i have a rather noticeable clunking sound that i thought was coming from the front torque arm mount, but today while monitoring the engine for leaks, i came across this.

The bolt going through the drivers side mount moves up and down a good 1/2" as the engine is revved. The mounts are believed to be stock (150k). The motor was replaced about 30K ago, but the motor mounts appear to be the OEM pieces ( i didn't do the swap, so i'm not positive). Is this a broken mount?

Next question, if the mount is broken, i have a problem. Right now i have just about ZERO hood clearance left, (with soggy old mounts). If i have to replace the mounts, i assume the engine is gonna raise slightly, and i'd like to stay away from that. Does anyone make a "low" mount?

Eric

 

1/2 inch is noting to worry about. It is the rubber of the mounts streaching. Now if the movement was more like 4-6 inches then yeah I'd say ya got a broken engine mount.

Kat

 

a noticeable clunking when? on hard launches? check the tranny mount? not sure if this would happen, but maybe with a broken tranny mount, the engine has more twist making it look like the bolt on the drivers side is moving more... that make sense?

--edit

wouldn't there also be some vibration if a motor mount was broken, probably?

 

Sounds like the mount is toast....

Yes, putting in a new mount will raise the engine up some; but on the other hand, the motor probably flops around a greater amount now, than the amount that a new mount will raise it. Look on the underside of your hood for an air cleaner footprint.

If your car is broken, repair it. Hood clearance for a mod has to come somewhere lower on the priority list lower than keeping the engine properly attached to the car.

The half that's bad is the half that attaches to the frame. Big fun in a fully assembled car. Summon all your patience, and just bite the bullet and do it.

 

i hear the clunk when i floor it and then let off the gas while the car is still in gear... it's extremely noticeable in first... and gets slightly less noticeable as i go through the gears. It sounds alot like bad Ujoints, but much louder. i've never heard a clunk this loud from bad Ujoints. i have a Spohn xmember/torque arm with a DS loop, and i'm beginning to think that the clunk is coming from the DS hitting the loop, but i haven't confirmed that yet. I'm doing a rearend swap next week, and i plan to hunt that problem down at the same time.

the tranny mount is brand new, and from my past experience with broken tranny mounts, it's not broken. In the past when they broke i could watch my shifter jump about 4 inches up whenever i put it under load.

i don't mind changing the mount if its bad, the labor is not that big of a deal. What i do care about is losing clearance. With the aircleaner on and the engine off, the top of the cleaner barely hits the hood with it latched. Hence ZERO clearance. I'm hoping that someone makes some kind of "low" sitting mount that will solve this problem... I absolutely DO NOT wanna have to put a different hood on this thing.

I looked a little last night and had no luck finding anything, so i may be SOL...

Eric

 

OK....

So if with the motor sitting there at its "rest" position it has zero clearance, and you give it gas and it moves up ½", then you DON'T have zero clearance, you have negative ½" of clearance, or if you prefer, your air cleaner is trying to go ½" through your hood.

And leaving a broken motor mount in there would be a good thing..... how?

 

Ok then, i have negative .5" clearance. Either way i think we can both agree that theres no room for an additional raise on the engine. What good is having the car assembled right if i can't shut the hood? I still won't be able to drive it.

And i'm not saying i want to leave the broken mount there. What i'm looking for is a low rise mount. If it comes down to it, i'll replace it and deal with the hood clearance somehow. I'm just trying to sort my options out here.

Do you or anyone else know of any "low" mounts?

Eric

 

You probably don't have a "broken mount", but rather a worn out one. GM mounts are referred to as safety mounts whereas they have a metal shroud that contains most of the movement if the rubber fails. Given your zero clearance issue I would agree with RB & replace both mounts. Your clunk could be the Spohn arm hitting the bracket in the driveline tunnel for the fuel & brake lines, that was an issue on mine, as well as the top of the rear most bracket hitting the floor pan in front of the gas tank. Slammin' a BFH & removing the bracket solved it in my case.

 

I believe if you look at that mount, you will probably find that the motor now sits ¼" lower than it used to, and that when it raises up ½", it goes ¼" higher than it used to. In other words, a good mount won't raise it up by the whole amount that it flops around now.

I doubt you'll find any "lower" mounts as such, because in stock trim, the oil pan already only misses the brake lines by a hair. When you replace yours you'll probably see where the pan has been sitting on the frame. In fact, you may even find that it's supported entirely by the pan interference now, and isn't even actually sitting on the mount any more.

It is said that the poly mounts raise the motor a good bit from stock, so you wouldn't want those. The best thing to do would be to simply get a stock replacement one, and see where your clearance ends up, and go from there. You may be able to bend the air cleaner base a bit, to tip it forward, to where it still clears.

 

well thats good news. I thought both the poly ones and the regular ones would raise the engine quite a bit. i can work with .25". im sure i can coax the air cleaner into working with that.


Rick,
did your clunk occur when you got off the gas, or when you got on it? Mine occurs when i let off the gas, which to me, would mean that i have some kind of interference on the underside, not the top. I have a thought that it's due to my tranny mount. Although it's not broken, it's not a poly mount, and it probably sits lower. i remember something in Spohns instructions saying to use a poly mount, not a rubber one, but when i was putting it all together i had a rubber one sitting right there, and i figured i'd just replace it the next day (parts stores were closed, and i wanted to start it that night). Well i never got around to it.

Eric

 

It was on deceleration. I used the poly mounts front & rear. Check the arm for wear marks. That's how i discovered my problems.