DIY: Engine and Transmission mounts

Joepro · 01-14-2014, 10:08 PM

I did not see a DIY for these, if there is just delete this thread!(I hope not...) We are having a few mild winter days here is PA so I brought the Z out of hibernation and down to work(since I was off today!) and install all my Z1 Black Friday goodies! Also did ss brake lines and 2 piece front rotors. Ill post the review first, then to business!

Difficulty: 7/10(with headers being a 10/10) This is not difficult if you have the proper tools, it is a bit time consuming, and your procedures may differ than mine due to what you have installed, I have Z1 headers(if you ever do headers, do not be a dumbo like me and not install the mounts then, but I save a bunch with the Black Friday deals). IF you do this on jack stands, it will be harder, but I still say its doable, the engine mounts that is, the trans mount is cake.

Time: 4 hours Pulled the car into the shop a little after 9 and finished the trans and engine mounts just before 2, including lunch, I did run into one hiccup, if I had know better and did not need to ask for help, I could have cut about 45 minutes off the time.

Tools: A lot. I had full access to my techs tools, you need multiple sockets and wrenches from 14-19mm, ratchets, extensions etc.

Review: Holy mamma, why didn't I have these long ago..The difference is astounding, there is some vibration at idle, it is minimal, and the only other place it is really noticeable is on a high RPM deceleration, NHV in my opinion has such a little impact, it is negelectable due to the benefits. The transmission now does NOT move at all, in fact, there is less vibration in the shifter, before I could always feel the transmission moving and flexing under acceleration, shifts are solid and more crisp even an improvement over top of the ralco short shifter. My only regret is not taking a before and after video of the engine, because it does not move now, if you open your hood, sit in your car and with the hood up look through the gap, you can see the engine cover, if you rev up the engine, one can see the motor flexing back and forth, this now does not happen at all. The best thing is the power delivery, I also have Whiteline poly diff bushings, but now I describe the power deliver as ON or OFF, when you slam the throttle down, boom, power, its hard to describe, but that is the best way I can convey how it feels.

now on to the good stuff, first up is the trans mount, again this one cake! Im am not a photographer, so the pics are not perfect, but they get the point across.

1. Lift the car and support the transmission by a pole jack, floor jack etc, when you drop the cross member the tranny will drop about 4 inches. just go to the end of the transmission and the black metal dodad is the cross member.

2. Now we need to remove the member from the car, there are 4 bolts, 2 on each side of the tunnel, and there are 2 nuts inside the member, you will need a deep sock for those, everything here is 14mm.

3. Lets get the old OEM crap off the transmission now. Remove the 2 14mm bolts holding it to the transmission.

4. It is now time to reverse all this, attach the new mount to the transmission with the old bolts you removed.

[/URL]

5. Install the cross member back into the car, Z1 provided bolts to attach the mount to the member as you can see above the Z1 mount does not have long studs, it is threaded. If you did not support the transmission, at this point you will not be able to put the 4 tunnel bolts in, you need to lift the transmission up.

6. Done!

Engine/motor mounts

1. Ok, this one is a bit tougher, first I looked around to assess the situation, I looked around to assess my point of attack, the Z1 instructions(no offense Z1) are useless...they just say take them out...They imply to remove the bracket from the engine, which I did on one side only, I will share why later. This is a good time to remove your strut brace and air intakes! Ok some inspection pics...

passenger side mount from the rear:

driver side mount from the rear...oh crap.

I removed my Zspeed under tray and went around the front... sigh, there it is right by the ac compressor!

2. I went for the passenger side mount first due to there being more room over there. Now, it appears, hey look there is the nut on the top of the mount, just take it off...well its not that easy, the way the brackets are designed a wrench will not sit in there flat, let alone have room to turn it, so I took off the 4 bolts to the bracket off the block. the rear 2 I got with a long 14mm wrench, reach up past te test pipe/cat under neat the car. The bottom right bolt I was able to get from the top with a 3/8 ratchet and short extension. The top right was the knuckle buster, I was able to get it from the bottom with the wrench, but you can only turn a bit at a time, once I cracked it loose, I switched to an angled gear wrench until I could take it out by hand. Once they are all loose, support the engine before removing all of them, you need to take the stress off the bolts, I used a pole jack in front of the cat brace.

3. remove the bottom nut from the cradle, there is a big hole, look up to see a 17mm nut.

4. I had to lift the engine a few inches and was able to wiggle the whole assembly out towards the front, as well as my oil filter and sandwich plate... here is what you have in the car, you can see where the threads are in the block where I removed the 4 bolts on the bracket.

