There's always a lot of questions and opinions on motor mounts so I figured I would post up my thoughts.

I finally got around to installing my Spohn solid motor mounts. I was under the impression that it was going to be a painful and time consuming job. To my surprise it was actually pretty easy. Keep in mind this was done at my shop; on a lift and with air tools. But either way nothing was hard to get at or take off. I had the whole job done in about 2.5 hours. I decided to go with solids instead of Prothane's because of the slight weight savings, I wanted as little movement as possible and I figured since I am in there anyway I wanted to change the whole mount.

The first start up actually surprised me, these suckers are solid! My car is noisey to begin with(H/C, full exhaust) but these mounts let you hear and feel every rattle and movement and I love it. It is pretty weird at first when you see that the shifter doesn't move an inch. Shifting was greatly improved to my surprise(I already have a Prothane trans mount installed). Every gear is that much easier to get into. There's also no more banging of the y-pipe, however there is an occasional rattle. My y-pipe is custom and was built with the stock mounts on. The solids lifted the driverside slightly and it's very close to the floor board. Doesn't bother me though since the mounts still got rid of the banging at full throttle. I have Grot LT's and didn't need to unbolt either header, there was actually quite a bit of room to work with. Once the alternator and compressor was out of the way it was only a matter of removing the center bolt and unbolting the mount from the block and subframe. Here's a tip for anyone installing Spohn mounts; on the diverside you need to remove the small alternator bracket that is held on by a 15mm bolt. The stock mounts can be removed with it on, but you can't install the Spohn's with it on, atleast I couldn't. By removing the bracket it gave me enough space to put the mount up and spin it into place.

Overall I am very happy with the mounts. They fit in there perfectly, the holes lined up and they keep everything in place. I am sure Prothane inserts are awesome aswell, you can't go wrong with either one. I followed brad8266's how-to. It helped a lot.

Pros:
No more y-pipe banging
Lighter
Smoother shifting
You can hear and feel everything
And as an added bonus; you can see them pretty well from the engine bay.

Cons:
You can hear and feel everything
CD's skip sometimes when taking off from a stop

I didn't have my camera when I had the car up, but you can see the mounts pretty well from the engine bay.

 

the cons aren't cons

I think you just helped me make up my mind to do these, add another project to the list for me.

thnx for the review it wasa good read, link to how to???

 

I was actually going to say; the cons= badass in my book, haha. But I know some people won't like them.

Unless different years have different sized bolts, a 15mm racheting wrench was a bigger help than a 13mm. The bolts that go to the subframe were 15's and you can get at them with a racheting wrench. The bolts to the block were 13's and I used an impact swivel.


https://ls1tech.com/forums/generation-iii-external-engine/508688-mounts-transmission-motor.html

 

I love my Spohn solid mounts... I love how I can feel the whole car shake at idle, and it feels like it helped plant the power on the ground. T-Rex cam-only car here.

 

I've been running the Mad Man solids, for years now, along with a rubber one on the T400, with great results. I think they sit a little bit lower than the Spohn.

 

i didn't remove anything arpund the motor mounts when i put my spohn solid mounts in. i put them in while i had the exahust manifolds off before i put headers in.

 

I was worried I might have to unbolt one of the headers. They have been on there for awhile, I am sure a couple bolts would have broke. But when I got the car up I couldn't believe how much room there was. I remember taking a look at the mount area when I had the car up before but I guess I didn't look too hard. I had told a couple guys in the shop that it was supposed to be a hard job, anywhere from 4-7 hours. In about an hour I had both mounts out. They asked me who the hell said it would take so long?

 

do u have to raise the motor a bit to get the mounts in and out?

 

yes to get the weight of the engine off the mount.

 

Yeah, like TheSilverOne said. There's a long 18mm bolt that holds the clamshell part of motor mount to the pedestal part. Once that's unbolted you need to take some weight off of it by raising the engine.

 

I added some pictures, hopefully I'll get some from the bottom soon.

After driving around for about a week on the mounts I still recommend them to everyone. Launching is much easier, no more banging and hopping. The car just goes.

 

Motor mounts are a must do item when doing headers since the ease of install when there are no exhaust tubes in the way and also when you put in a cam. It should be right up there with doing an oil change and spark plug change. Granted, I put in poly mounts, but the difference is drastic with how much the motor moves compared to the stock rubber mounts. The motor used to rock back and forth with the cam (112+4 lsa) but now it looks box stock vibration wise. I'm able to tuck my ypipe as close as 1/2" from the floor boards and don't get any banging thanks to the poly mounts.

Best return on investment by far considering they are less than $50/pair of poly mounts.

 

I totally agree. You can't go wrong with any aftermarket mount you get.

 

CONS: Have fun removing transmission !

 

I have used solid mounts on the nova in my sig and think they are the way to go. BUT in an F-Body with a torque arm what happens when you break a trans mount, the rear of the trans raises and the engine stays solid mounted, somethings got to give.

 

Anything could happen. But I am not sure if I understand your concern. If anything the solid mount would keep the whole driveline in place, possibly causing less damage. No? Not trying to argue, I just can't picture your scenario.

 

I love my Spohn solid mounts , I'll never go back to rubber mounts , my torque arm mount is relocated so i want worry about breaking the tranny tail shaft housing

 

Does the interior sqeak now with the solid motor mounts? I figure it would because the engine is attached more solid to the car, I want to do headers eventually and i read about doing motor mounts too, so the y doesnt bang. how much do they usually run?

 

Everything rattles and vibrates. These cars squeak regardless though so it doesn't bother me. I would go with poly mounts if you don't want them to vibrate as much.

Poly mounts are about $50 a set, solids are about $150 a set.

 

In the same sense you cant use a solid trans mount without solid motor mounts, even with one bolt holding the trans to the cross member it can break the trans housing.
Seems risky that the torque arm is still trying to raise the trans up, I'd want a solid trans mount too. But thats just my theory.