My mechanic tells me my motor mounts are shot. The car is a 97 Z28 with 94,000 miles on it. They say its causing a lot of vibration and the engine is hitting the frame causing a noise I hear under the car. My questions are..

Are there 2 or 3 mounts for a 97 Z28?
Does $550 sound about right for parts and labor (rubber mounts)
Is this a job thats best done in a shop with a lift and all that?

 

There are 2 mounts. They're 50$ for poly's on Ws6store.com and that's all it will cost you if you do it yourself. All you need is a few jacks and some tools.

Don't pay him $550.

 

$150 tops for both motor mounts is what you should pay the shop, $550 I hope he is doing a cam install with that.

 

+1

$550 you better get a good looking hooker with that

 

Hahaha too bad Im not back in Amsterdam.

But damn $50 is pretty cheap for mounts. They said there were 3 mounts and the mounts themselves were like $360! I think they might have been including a transmission mount, because he didnt like the fact I had a ES poly mount.

Will the poly mounts cause that much vibration? I looked at napa and the rubbers were quite a bit more expensive.

 

I mean, if you're gonna go by what your mechanic "likes" - I'm sure he would like if you dropped $550 on motor mounts.

http://www.ws6project.com/user_stor/...oducts_id=1435

Here is what you need, just do it yourself and it's $50 bucks. When he said $360 for the mounts, he was talking about replacing the housing as well - you don't need to do that. You just need the rubber mount itself, which is what you get here.

 

yes poly mounts do cause more vibration then rubber, but after breaking 5 tranny mounts in the 1 month i bought a poly mount and havent had any problems so far.

 

I also broke 5 Trans mounts in one month, got the polly and life has been good

 

Poly mounts are nice..very dependable. I have Poly Engine and Tranny Mounts.

Oh, BTW I'd get a new mechanic.

 

Yeah my ES poly transmission mount has been great. I broke several rubber ones before switching.

How much vibration do you get with the poly engine and tranny mounts? I think I'm going to get the $50 poly mounts if the vibration isnt horrible.

I take it the housing never breaks? Just the actual rubber part of the mount? I would of thought he would have just wanted to replace the rubber part instead of doing the whole housing. Since its my friends dad and all but who knows.

 

Get yourself some sockets, ratchets and extensions and pop them off yourself.

All you need is the inserts which are like $50ish, around $70 is your getting the trans mount.

What you need is a good jack to raise the car up (it helps to keep the back raised so the whole car will be up in the air and lever, i put the back tyres stood on steel rims), some good reliable stands, a nice thick plank of wood to raise the engine from the oil sump unless you have a cherry picker to use?

Loosen up the long bolts going through the mount itself. Do one side at a time!

Now gently have someone raise the engine and keep your hand on the head of the passeger side mount bolt, and feel when it gets free, simply then slide the whole bolt out. Raise the motor enough and unbolt the clamshell holding the bushing into the cross member. I think they are 1/2" bolts.

Now what you need to do, it gets a big drill bit that can cut through steel and drill out the rivets holding the clamshell together. Dont use the same drill bit on all. Some are small rivets, others are bigger. How do you know which size to use? In the kit itself, you will be provided with nuts and bolts. The drill bit needs to be the same diameter as the thread of the bolt that will be going through it. Some rivters are drilled through and made hollow for the 1/2" head sized bolts to go through them. You will need a rivet just a little bit bigger to drill them out.

Once that is done, the clamshell will just fall apart and you can remove the rubber insert. Note the orientation of the original mount so you can put the new one in the same way. Now you can use the bolts and nylock nuts to clamp it back together in place. Tighten them well. Also make sure the bolt heads are down so that the length of the bolt does not hit the cross member. Simply tighten the clamshell back in place, lower the engine back down full and let it sit on the mount. Gently raise again so that you can find when the holes are aligned and slide the bolt back in.

Repeat for the other side, except it gets fun there because there are no nuts and bolts to hold the clamshell together before installation. The bolts go directly through the housing and into the cross member and hold the whole housing together. What you will have to do, is thread a bolt one side, and another opposite, and so on to get them all threaded in. It will be great to have someone help compress the housing cover for you as you thread the bolts. Once you get 2 or 3 threads in, cross tighten each a few turns to evenly clamp down on the bushing with the housing until fully tightened. I believe its only 3 bolts on the passenger side. Lower engine and repeat the reinstallation of the long bolt.

Trans mount, raise transmission from oil pan and remove the 3 fasteners that hold it in place, 2 bolts on each side, and in the middle is a nut if i remember correctly (correct me on this one if im wrong guys).

Install the new poly mount in its place, tighten the 2 bolts holding it to the transmission, and for the crossmember, you will be supplied with a stud, spring washer and a nut. Lower the transmission, and the hole in the mount should align with the hole in the cross member of the transmission. Tighten the stud as far as it will go by hand, install spring washer, washer and nut and tighten.

I promise you, you will feel a difference! First is you did it yourself and learned to do it. 2nd, direct transition of power to the rear.

Have fun

 

I wouldn't bother getting a new mechanic, I am sure he is pricing OEM replacement which COME with the new clamshells and are overpriced accordingly He is not trying to rip you off but there are cheaper alternatives which are mentioned earlier in the thread. I would ask him how much he would charge just to install the polys if you provide the mounts and go about it that way if you are not interested in doing it yourself.

 

^^^Agreed. If they insist that there are three mounts, they may be including the trans mount as well. I would also suggest goin poly and doing it yourself if you have the skills/tools. You might want to consider getting a full bushing kit to go with it (again mainly if you are planning on doing it yourself). A kit like this one... http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ENS-3-18130R/ (I just ordered the kit along with engine and trans mounts today, should provide decent improvements.

This is a common site used by mechanics to get approximate part costs and labor times. Assuming that there rate is around 85-120 per hour (common dealership rates) their quote is right on spot. http://alldatapro.com/alldata/PRO~V1...72052/34853046

2.4 hrs @ 100 for the engine mounts
plus
0.5 hrs @ 100 for the trans
plus
cost of the parts
and you're right at 550

 

With mine..none. Balanced Engine with a well built Transmission..smooth as can be.

Actually, like mentioned above, it's that Clamshell that you break apart and bolt back together with the Poly Mount inside of it..

 

for 550.00 you could buy tools, mounts, get alot of experiance and use the tools to save more money next time...get a all data account and you will have all the service info you need...

 

Oh, and here is a diagram/how-to for help... http://alldatapro.com/alldata/PRO~V1...72052/34855226

 

Thanks a lot guys! I'm going to get the poly mounts and put them in myself. Hopefully the vibes arent too bad.

 

The motor mounts aren't bad but when I put a poly tranny mount in all kinds of terrible things started happening...headers bacnging off floorboards and what have you so it was in there for about 30 minutes and I went back to factory rubber on the tranny and now it is perfect

 

Good choice. That write-up by ADM is spot-on, you'll want to follow that.

By the way, this job really isn't that hard and it's pretty straight forward - but it will take you some time. Be prepared to set aside a good weekend afternoon to do it.

 

i went to poly mounts when I did my header install and the vibrations didnt get much worse at all. And 550 for just motor mount install is crazy!!