5. Remove the bracket from the old mount. Oh sweet victory(or so I thought)

6. Install the new mount on the bracket, Z1 tells you to point the access window in such a way you can get wrench in on the bottom bolt head to hold it, ya, good luck, its already a poor angle to get on the head through the access hole, you most likely would be better off with an offset wrench, but I was using air tools at times, so I was not worried about the bolt turning, and it did not when I tighten the bottom nut, I digress.

7. Back in the car we go! tighten up all the block bolts, I also ground down the front of the bracket a bit(as you can see in the pic, I hope!) I kept hitting it when taking the top right bolt out, gave me just a tad more room for the wrench.

8. Lower the motor back down so the mount is flush on the cradle and tighten up the bottom bolt, again you may need to get a wrench in there if the bolt starts to spin.

9. Congrats, easy side done! The drivers side posed a few more issues, maybe due to the Z1 headers, maybe not, but the top right(top rear) bolt on the bracket was inaccessible, so I had not choice but to take the nut off the top the mount. To gain more access room, and since I had the tools, I recovered the Freon from the ac system and removed the compressor lines, now you can clearly see the nut, oh this looks like cake!

10. Well here is the good news, that nut WILL come off, but I had 2 problems, as I said earlier, you cannot get a wrench to sit flat and grab the whole nut, even an off set wrench I did not have enough room to turn it. I was stuck at this point, because a 3/8 ratchet and socket would not fit, the stud was too long for a shallow socket and the front header pipe prevented a swivel socket from being used...grrr I gave up trying and asked for help from two of my senior techs, and guess what, they had a solution... since they were working on it I only snapped a picture of the tool, called a crowsfoot, which was used(if I had this for the other side, I would have save a good half hour taking the bracket off). What we found after the mount was out was the nut was seized, thus possibly foiling my prior attempts, the whole stud turned out of the mount... from here, loosen the bottom nut and remove the mount, again lifting the engine with the jack will be need.

11. Insert new mount, with window in a good location, then I lowered the engine down so the weight is on the mount, then tighten the bottom, followed by the top with the crowsfoot socket.

12. There you have it, see it is not that bad, just make sure you have the proper tools, and ps, do not forget to install the bracket on the top of the mount that holds the starter cable as I did, or you will have to take the top nut off again to install it, but that is easy now with the new tool!

13. Re install ac lines if you removed them, recharge the system, install intakes, and struct brace. I will update this with more details, but I did not think it would take this long to write, but hey, I hope it helps someone, ask any questions if I missed something!

MyKindaGuise · 01-15-2014, 12:20 AM

Very nice write up! Have been considering these for a while. You may have just convinced to pull the trigger.

wrxrcr · 01-15-2014, 03:08 PM

Now for a review.

Joepro · 01-15-2014, 03:18 PM

my initial review is at the top of the post! I drove the car 30 miles home and covered it back up, wont get to drive it until winter is done or it gets sent to VSR...

Super Werty · 01-15-2014, 08:00 PM

awesome! Def going to try this!

COSMO · 01-15-2014, 09:02 PM

Called to order these from Z1 a week ago and they had none in stock. I am planning on using these on my new built engine..

Joepro · 01-17-2014, 09:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmogirl

Called to order these from Z1 a week ago and they had none in stock. I am planning on using these on my new built engine..

For the price these are great, I cannot wait to torture test them once winter is over, I still expected some movement in the mounts since they are not solid mounts, its so minimal....just another quality z1 product...

Dzel · 02-18-2014, 04:22 PM

Nice write up!!!

Minato · 03-01-2014, 03:28 PM

Is the crow's foot tool 14 mm?

roplusbee · 03-01-2014, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmogirl

Called to order these from Z1 a week ago and they had none in stock. I am planning on using these on my new built engine..

That may be my fault. I ordered a set of solid aluminum mounts a little over a week ago. I didn't order the trans mount yet, but I plan to soon.

OP:

Thanks for the review and writeup. Just what the doctor ordered. Hopefully, the auto hobbyshop on base has that crowsfoot. Fingers crossed......

