The V8 Owners Forum -

the rover v8 seems to be fairly conventional with its engine mounts, just a mount either side then what ever the gearbox is mounted with, is this the standard way its always mounted?

im fitting a new engine and subframe to my car so was going to re jog the mounts slightly even if just to fix the engine a bit more firmly, however on most modern cars the engine seems to hang in fairly soft mounts and then have a tie mount at the bottom, is this a better way??

its mid mounted transverse so wouldnt look out of place to have a different mounting set up.


Ralph

Hi Ralph
most engines are mounted to isolate as much vibration from the chassis as possable while still allowing smothe clutch operation. To this end the 3 point + steady bar or 2 is about the best. For a racing application where smothe aplication of max power to the road is required then the engine is mounted either with a mid plate between engine and box and light gearbox and front engine mounts, or an engine plate at the front of the engine and failey solid gearbox mounts. The deciding factor here is the strength of the gearbox casing.
Really what is best for you is down to what you use the car for, I recon your bast bet, with the transverse set up would be to mount the engine and box at one end to a plate that supports both and a rubber mount to the chassis from that and a cradle arrangment to the existing rpver engine mounting points, again to rubber mounts between chassis and engine. This would give a more stable set up than a conventional pasanger car set up but still give some isolation from vibration.
Best regards
Mike

What you going for now ?

Ive had mine bolted in solid for years. Both my last RV8, and current LS engines.

Really it isnt anywhere near as bad as it sounds. TBH when I first did it, I barely noticed much difference at all. And it makes exhausts and everything else much easier, because the engine isnt wobbling about !

And that's with a previously rubber mounted front crossmember which is also bolted solid into the chassis.

As Kiwi says though. OEM are all about noise, vibration etc etc. They want everything as soft and smooth as possible. Adding additional tie bars at high leverage points are a good way to using soft mounts but still retaining control of movement.

I'd think that on a transverse layout, side-side movement would need the most control, so that under cornering etc the engine/box isnt pushing or pulling too hard against the driveshafts and CV's which cannot move so much. Unless the inner joint has a lot of free play.

Fore/aft, the engine cant move too far anyway. Then torque reaction could be controlled in a variety of ways.

But if the RV8 is still in and running, make up a couple of solid mounts to replace the rubbers and try it. You may be surprised.

thanks for the very indepth replys

im staying with a rover v8, probably going for a 4.6, which would have different cam an ported heads so no massively extreme power,

as its an everyday car i think solid mounting it is out the window, you have slightly lost me on the plate mounting thing??

atm i have 2 mount sin fairly standard place, and another 2 holding the gearbox in a similar way but closer together so i dont think they are doing much from a torque reaction perspective, and i think i could do with possible more strength in that way.

i get no vibration what so ever really, i think i have 2 options,

either move the standard mounts further apart particularly on the gearbox end,

or think up something more clever an steal mounts off a more modern car, but they would probably be difficult to fit the engine.


Ralph

If you can adapt the existing mounts to solid, give it a try, you'll be surprised.

Failing that, mounts at the extremities will be best as they will offer the most reaction against any leverage or torque from the engine.

A motor plate is basically a large flat plate bolted to either the front of the engine, or sandwiched between bellhousing and block extending towards the chassis or cradle. It's usually a rigid mount though

Some people simply add tie bars ( mini style ) to high leverage points, often the cylinder head to prevent engine rotation on that plane.

These should be relatively easy to add on, and remove etc