Thread: Alternative to ES Motor Mounts?

Several years ago I installed all 4 ES motor mounts... which increased the motor vibrations felt in the car (especially the steering wheel). It looks like my wife will be driving the SE-R soon and she has always hated the ES mounts. Are there any harder durometer rubber mounts offered? ES poly is just too hard for her. I seem to remember a DIY reinforcement of the stock bushings, but mine are long gone. Does anyone make a "sport" mount set instead of ES's "race" mounts?

Jim Wolfe or Place Racing mounts are what you are looking for. However, both are waaaay out of production.

Bear with me....I am not mechanically inclined.

Two of the motor/tranny mounts resist the rocking of the engine itself. Replace those with Prothanes, or if your ES's are OK, leave them.

Then replace the other two mounts with new OEM ones. In particular, that big liquid-filled OEM one should be stock for the best comfort and least NVH transferred to the chassis.

That is essentially what Dave Coleman did in SCC, way back in the day. He thought it a good compromise between engine movement and daily-driveability.

Thanks, I remembered there were some alternatives but couldn't remember who produced them... figures it would of been JWT and PR. Too bad they didn't continue with them.

I also remember something about making your own mount inserts by filling in the stock ones with a home brew McMaster Carr product. Anyone have any experience with this and how well it's held up over the years?

My wife is unfortunatly of the mindset to replace all the ES with new OEM mounts... which is not only expensive but really soft. Our stock exhaust manifold cracked due to too much flex by the stock mounts which is what led me to upgrade to ES mounts in the first place. Its too bad there isn't a harder durometer rubber mount option.

The two part urethane compounds adhere very well as long as you prep properly: Clean the rubber surfaces of the stock mounts thorougly, mix the compounds according to the instructions (use all of it in one shot), and let it cure the full 48 hours. The second set of mounts (the set that I actually bothered to do all this for) I made looked and felt great after 2 years of use on the street and track.

McMaster-Carr sells a 60A version of their two part flexible casting urethane that you might be able to use. The ES inserts are around 88A and there will be less contact area between the mount and the mount bracket, so there should be less NVH.

The place racing had more vibration than the ES or prothane. The JWT were perfect in my opinion. I would run prothanes if I were you but only the rear mount on the firewall and the dogbone. Run the other two as stock replacement. That is all you need and it will work perfect.

BRent

i fiiled my driver side and pass side MM with 3m window weld polyurethan......that **** got realllly hard......[img][IMG]http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s71/ordepg/0607080854a.jpg[/img][/IMG]

from this.......[img][IMG]http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s71/ordepg/0606081433.jpg[/img][/IMG]
[img][IMG]http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s71/ordepg/0606081433a.jpg[/img][/IMG]

to this.....[img][IMG]http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s71/ordepg/0607080854.jpg[/img][/IMG]

as long as you press the gooooo in there goo and keep tapping it on the ground to get out the air bubbles it shoud do alright......

I did not know this, I have only "heard of" both the Place Racing and JWT. Sadly, they were both already gone when I went aftermarket with my mounts.

I *thought* the Prothanes were the hardest, then PR/JWT, then ES into OEM bushings, etc....

Those Place Racing units must have been stiff as hell if they are stiffer than Prothanes.


The right balance of rigidity and flexibility?

Were'nt they also gawd-awful expensive?


THAT is what I was getting at, except I can rarely remember which mount is which.

What Coach just wrote is what Dave Coleman did in SCC. Except Dave did it with ES inserts, because at that time, there were no Prothanes. The end result being a very happy compromise.

you know the vibrations are very likely caused by the inserts being in busted mounts! i have always installed prothane's in all my sr20'd cars and have never had an issue with vibration other than during cold starts.

Most of the vibration comes from the side mounts (front and back of the engine proper). So I would suggest leaving the ES torque set and replacing the front and back mounts (passenger side and drivers side of the car) with new OEM pieces. Leave the torque set as ES and see if your wife can live with it. If not, then go all the way back to new OEM pieces. When they are new, the OEM pieces hold the engine and tranny in place OK for a daily driver, in my opinion.

The A60 poly sounds like it would be interesting to try, but it also sounds like your wife is not interested in a lot of experimentation.

Good luck with finding a solution.

place racing are not harder than prothane...I have some.
I know why they dont make them anymore,I have one (pass side)that has wallowed itself out.The rear(crossmember) mount bracket snapped in half!!
I will put up some pics in another thread soon.
Dont get place racing,IMO