Nut_N_Much · 03-01-2015, 07:05 PM

Nice awesome write up! +1

enrique_370 · 12-02-2015, 04:08 PM

Just bought these cant wait to get them on

PharmDZ · 02-26-2017, 09:13 AM

Just finished up my engine mounts yesterday and this was a big help, thank you. That crows foot helped me break the drivers side top mount free and the rest we practically did by hand after I had PB blasted the crap out of it. The passengers side was a bit trickier, but my friend had a short 14mm wratcheting wrench he fit in there and was able to use a super long extension to brace against something and use the leverage to break that one free. Otherwise it was super easy.both came out after just jacking up the engine a bit and wiggling it free. I didn't have to take the whole bracket off the engine which I think made it easier for them to remove for me. Can't wait to drive the car later! Time to finish up the rest of my fluid changes...

ResIpsa · 11-29-2018, 08:55 PM

I have an additional tip for anyone struggling to get that top nut off. The casting in the aluminum makes it tough to get the crows foot to seat on the nut. I Found that grinding the side to the crows foot gave me much more room to play with.

tonythetiger · 01-30-2020, 09:40 PM

got z1 motor mounts and transmission mount, had to take off headers to install motor mounts, transmission is a piece of cake! now since headers are off, I decided to go Fast intentions Long tube headers. I definitely recommend using 3/4 inch and 1/2 inch flex head ratchet for those small tight spaces

