My Winter Project

Need help from a fellow owner, something to air - discuss away!

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Mattijs
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Re: My Winter Project

Postby Mattijs » Mon Nov 05, 2012 10:44 pm

@Tony T: yes, you're right: the fractures were just besides the welds, not on them.

I just made a bit of space in the engine bay:

Image
DSC03278 by |\/|attijs, on Flickr

So we're saying that it's possible to weld in a new engine mounting bracket without taking the whole engine out? The steering axle, coolant hose and brake lines can still be moved or removed, of course.

Dick
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Re: My Winter Project

Postby Dick » Tue Nov 06, 2012 8:07 am

Yep dont take it out when you put the plate on to o/s put it on top of the box section about 1/2 way will do, then when ou weld you can slide a bit of metal between the side of the car and the box section and but the wedge strips under saame as n/s
Think that make sense

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Mattijs
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Re: My Winter Project

Postby Mattijs » Tue Nov 06, 2012 9:15 am

Cheers, Dick, it does. The bit of metal to protect the GRP side. Although it will be easier to weld the plate on top of the rail when the side has been taken off, I guess. Also simpler to clean it before with the grinder. I'm thinking about taking the side off anyway, since it's not mounted very well. Also, the bottom and top rail are not parallel, and the side is riveted to both, meaning that it's quite badly warped. I'd like to improve that.

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DJ.
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Re: My Winter Project

Postby DJ. » Tue Nov 06, 2012 10:11 am

Is it possible to make the engine mounts wider so that at least some of the engine weight sits on top of the tube?

Duncan

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steve m
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Re: My Winter Project

Postby steve m » Tue Nov 06, 2012 10:28 am

As Duncan says, extend the plate

i would extend the plate to go over the chassis tube that is under the brake resovoir as well,
this would give more of a structure for the engine to sit on
Thats was probably spelt wrong, or had some grammer, that the "grammer police have to have a moan at

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Mattijs
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Re: My Winter Project

Postby Mattijs » Tue Nov 06, 2012 1:21 pm

I think Duncan means that the engine mounts (not the mounting plate) will end (partly) on top of the tube. Both ideas are good, though. I'll probably ask Neil Dunne to have a look at this, he has a lot of experience modifying cars for (banger) racing, so he knows how to make something solid. And he can weld just about anything. While I cannot... :D

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DJ.
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Re: My Winter Project

Postby DJ. » Tue Nov 06, 2012 6:12 pm

Yes, that's what I meant. On my Caterham, the rubber mount sits directly on top of the lower chassis rail and bolts throught the tube. The drawback with this design is the engine mounts have to be attached after the engine is in position.

As your chassis tube is already weakened, drilling through it isn't an option, but if the mount tubes were a little longer it might be possible to have the outer part of the mount resting about the tube to reduce the load that the unsupported plate has to take.

However, it sounds like Dick has already fixed this problem on his cars, so he's the man to talk to :)

Duncan

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Mattijs
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Re: My Winter Project

Postby Mattijs » Tue Nov 06, 2012 11:27 pm

Right, I've decided to remove the engine from the car. Part of the reason is (believe it or not) for fun, the other part is because there are some engine & gearbox related things I want to do and/or check. Obviously, one of those is installing sturdier engine mounts, but as Dick already said, the engine doesn't have to be removed for that. Makes it easier to get to stuff, though.

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Contaminated
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Re: My Winter Project

Postby Contaminated » Wed Nov 07, 2012 10:20 am

Same thing happened on mine. Easy job though. I got new engine mounts from Tiger (although now I'd just search on ebay) which differed from the originals, so they didn't line up with the pickup points on the chassis. I made up a new steel mounting plate and drilled a hole to take the engine mount, bolted the plate to the chassis, jacked up the engine and bolted on the new mount and then lowered them together. Job done.

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Tony C
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Re: My Winter Project

Postby Tony C » Wed Nov 07, 2012 12:51 pm

Mattijs,

If you need hand give me a shout. Will you be getting the car to Neil Dunne 'Flintstones Style' now? :lol:

Tony
Tiger Cat E1 - 2008-2009
Tiger R6 - 2009-2014
Austin Healey Sprite - 2014-2018
Fisher Fury Le Mans - 2018-2019


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