Despite earlier suggestions that the passenger motor mount was sufficient I decided to fix it. The rubber was fairly twisted and frankly I wanted to use my new MIG Licoln Weld-Pak 140 (with gas!!!) welder.
I used the OEM mount and cut the back plate off. I made a new back plate, bolted it on the block, lifted the engine a few mm higher than ideal (to account for load), made sure both halves of the mount were bolted down tightly, and then welded the OEM mount to the new backplate. Pretty simple actually. For those who are curious, the top bracket on the mount holds the balance tube - to send a steady signal from the four runners on the intake manifold to the MegaJolt MAP sensor .
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Engine sits close to KA-OEM now.
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As a follow-up to my previous post, I wanted to comment on my experience going stainless. It gets expensive... quickly! It's not just the surcharge for the pipe, you need the wire ($70 with tax - Praxair), and you need 100% Argon gas. I lucked out and got a the wire for $50 with tax and for the gas I went to TSC (The Country Store) and purchased their smallest tank ($216) and a fill of 100% Argon ($54). The cool thing is that you can return the tank empty for a full refund - with original receipt so gas will only cost ~ $60'ish with tax.
I've read that 100% Argon splatters more and it certainly does (IMO about 1/4 of the way from gas to flux). The flame is pretty cool and the sound is more like an Acetylene torch rather than the typical frying bacon of 75/25 mix. I'm nowhere near as good with it as mild steel & 75/25.
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A bit of grinding and it's better. One tip I figured out is when welding a pipe to one side of the v-band clamp, have the other side paired up and clamped in to prevent distortion. I thought of the heat about 1/2 through the first weld and glad I did as it needed a whack from the hammer to properly seat with the other half.
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Muffler hanging rods are welded on and the Cdn Tire rubber hangers work well. I purchased two feet of 5/8" stainless bar ($14) for the hanging rods, hoping to hammer bends when held in a vice... NOT!!! That's some STIFF metal! I had to cut @ 45, flip, and weld.
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Tomorrow I start cutting bends and run the exhaust under the 1/2 shaft, through the rear cross member and toward the exhaust manifold. I'm a little concerned how I'm going to weld a bend to a straight pipe as a mandrel bend is never the same ID as a straight pipe (at least mine aren't - off by a mm or two). I can fill the gap no problem but it's becoming obvious that internal smoothness/flow will never remain exactly 2.25". I guess it's a moot point as I'll have to 'Lobster Back' the final pipe into the muffler anyways...