FlyinHawaiian

OK, here's my first attempt to post something that may be of some interest to the group.

I recently purchased the red urethane snub mount from Greedspeed (nice guys) and was following the notes that I downloaded from AW as well as APR. All went well until I got the part where you actually install the mount itself. I could not believe how difficult it was to get the mount onto the mount bracket! Practically impossible to do while the mount bracket is still bolted to the engine. So I decided to remove the bracket and "easily" rubber mallet the mount onto the bracket. WRONG. That thing would simply NOT go on.

OK, I know folks have shaved the inside to help facilitate the installation, but I really wanted to try and get it on without doing so. So here's what I did:

1. Grabbed a three beers from the back 'fridge.

2. Drank two and contemplated what needed to be done to get this !@#$ing mount on the car (I don't have a press here at my house).

3. Then an idea popped into my head. Flashbacks of building VW race trannies in the 80's suggested that I need to refer back to simple laws of thermodynamics--that is, when you apply heat to a material, it expands!

4. I run into the house and grab a coffee mug, fill it half-way with water, and pop it into the microwave oven. Three minutes should do it.

5. I plop the mount into the boiling water and drink my third beer. By the time I was done with my beer, the mount was ready to be installed. I used Triflow lube on the mount bracket, pulled the urethane mount out of the hot water with a chopstick and positioned it on the bracket. I gave it a simple tap with the rubber mallet (which prior to this technique, I was banging will all my might), and the mount plopped with minimal resistance onto the bracket! One light tap is all it needed! Woohoo!!

6. Great, I'm the Master of the Universe at this point (three beers will do that to you). So I proceed to install the mount and something's not right--that correct, I FORGOT to put the bolt that's under the mount on BEFORE I put the mount on. OK, no problem...I'll remove the mount, put the bolt on, and reattach the mount. WRONG. Mount is on solid, bro, and there's no way it's coming off as it had already cooled and quenched ontot he bracket. No worries--Triflow on the head of the bolt, pushed it in as far as I could, wrenched it on at an angle. Certainly not the "master of the universe" technique, but it worked.

7. Replaced the bracket back on the motor using a little Loctite on the bolts. The bolt closest to the mount is a tight squeeze, so I used a ball-end allen wrench to get to it.

And there you have it--my first S4 project. By the way, I think that the mount could have been installed easily using the "heat technique" WITHOUT removing the bracket from the engine. Somebody please try it and let me know if it works.

Aloha,
Keoni

2000 Brilliant Black Tip
1964 Black Turbo Bug

ChaoticS4

What kind of beers did you use? lite beer? dark beer?

SlowestS4Here

lol!

FlyinHawaiian

Steinlager...not too dark, not too light, but juuuuust right. :-)

NOTE: If you REALLY want the job to go smoothly, try tequila instead. But don't get bent out of shape when you wake up the next day and your snub mount is wedged in one of your tail pipes. ;-)

Aloha,
Keoni

SlowestS4Here

haha! sounds like that would be the product of crack...not tequila!

SlowestS4Here

you are correct, btw, I found that boiling my snub mount prior to install helped a lot.

FlyinHawaiian

Actually, with crack it would take a LOT longer due to the simple fact that you'd be constantly arguing with yourself:

"OK, you hold the mount while I hammer it."
"No, YOOOOOU hold the mount while I hammer it."

And so on, and so on...

:-P

Aloha,
Keoni