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So I tried to put my sti engine mounts in tonight.....and was going to pull the manifold off and gut the clogged cat.

First the manifold....the bolts holding it on to the forward mid-transition pipe are pretty much rusted, and I can't really get a grasp. Of course there's a stud in there, so if I torch it off or cut if off.....I have to dig the stud out of the header pipe. So that job got left alone.

I ABSOLUTELY HATE/DISPISE exhaust work. On a new car I probably wouldn't mind it, but on a car with any miles, everything is rusted to hell, and you have to torch things off.....and of course the MRT muffler I got....the damn thing rattles.....what a piece of shit! I could actually go for something with a little less noise. It's not bad....but it can get old.....

On to the motor mounts. I was following the directions off of scoobymods. Got the bolts off the mounts and such. Went to jack the engine up. There's no way in @#$in hell you can jack the engine up far enough to get at those back bolts and not rip off some of the wiring, hoses, or the even the axles.....the axle boots looked like they were about to pull off. Rather then f'n up my car I decided to regroup and put it back together. Of course I didn't want to put the new exhaust manifold gaskets on because I'll need another set when and if I actually suceed in doing the mounts. So I try the old gaskets......of course they leak.....so I had to drop the header pipe again and put the new gaskets on.


So....the million dollar question. How in the bloody hell do you get at that rear bolt on the mounts????????

When I try it next time I will probably put the car on the ramps and either just jack the engine up off of that.....or if I need more room I'll jack the car up a little bit, but leave the wheels on the ramps so the cv's aren't getting so stressed. That was my big concern. But I still don't know how I would've got at that rear bolt on the engine.....let alone shove a freakin 2x4 between the cross-member and back of the oil pan.

I know my motor mounts are shot or extremely mushy. I can move the engine back and forth by just grabbing the header pipe.

Also, I noticed that the header pipe is pretty much rusted all to hell....including the bolts holding it on......so that tells me that the O2 most likely is not getting a very good ground. So I definitely think a 4-wire would be extremely beneficial at least on a car like mine where everything is rusted all to hell!!!

Comments, suggestions, places to blow my car up.......??

Legacy777 wrote:So....the million dollar question. How in the bloody hell do you get at that rear bolt on the mounts????????

Funnily enough, I think you need to remove the exhaust manifolds... :/

subyluvr2212 mentioned it:

viewtopic.php?t=465

I agree that a 4-wire oxygen sensor would probably be a good upgrade.

All right Josh, here ya go...

vrg3 is right. I did discover that the engine will not go up far enough for the mount bolts to clear the crossmember with the manifolds still attached, they will hit the crossmember first. I simply unbolted the manifolds and let them dangle there. I had no trouble getting the nuts loose with a socket wrench and pipe extension.

Now, as for those damn rear bracket bolts. If you jack the engine up far enough, you can oh-so-barely reach those rear bolts from above the car, reaching down into the engine bay. This is where you rely entirely on your sense of touch to know where these bolts are, I didn't have much trouble. And getting a wrench in there is possible also, but you will have room to cycle a ratchet wrench one tooth every single time, yes it is VERY tedious . If I remember correctly, I removed the intake hose to reach the passenger bolt more easily...

And once you actually get the mount/bracket assembly out, have fun getting the brackets off the old mounts! I have a permanent scar on my finger, I had the mount in a vise and when it finally came loose, my finger hit the bracket and man did that hurt! But hey chicks dig scars anyway

Then re-installation is just as time-consuming and difficult. Tightening the back bolts will take a long time, and also keep in mind, when you lower the engine back down, the new mounts may not necessarily be lined up with the holes in the crossmember, on my passenger side, I had to wrap a coathanger around the mount bolt and have a friend lower the engine down, while I pulled the bolt forward to fit through the hole...

It took me about 3 hours I think it was, and yes I am very happy I don't have to do it again. But Josh, you will see when you're done, it is SOOO worth it!

I had the exhaust manifolds off the engine......

I'll attempt again at a later date.....car pissed me off too much to do anything more this weekend.

it also took me about 3 hours to put my STi mounts in..... if i were to do it again i could probably get it done in 1-1.5 hours.

i just carefully jacked up the engine almost as far as it would go.... i saw the cv joints but didn't care about them too much.

i reached all the bolts including the rear ones from under the car....it's still as tedious as getting to them from the top, but i could see everything and i could lay on the ground (i also got some crap in my eyes)

my driver's side mount was completely broken in half since thats the side that the engine lifts up on when its revved.

the STi mounts are a good choice.... it is worth it.

so get back in there and don't give up!

VERY much so a bitch. I dropped the exhaust and jacked up the engine as far as it would go. I was able to get to the rear bolts by contorting my hand underneath/over the crossmember, subylvr is right, you have to go by feel, and a tiny turn at a time.

MK

I'll give it another shot next weekend or so. The car was naughty....so it's not getting any more toys this weekend. It did get washed though......

I've got the ratcheting wrenches.....so that should help things a little.

I feel your pain with the exhaust bolts, scraped my hand up yesterday and didn't even get the bolts i wanted off. Also congrats on being bumped up to admin.

Thanks.....I'm working on getting the old BC-BF archives into the board, and it was easier and beneficial to have me as an admin.

I believe I've got everything sorted out on what I need to do. Just got to shut the board down for a day (couple hours) while I import and update everything.

Legacy777 wrote:Just got to shut the board down for a day (couple hours) while I import and update everything.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

jk are they going to be searchable? Like through the search system on this board?

Whoa! Josh, I didn't even notice you were the admin now!!!

Is Dave still the original, or did he hand this over to you?

Yes, archives will be searchable....they'd be pretty useless if they weren't

No Dave's still the orig admin. I'm just on here a little more, so it'll help out with certain things.