01-14-2014, 10:08 PM	#1 (permalink)
Joepro A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Athens ohio Posts: 1,213 Drives: Company car Rep Power: 34	DIY: Engine and Transmission mounts I did not see a DIY for these, if there is just delete this thread!(I hope not...) We are having a few mild winter days here is PA so I brought the Z out of hibernation and down to work(since I was off today!) and install all my Z1 Black Friday goodies! Also did ss brake lines and 2 piece front rotors. Ill post the review first, then to business! Difficulty: 7/10(with headers being a 10/10) This is not difficult if you have the proper tools, it is a bit time consuming, and your procedures may differ than mine due to what you have installed, I have Z1 headers(if you ever do headers, do not be a dumbo like me and not install the mounts then, but I save a bunch with the Black Friday deals). IF you do this on jack stands, it will be harder, but I still say its doable, the engine mounts that is, the trans mount is cake. Time: 4 hours Pulled the car into the shop a little after 9 and finished the trans and engine mounts just before 2, including lunch, I did run into one hiccup, if I had know better and did not need to ask for help, I could have cut about 45 minutes off the time. Tools: A lot. I had full access to my techs tools, you need multiple sockets and wrenches from 14-19mm, ratchets, extensions etc. Review: Holy mamma, why didn't I have these long ago..The difference is astounding, there is some vibration at idle, it is minimal, and the only other place it is really noticeable is on a high RPM deceleration, NHV in my opinion has such a little impact, it is negelectable due to the benefits. The transmission now does NOT move at all, in fact, there is less vibration in the shifter, before I could always feel the transmission moving and flexing under acceleration, shifts are solid and more crisp even an improvement over top of the ralco short shifter. My only regret is not taking a before and after video of the engine, because it does not move now, if you open your hood, sit in your car and with the hood up look through the gap, you can see the engine cover, if you rev up the engine, one can see the motor flexing back and forth, this now does not happen at all. The best thing is the power delivery, I also have Whiteline poly diff bushings, but now I describe the power deliver as ON or OFF, when you slam the throttle down, boom, power, its hard to describe, but that is the best way I can convey how it feels. now on to the good stuff, first up is the trans mount, again this one cake! Im am not a photographer, so the pics are not perfect, but they get the point across. 1. Lift the car and support the transmission by a pole jack, floor jack etc, when you drop the cross member the tranny will drop about 4 inches. just go to the end of the transmission and the black metal dodad is the cross member. 2. Now we need to remove the member from the car, there are 4 bolts, 2 on each side of the tunnel, and there are 2 nuts inside the member, you will need a deep sock for those, everything here is 14mm. 3. Lets get the old OEM crap off the transmission now. Remove the 2 14mm bolts holding it to the transmission. 4. It is now time to reverse all this, attach the new mount to the transmission with the old bolts you removed. [/URL] 5. Install the cross member back into the car, Z1 provided bolts to attach the mount to the member as you can see above the Z1 mount does not have long studs, it is threaded. If you did not support the transmission, at this point you will not be able to put the 4 tunnel bolts in, you need to lift the transmission up. 6. Done! Engine/motor mounts 1. Ok, this one is a bit tougher, first I looked around to assess the situation, I looked around to assess my point of attack, the Z1 instructions(no offense Z1) are useless...they just say take them out...They imply to remove the bracket from the engine, which I did on one side only, I will share why later. This is a good time to remove your strut brace and air intakes! Ok some inspection pics... passenger side mount from the rear: driver side mount from the rear...oh crap. I removed my Zspeed under tray and went around the front... sigh, there it is right by the ac compressor! 2. I went for the passenger side mount first due to there being more room over there. Now, it appears, hey look there is the nut on the top of the mount, just take it off...well its not that easy, the way the brackets are designed a wrench will not sit in there flat, let alone have room to turn it, so I took off the 4 bolts to the bracket off the block. the rear 2 I got with a long 14mm wrench, reach up past te test pipe/cat under neat the car. The bottom right bolt I was able to get from the top with a 3/8 ratchet and short extension. The top right was the knuckle buster, I was able to get it from the bottom with the wrench, but you can only turn a bit at a time, once I cracked it loose, I switched to an angled gear wrench until I could take it out by hand. Once they are all loose, support the engine before removing all of them, you need to take the stress off the bolts, I used a pole jack in front of the cat brace. 3. remove the bottom nut from the cradle, there is a big hole, look up to see a 17mm nut. 4. I had to lift the engine a few inches and was able to wiggle the whole assembly out towards the front, as well as my oil filter and sandwich plate... here is what you have in the car, you can see where the threads are in the block where I removed the 4 bolts on the bracket. 5. Remove the bracket from the old mount. Oh sweet victory(or so I thought) 6. Install the new mount on the bracket, Z1 tells you to point the access window in such a way you can get wrench in on the bottom bolt head to hold it, ya, good luck, its already a poor angle to get on the head through the access hole, you most likely would be better off with an offset wrench, but I was using air tools at times, so I was not worried about the bolt turning, and it did not when I tighten the bottom nut, I digress. 7. Back in the car we go! tighten up all the block bolts, I also ground down the front of the bracket a bit(as you can see in the pic, I hope!) I kept hitting it when taking the top right bolt out, gave me just a tad more room for the wrench. 8. Lower the motor back down so the mount is flush on the cradle and tighten up the bottom bolt, again you may need to get a wrench in there if the bolt starts to spin. 9. Congrats, easy side done! The drivers side posed a few more issues, maybe due to the Z1 headers, maybe not, but the top right(top rear) bolt on the bracket was inaccessible, so I had not choice but to take the nut off the top the mount. To gain more access room, and since I had the tools, I recovered the Freon from the ac system and removed the compressor lines, now you can clearly see the nut, oh this looks like cake! 10. Well here is the good news, that nut WILL come off, but I had 2 problems, as I said earlier, you cannot get a wrench to sit flat and grab the whole nut, even an off set wrench I did not have enough room to turn it. I was stuck at this point, because a 3/8 ratchet and socket would not fit, the stud was too long for a shallow socket and the front header pipe prevented a swivel socket from being used...grrr I gave up trying and asked for help from two of my senior techs, and guess what, they had a solution... since they were working on it I only snapped a picture of the tool, called a crowsfoot, which was used(if I had this for the other side, I would have save a good half hour taking the bracket off). What we found after the mount was out was the nut was seized, thus possibly foiling my prior attempts, the whole stud turned out of the mount... from here, loosen the bottom nut and remove the mount, again lifting the engine with the jack will be need. 11. Insert new mount, with window in a good location, then I lowered the engine down so the weight is on the mount, then tighten the bottom, followed by the top with the crowsfoot socket. 12. There you have it, see it is not that bad, just make sure you have the proper tools, and ps, do not forget to install the bracket on the top of the mount that holds the starter cable as I did, or you will have to take the top nut off again to install it, but that is easy now with the new tool! 13. Re install ac lines if you removed them, recharge the system, install intakes, and struct brace. I will update this with more details, but I did not think it would take this long to write, but hey, I hope it helps someone, ask any questions if I missed something! DR_, JARblue, anthonyy and 13 others like this. __________________ Swift\|Koni\|SPC\| FI CBE\|Z1\|Stillen\|Sbend\|Zspeed\|R/T Tuned\|523 whp\|458 tq\|10.5 psi\|SOLD Joepro's Journal\|Joepro's Boosted Performance Build \|Pittsburgh-Western-Pa-Ohio-Wv-Group Last edited by Joepro; 01-19-2014 at 09:55 PM.

