[T-Bone]

Is this a DIY project or is it better left to people in the know. On the surface it doesn't seem that hard. I'm pretty good with tools so I'm thinking of doing it myself.



Any advice?



Thanks.

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[PorscheDude]

http://www.clarks-garage.com/shop-manual/eng-12.htm

There is a very detailed DIY including a list of needed tools

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[flash]

driver side is very easy - takes minutes - passenger side a bit tougher

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[rob76turbo]

I recently did them when I had to get to the oil pick-up / return tubes. The main point is that you have to support your engine from the top or bottom (I supported from the top). Anyway both sides were pretty easy to install...no real issues. But I bought aftermarket mounts and had to spend a lot of time filing one of the mounts down to fit (major bummer). The OE mounts are fairly expensive, but know that you may have to manually make some corrections / adjustments to the aftermarket mount to fit correctly.



One area that helped a lot was to start all the bolts and keep them loose until you have them all threaded a bit. A second set of hands helps here. My 16 year old provided the extra muscle so it is not that hard <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/biggrin.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />



PM me if you have any other questions.

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[caffine]

[quote name='rob76turbo' post='59691' date='Sep 13 2008, 11:45 AM']I recently did them when I had to get to the oil pick-up / return tubes. The main point is that you have to support your engine from the top or bottom (I supported from the top). Anyway both sides were pretty easy to install...no real issues. But I bought aftermarket mounts and had to spend a lot of time filing one of the mounts down to fit (major bummer). The OE mounts are fairly expensive, but know that you may have to manually make some corrections / adjustments to the aftermarket mount to fit correctly.



One area that helped a lot was to start all the bolts and keep them loose until you have them all threaded a bit. A second set of hands helps here. My 16 year old provided the extra muscle so it is not that hard <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/biggrin.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />



PM me if you have any other questions.[/quote]



How do you test the existing mounts to determine replacement?

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[flash]

you have to get in there an measure them - there is a minimum spec of something like 63mm (i'm having a hard time finding the exact spec right now) down from something like 70mm new - pretty tough to measure though

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[Cloud9...68]

[quote name='caffine' post='60164' date='Sep 19 2008, 07:41 PM']How do you test the existing mounts to determine replacement?[/quote]

A distinct vibration at idle is another telltale sign. Again, hard to quantify, but with bad mounts, the entire car shakes to varyng degrees.

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[caffine]

Thanks - guess I have lots of rubber to replace on this old girl.

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[apex]

ha! replacing rubber. can anyone say "sisyphus"?



but back to the engine mounts - can anyone recommend a tool for supporting the engine? I don't want to get an engine stand and was wondering if anyone here had experience with those engine braces that span across the engine bay. the factory manual shows one. any recommendations?

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[Cloud9...68]

I used a floor jack, with a 2x4 to provide some padding for the oil pan. It worked fine, but in my case, I had A LOT of trouble getting the motor mount bolts to line up. I had to call a neighbor to help, and it took a lot of tugging and jerking to finally get things to line up. IIRC, the trouble was all on the driver's side - as Flash said, the passenger side was pretty easy.



It's been awhile since I did mine, but I remember trying to move things as little as possible, to hopefully preclude the need to do an alignment afterwards. I remember telling myself that if I had to do it over, I would not worry about that, and focus on moving the crossbrace as much as was necessary to help get the motor mount bolts to align. Good luck.

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[968Syncro]

Just a small reminder that the motor mounts for manual transmission car are different than the mounts for a tiptronic car. I think this has been mentioned once before here on the forum. My car has the tip, and the PO had the motor mounts replaced and the shop put the wrong ones in, which of course required them to be swapped out to the correct ones. So double check the part numbers and make sure to get the right ones.



Roland

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[unknown4u]

Thanks for the TIP!.



What is different by the way?

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[rob76turbo]

I have used one of those bars that span across the engine bay. Got it at Northern Tools (had to prepay and they shipped it to the store and I picked it up. IIRC I paid about $60 but the price has gone up to closer to $90...not sure why). However, it was very easy to install the engine mounts, everything lined up and there was little tugging and pulling to make the passenger side happen. All in all, using the engine support saved a lot of time and frustration.

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[968Syncro]

[quote name='unknown4u' post='60230' date='Sep 21 2008, 12:36 PM']Thanks for the TIP!.



What is different by the way?[/quote]



Sorry, I can't recall exactly. I did a quick search here on the forum and one post showed up that said it was "heavier duty": http://www.968forums.com/index.php?showtopic=3930 (post 6 in this thread). There may be other history that I didn't find in the search. The PET of course shows the 2 different part numbers on page 47 of the PDF file.



Roland

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