In fall I bought a fully-prepped RX8 race car with a bad engine. I had a good engine, so that was a nice find. Over the winter I've been getting the car ready for the track again.

Last night I put the engine and transmission back into the car. I did this through the top, with the two bolted together. That was a struggle. I don't recommend it.

Anyway, it's in place, but the brackets don't line up with the mounts. I have the right mount bolted to the bracket loosely, and the tail end of the transmission supported by a jack. That way I can swing the transmission left and right to line up the left mount.

But they don't. It's like the distance between the holes in the brackets is narrower than that between the holes in the mounts.

Has anybody else encountered this? It was getting late, so I left it like that last night. I do wonder whether the engine is hung up on something. I also worry about major damage to the subframe or frame, but I just don't see any obvious signs of that.

Thanks!

 

It has never been and issue, but the mounts should go in after the engine and trans are in. Hard to say without being there though. There is no reason to install the trans and engine together either.

 

You're right about that! Since I removed the engine and transmission together from my destroyed car, I thought I'd just try. I was tired of trying to line up the engine and transmission inside the car, so why not experience some fresh hell? The clearance is so close that the oil pan studs were actually a problem.

Anyway, yeah, I have the engine supported by the crane still. Once I had it in place I bolted the brackets to the engine, put the mounts in, and found...that they didn't line up.

At first I did have the right and left mounts swapped by accident. But setting that right didn't seem to solve the problem.

 

I dunno, something has to be installed wrong or the wrong parts. Engine mounts are one thing I have never had a problem with installing or removing.

 

I have pulled the Engine/Trans assembly in/out the top of the engine bay many times without issue. I install the engine mounts & brackets after dropping it in. If you tried doing it with them on then yeah, I could see that being difficult.

Now I'd much rather have a lift and suitable roller cart to just drop it down on the car and then lift the body up. That's the best and easiest way. I tried to pull and install the engine once by leaving the trans in the car still bolted up to the PPF etc. One and only once, which getting the engine out is easy, but getting it to line up just perfect to go back was the biggest PITA I'd experienced in many years. So once and only once because I'll never do it that way again.

As far as it not lining up, are the mount brackets the same one from the old engine or from the crashed car? Now maybe the brackets are bent/warped from the crashed car, or maybe the new race car has had damage before and the frame rails are tweaked or something. If the old engine was in there before though, I'd be using those engine mount brackets on the replacement engine because you know they were lined up ok previously before you pulled the old engine out. The distance between them is defined by the rotor/iron housing width. So that can't change. If something is't lining up it has to be the brackets or the mounting locations are skewed somehow.

Sorry to say it, the last possibility is just operator error due to not seeing the obvious about the way that person is trying to install them

And 9k, not sure if you're just ignoring me on purpose or not, but I have a couple of PMs to you that are still waiting for a response.

 

In the end, what I did was this. I loosened the bolts on the LH bracket, got all bolts in place, and then tightened them up. Nothing bound, nothing was difficult to tighten (I did it all by hand), and the mounts don't look distorted.

So I suspect that you're right, Mark - it was some sort of operator error or hang up or combination of the way the engine/transmission were supported.

 

Well as long as you got it all together that’s all that matters.