after 2 years. I had the poly-mounts on the car when I bought it in 2008. After 1 year the left hand side mount was cooked. This side was supported by a heatshield out of a plate plus sort of asbestos (probably the SJ one). My next try was with using the asbestos plus exhaust whool. See the effort in the pictures... The exhaust one has melted completly. I think I have to design an uprated heatshield again.

[andydclements]

That is FUBAR. That took some serious heat/ force.

[peteyg]

That's exactly what happened to mine which is why I went back to the original mounts and they've been fine ever since. I think that was about 4 years ago.

Pete

[molemot]

The way the exhaust curves around the mount means it's getting cooked from both sides at once; no wonder it expires! Think you will need to heatshield it from below as well as above...and even then, it looks to me like a design fault, the heat is going to get that mount no matter what you do. As for the original mounts....optimistic in the extreme...no chance of lasting more than about 5 minutes, I would have said. Good luck with the heat shielding....can you find mounts that are more heat tolerant? The Turbo has quite substantial mounts that the legs from the block sit ON...rather than having silentbloc type bushed inserted IN...and that seems to work (with a heatshield fabricated from an old foil takeaway container!)

[marode]

Here is my heatshield v.3.0

I´am afraid I´ll be back with my report in 2013. Fingers crossed...

[GavinT]

Wow, that's incredible and very disappointing to see.

This is what I did with mine:-

three years later and about 3,000 miles all is still good.

[marode]

approx. one year and 3000miles later... what should I say. I´ll better ask for a standing order of engine mounts.

 

[andydclements]

Perhaps you need water-cooled mounts. Is there any way you could duct a small amount of cool air from underneath the car, to flow onto the mounts?

[peteyg]

My standard mount with exhaust wrap heatshield has finally expired after 5 years. The rubber has sheared but no sign of cooking so the exhaust wrap has done its job well. Need to investigate gearbox mounts to see if excessive engine movement was the cause.

 

Pete

Edited September 21, 2013 by peteyg

[GavinT]

I think SJ should give you a refund...that 'upgrade' is not cheap.