The new engine is in ...well sort of

The CRB 1000RR is in the chassis, well when I say "in" I really mean "resting in" the chassis. It's not in any way connected to the chassis but it is within the perimiter of the chassis rails.


I started off the day by cutting out the main rear cross braces, it transpires that these tubes are actually only 18guage wall thickness, and can be cut quite easily using just a hack saw. Along with the brace went the last of the remaining diff hanging hardware and the old rear brake pipes which ran across it.

Next it was time to remove the drive shafts and my usual olympic standard ineptitude came to the fore. I'd just cut the brake pipes ... the easiest\only way to undo the highly torqued hubnuts is to have a willing assistant sit in the car with the brakes firmly on while I undo the nut with a socking great breaker bar! With the brake pipes cut that wasn't going to happen so I disaasembled the inner CV joint, and removed each of the rear corners from the car completely.

It not a major issue as the suspension bushes are badly worn and need replacing anyway... but it did slow me down a bit. With the drive shafts, suspension and brake pipes removed the engine bay was very empty, so I set about it with some more rags and thinners to get rid of the last vestiges of grease... It looks a whole lot cleaner now :-), Although my finger nails dont!


Next I cut out and replaced a useless bit of steel plate that had previously been welded into the chassis. I guess this was to allow a larger diff\chainwheel at some stage, but it is plainly useless as anything other than a spacer and its lack of rigidity probabaly contributed to the bad chassis cracks that occured in the joints at both end of that particular section last year. In fact the plate has a definate bend in it which cannot be a good thing! So I welded in an over long length of 16 guage 7/8th tube that slide nicely inside the existing rails with an inch or so of additional material inside the "parent" tube on each side of the joint


So I now the car was ready to lifted onto axle stands. However before I did this I marked all the engine bay tubes with a center line to help the alignment of the new engine installation (that's what the yellow tape is for).


Then using a couple of engine cranes I hoised it into the air and dropped it down onto some axle stands and a large sheet of 3\4 block board.




After that it was a simple matter to drop the engine into the bay and use the flat bottom of the alloy sump on the blockbard to sit it level in relation to the chassis rails. So there it, I' ve just got to decide how to mount the beastie now. If you look closely at it you can see a pair of bolts sticking out of the sides of the cylinder head close to where the lifting straps connect, there is two of these on either side of the cylinder bank. plus the four holes at the end of the gearbox casing (only two are visible in the pic)

I need to think pretty carefully about mounting frame. There are a number of factors to consider and in no paticular order these are.

• Engine alignment and centering in chassis
• Rigid mounting or mounting with metalastic bushes
• Output sprocket to diff input sprocket alignment
• Clearance at front of engine for exhausts
• Front\rear weight distribution which is affected by engine north\south positioning
• Access to clutch\gearbox\oilfilter\fuel & coolant covers & connections
• Suitable hard mounting points on the chassis
• Use the engine as a stressed member to help chasis triangulation or not?
• Height of engine\sump in relation to chassis rails
• Allignment of diff output with driveshafts.
• Access to gear linkage

Clearly a lot of quastions to answer, so to this end I've been canvassing a number of expert opinions.

Martin at the Kit Car Workshop always mounts engines using metalastic bushes, in case the chassis takes a biff. then the small amount of give in the bush can stop an engine mounting being broken off, plus it reducesn overall vibration. Martin also uses support frames that hold the engine from underneath, rather than an "hanging" from the mounting hardware

Ian Gray at Stuart Taylor Motorsport always hard mounts engines directly to the chassis (no bushes) but makes sure that he distributes the load by using all the oringinal engine mounts

Andy Bates of AB performance, likes to hard mount using an external frame or lattice that connects all the engine mounts together on each side of the unit. Thereby ensuring that the mounts can't move in relation to each other and "pinch" a bearing somewhere.

Tim Pell used to use bushes but now hard mounts engines.

Clearly there are lots of differnet answers to my many questions so I'm going to think about it for a bit using a bottle wine as lubricant.

nt