vollandt

Has anyone had any luck with any of the after market engine mounts out there? I see a few different brands on ebay ranging from 50-80 each. Mac, dea, westar, Are these just different labels are on the same product? or completely different products? Any information is appreciated.

Before the thread spins into yet another general aftermarket vs oem debate, I get it that paying the extra money and going oem simple and easy answer.

semar

My 2 cents:
stay with the OEM.
I had aftermarkets mounts, thinking why spend more on the relative insignificant parts. Big mistake. Cost more to do the labor twice and still have to pay for OEM after all

Brewmyown

I have about 33,000 miles +or- on after market mounts (motor and trans) and they are all performing just fine. I'm not saying they are any better or worse than OEM. Just stating the facts. I do my own work so I use non OEM parts at times. I think if I had to pay someone to do it and I could supply the OEM parts so I wouldn't get "reamed" I would use OEM mounts. Again I do my own work on cars and the mounts were a pretty simple job. I judge using OEM by how difficult the repair is.

vollandt

thanks Brewmyown, do you recall the brand or supplier?

Brewmyown

I know the trans mount came from rockauto.com and I just looked at my purchase history and the name was Anchor, It was $40 including shipping. The motor mounts were from a seller on ebay and the brand name was Roca and the pair was $130 or $140. The motor idles as smooth as silk.

if you are going to DIY, there are some very good write ups on the forum. The one I quickly looked over mentioned something about sliding the PS reservoir (I think that's what it said) on the passenger off before raising the motor to avoid cracking it. Hints like that are great from the helpful people that learned things the hard way.

A decent floor jack, jack stands, socket set, wrench set (ratcheting gear wrench set helped a lot), some longer 1/2" socket extensions and a 1/2" swivel (impact is useful but not necessary) is what I remember using at this time. I'm sure there were a couple other basic tools but I don't remember needing any specialty tools at all. If your a torque wrench kind of guy, you'll need that also. I don't use them for work like this. Many times its not feasible to do so because of the angle, swivel etc. I've been working on cars for 40 years. Not professionally but there's not much I haven't done and I've never had an issue from improper torquing with things outside of the motor. Before anyone flames me, I'm not condoning or telling anyone not to use a torque wrench. I'm just stating what I do and it has never failed me. Now, inside the motor, on internal items, etc. is a different story. I always torque to specs and double or triple check it.

rkw77080

Here are some torque specs for the front mounts



And here are the ones for the rear mount. Please note the bolts used to attached the mount to the transmission are made of aluminum and should be installed properly with a torque wrench.

semar

since the engine should not be supported on the oilpan, where is the best spot to do so?

rkw77080

The proper way to lift the engine is to remove the hood and attach a chain hoist to the engine lifting hooks.



The problem with "jack under the oil pan" to lift the engine is that as your oil pan gasket ages, it becomes less resilient. Jacking the oil pan will compress this gasket. After the job once the jack is removed, the compressed gasket may not be resilient enough to re-seal the gap and your oil pan may leak.

I jacked the oil pan (using a block of wood to spread the load) when I replaced my engine mounts, and after I was done, I re-torqued the oil pan bolts to ensure proper seal, and I had no leaks. I cannot say that this method will work on all cases. Please proceed with caution.

Brewmyown

Nice posts rkw!

tradosauru

I would suggest using a engine support bar since most people don't have access to a chain hoist.