Research Mode
One positive thing about this year of down time is that there seems to be a lot more kit car aftermarket (especially in the UK) for the Duratec than there was. A lot of things that I thought would need to be fabricated are readily available. Part of me says that some of the parts are expensive… but, for complex and tight-fitting parts that I can’t make myself, probably no more expensive than having them done locally. Bonus points for proper fit without any hassle! This will apply to things like the coolant tube that routes from the back of the head to the front of the engine for the radiator, and possibly a partial intake manifold (flange w/ stubs, intended for IRTB), among other things.
I’ve given the engine mounts some more thought, and after spending a few minutes in the Summit Racing catalog, I think I’m going to redo them. What Jeff did for me is fully custom, and would work, but I like to use readily available factory parts wherever possible for a neater and easier to maintain installation. Should also allow for a little more “slop” in the installation, which will make it a lot easier to get the engine in and out.
So, what Jeff built are custom tubular mounts. Basically, a pipe welded to a plate that bolts to the engine with another pipe welded on the opposite end making a T. The end has fixed poly bushings with threaded inserts, requiring a bolt to be inserted in each side of the mount to fix it to the frame bracket. The mounts themselves are passable except for one of the bushings not quite being straight, but the frame brackets are crap and need to be reworked.
What I’m looking at instead are Jeep CJ5 engine mounts. They simply bolt to the frame with two bolts (I’ll weld a flat plate to each frame rail with studs to bolt them to) and have a single stud from the top to set the engine mount/bracket onto. Designed for the torque of a Jeep inline 6, they should be more than adequate for the task. I like that they’ll be forever available, easily replaceable, and I can even switch them out for softer rubber ones if I ever choose to. (the extra slop of a rubber mount may cause an interference problem with the bonnet, so I’m going to start with poly)
The single transmission mount on the Type 9 also uses a simple single stud mounting, so I can use another of the same engine mounts for a transmission mount. And I’ll have to cut out the welded in “transmission mount” (a flat piece of steel with a hole in it and no room for a bushing) in favor of a bolt-in bracket.
I’ll have to give things a closer look before ordering parts, but I think that’s the direction I’m headed. Since I’m back to doing this myself, I might as well go ahead and do it in a way that pleases me.
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