01-15-2014, 12:20 AM	#2 (permalink)
MyKindaGuise A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 2,029 Drives: 11' 370z Sprt M6 Rep Power: 19	Very nice write up! Have been considering these for a while. You may have just convinced to pull the trigger. __________________ \|445whp398tq\| \|BW S259 Turbo\|3" Downpipe\Exhaust\|ID1000\|AeroMotive\|Tial\|EcuTek\|BC BR\|S0-4\|MaffFab\| MKGs-Single-Turbo

01-15-2014, 03:18 PM	#4 (permalink)
Joepro A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Athens ohio Posts: 1,213 Drives: Company car Rep Power: 34	my initial review is at the top of the post! I drove the car 30 miles home and covered it back up, wont get to drive it until winter is done or it gets sent to VSR... __________________ Swift\|Koni\|SPC\| FI CBE\|Z1\|Stillen\|Sbend\|Zspeed\|R/T Tuned\|523 whp\|458 tq\|10.5 psi\|SOLD Joepro's Journal\|Joepro's Boosted Performance Build \|Pittsburgh-Western-Pa-Ohio-Wv-Group Last edited by Joepro; 01-15-2014 at 06:37 PM.

01-15-2014, 08:00 PM	#5 (permalink)
Super Werty Track Member Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: AZ Posts: 668 Drives: '13 Sport Rep Power: 13	awesome! Def going to try this! __________________ The Build

02-18-2014, 04:22 PM	#8 (permalink)
Dzel A True Z Fanatic Join Date: May 2011 Location: Midland, TX Posts: 3,884 Drives: 11 370Z PW M6 Rep Power: 23	Nice write up!!! __________________ 10secWS6 IF YOU CAN'T SWING IT THEN DON'T BRING IT! Check out Domestic Performance C.C.

01-15-2014, 03:08 PM	#3 (permalink)
wrxrcr Base Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: columbus Posts: 74 Drives: 12 370z,09 Wrx Rep Power: 12	Now for a review.

01-15-2014, 09:02 PM	#6 (permalink)
COSMO A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: FL Posts: 1,816 Drives: 2012 Touring GTM TT Rep Power: 19	Called to order these from Z1 a week ago and they had none in stock. I am planning on using these on my new built engine..

03-01-2014, 03:28 PM	#9 (permalink)
Minato Base Member Join Date: May 2013 Location: Ft Collins Posts: 107 Drives: 11 370Z M6 Sports Rep Power: 0	Is the crow's foot tool 14 mm?

03-01-2015, 07:05 PM	#11 (permalink)
Nut_N_Much A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Pensacola Florida Posts: 1,696 Drives: Awesome Car Rep Power: 26	Nice awesome write up! +1 __________________ Did new cool science stuff to the car !!! http://www.the370z.com/mazoc/99606-z...y-14-17-a.html http://www.the370z.com/diy-section-d...-w-videos.html

12-02-2015, 04:08 PM	#12 (permalink)
enrique_370 Base Member Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Texas Posts: 106 Drives: 2013-black-m6 :) Rep Power: 14	Just bought these cant wait to get them on

02-26-2017, 09:13 AM	#13 (permalink)
PharmDZ Track Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: New Jersey Posts: 997 Drives: 11 Nissan 370Z BS M6 Rep Power: 14	Just finished up my engine mounts yesterday and this was a big help, thank you. That crows foot helped me break the drivers side top mount free and the rest we practically did by hand after I had PB blasted the crap out of it. The passengers side was a bit trickier, but my friend had a short 14mm wratcheting wrench he fit in there and was able to use a super long extension to brace against something and use the leverage to break that one free. Otherwise it was super easy.both came out after just jacking up the engine a bit and wiggling it free. I didn't have to take the whole bracket off the engine which I think made it easier for them to remove for me. Can't wait to drive the car later! Time to finish up the rest of my fluid changes...

01-30-2020, 09:40 PM	#15 (permalink)
tonythetiger A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: SA, TX Posts: 1,035 Drives: 10 Nissan 370z PG MT Rep Power: 193	got z1 motor mounts and transmission mount, had to take off headers to install motor mounts, transmission is a piece of cake! now since headers are off, I decided to go Fast intentions Long tube headers. I definitely recommend using 3/4 inch and 1/2 inch flex head ratchet for those small tight spaces __________________ KWV3/Eibach/StillenG3/FI CBE+LTH+34Row/Uprev/SPL/SouthBendSS/QuaifeLSD/4.08/TommyKaira/Status/VolkZE40/AP Radical BBK/Seibon/Amuse/VIS/Sparco/WorksBellGTC/RJM/Nismo Last edited by tonythetiger; 02-04-2020 at 02:40 PM.

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