Zephyr eats motor mounts
Posted: Sun Aug 04, 2019 5:40 pm
As described under the TNIA thread in the Cobra Stuff forum, the Zephyr didn't make it to the track.
The first and most obvious diagnosis led me to think the oil pressure gauge line had a hole rubbed in it while chafing against the firewall. I was disappointed I hadn't placed my usual split rubber hose protector secured with zip-ties.
So we went the next day, plugged the hole and set out for the house. There was smoke for the first few minutes while the rest of the oil from the ruptured gauge line burned off the header. I thought, OK, we were right and we'll have a simple, quick fix.
Further along toward the house, the smoke started to return, and this time it smelled like burning plastic or rubber unlike the earlier smoke which smelled like oil.
Putting the car on the lift revealed (after a brief inspection) that the driver's side motor mount failed. Because the engine then rotated toward the driver's side, and dropped down a little bit, probably causing the oil pressure gauge line to push against the firewall and create the hole in the 4AN braided steel wrapped line. The driver's side engine mount's rubber insulator had sheared loose from the metal plates and rotated maybe 45 degrees and slid partly out until it got against the header - that dislocation caused the second smoke attack that clearly was rubber burning.
The oil line wasn't the only potential casualty; the driver's side header was resting on the steering shaft with unknown (at this moment) damage to the header or the steering. Also, the oil dipstick tube which is also on the driver's side had been bent over at an unfortunate angle, causing it to leak oil.
New motor mounts are supposed to arrive from Summit by the end of the day Tuesday, so between now and then I'm going to try to get the old mounts out and see if there's any other worries. Sigh...
I'm going to use the Harbor Freight Engine Support Bar that I used a few years ago to hold the engine while we dropped the complete front suspension to replace the pan gaskets. Twice.
The photos below show the mounts, the steering/header interface and the support bar.
While nosing around under the hood we noticed the coil seems to have some strange circular corrosion patterns on it, shown in the last photo, so a new coil will go in.
Updates later...
The first and most obvious diagnosis led me to think the oil pressure gauge line had a hole rubbed in it while chafing against the firewall. I was disappointed I hadn't placed my usual split rubber hose protector secured with zip-ties.
So we went the next day, plugged the hole and set out for the house. There was smoke for the first few minutes while the rest of the oil from the ruptured gauge line burned off the header. I thought, OK, we were right and we'll have a simple, quick fix.
Further along toward the house, the smoke started to return, and this time it smelled like burning plastic or rubber unlike the earlier smoke which smelled like oil.
Putting the car on the lift revealed (after a brief inspection) that the driver's side motor mount failed. Because the engine then rotated toward the driver's side, and dropped down a little bit, probably causing the oil pressure gauge line to push against the firewall and create the hole in the 4AN braided steel wrapped line. The driver's side engine mount's rubber insulator had sheared loose from the metal plates and rotated maybe 45 degrees and slid partly out until it got against the header - that dislocation caused the second smoke attack that clearly was rubber burning.
The oil line wasn't the only potential casualty; the driver's side header was resting on the steering shaft with unknown (at this moment) damage to the header or the steering. Also, the oil dipstick tube which is also on the driver's side had been bent over at an unfortunate angle, causing it to leak oil.
New motor mounts are supposed to arrive from Summit by the end of the day Tuesday, so between now and then I'm going to try to get the old mounts out and see if there's any other worries. Sigh...
I'm going to use the Harbor Freight Engine Support Bar that I used a few years ago to hold the engine while we dropped the complete front suspension to replace the pan gaskets. Twice.
The photos below show the mounts, the steering/header interface and the support bar.
While nosing around under the hood we noticed the coil seems to have some strange circular corrosion patterns on it, shown in the last photo, so a new coil will go in.
Updates later...