hi all, I just finished a v6 to v8 swap with a couple of friends and as the sticky said colorful words were exchanged as we were trying to install the v8 engine mounts then I got an interesting idea to feed the new bolts in place. I found that if you feed a piece of heat shrink (i think it was about 7/16 diameter, 3 foot Long, before shrinking and use the clear because its usually thinner walled) through the hole to be bolted (mount and frame) then insert the bolt into the end of the heat shrink comming out the bottom of the frame and shrink the tubing around the bolt now pull the tubing up through the frame and mount then place either and open end wrench or socket(depending on the position of the bolt) over the head of the bolt and pull off the heat shrink and thread the nut over the bolt (do not tighten untill all bolts are through). The bolts are upside down from how the fatory had them but everything seems to clear fine! It saves lots of time and is pretty easy! Hope this helps!

John

 

Yep, that method did work quite nicely. Thanks again for the help with the swap!

 

I just did mine recently. I fed a piece of fishing line down throught the hole and tied it just on the last thread of the bolt, the pulled it up through the hole. Worked real good.

 

Piece of rubber hose would also work. Try 3/8 rubber hose on hard to get to spark plugs when putting them in. It works great

 

i did mine... and it was a huge pain... 2 were very simple (bottom and one of the tops)... the other top one i had to get a wrench and put through the round hole and keep poking the bolt into the nut, but i eventually got it! =)

 

What and where did you get the motor mount ? did you get the motor and tranny mount kit ? im right behind you about the swap.

 

mounts dont cost much of anything... 7-8$ a pop. oreilly, autozone, napa

 

dropping the a arm frees up all kinds of room.
torch or a plasma cutter can pop a hole real quick to get a socket and extension in there as well.

the shrink and the fishing line are really good tips!

 

some good and creative idea guys.

I just switched motor mounts yesterday. It was not as bad as everyone was making it out to be. That may be because i have smaller hands though. I just pulled out one bolt that connected the A arm, in the spot that was blocking access to the bolts. From there the A arm droped down and i was able to get my hands in there and secure a wrench on it and use impact wrench on top. The only hard part was jacking the A arm back up and getting the bolt back through.

It took maybe an hour for each mount, at the most, and this was completly by myself. So i would say just go for it and do it the old fashion way. Also, i got my mounts at AdvanceAuto for 8 bucks a peice.

But the motor and trans is now in and hopefully i will be finishing up soon. I did have some questions on another post if anyone wants to check it out and see what i need to do.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/engi...ring-help.html

Later

 

Pretty soon, I'll be swapping my V6 to V8 mounts so I'm going to be doing all this.

I haven't looked at them yet, but trying to visualize the process of using the heat shrink, and not getting it. Does anyone have any pics of the process?

Thanks

 

i just did this with mine but when the bots came up threw the frame i welded the stupid things there in place so now there basically studs and the not from the bottom just goes over top so much easier this way as its only one socket to unbolt the motor with no extensions or even need to jack up the car

 

I dont understand why everyone has a problem with the motor mounts. Take the tire off, use a swivel and exstention and they come right out. Took me a whole 5 minutes per mount to take off and put on.

seems like good hints i guess, i just never really thought it was an issue

 

I know this thread is several years old, but I recently replaced my motor mounts on my '83, and it really wasn't too bad. It took me a couple hours since I cleaned and painted everything between removal & install.
I used a 15mm universal socket, and various extensions. I used 3/8" extensions on the passenger side, and 1/4" extensions on the driver side with 3/8" adapters for the socket and ratchet. For re-install, I stuck a small piece of vinyl electrical tape in the socket, and wedged the flange nuts into the socket with that so they couldn't fall out while getting them started on the bolts. One piece of tape was good enough for all three nuts for one side. I didn't cuss even once during this procedure.
I'd say the universal socket is essential here...

 

What is a universal socket? One size fits all ?

 

No, not one size fits all. It's like a U-joint, or a knuckle, but instead of the kind that goes between your ratchet and socket, it IS the socket.
In this case, a 15mm. It fits 15mm nuts & bolts...

 

 

I used these. Work great.