Vibra Technics then Rogue Engineering Any Improvement?

[3002 tii]

Late to the party but while I don't recall if the BW ones are taller I've had mine on for about as long as the VT group buy took place and they're still fine. There was increased NVH but nothing uncomfortable. I'd imagine it would be no different than what the VT guys experienced, you basically hear more of he motor during cold start up but no vibrations. I think they're great value.

[Varinn]

Totally forgot I promised to measure. I didn't take much care to get into precision methods so round to the nearest 0.5mm or so. I included the diameter of the upper "disc" in case someone needs that for any reason (say, sizing a heat shield etc). I also measured the rubber because why the hell not.

[StickMon]

Thanks Varinn!
According to UPS, my new BW mounts are sitting on my porch.
When I get home tonight, I'll do the same, and put them all in a new thread that will be easy for searchers to find.
I'll also see if I can get some measurements after they're installed.
Dawns on me that some mounts may compress more than others, especially the stock ones with the gooey centers.

Anybody have a new stock set they can measure?

BTW, I was able to source the E36 heat shield you suggested, and the thermal blanket suggested by stash1 over on M3forum.
The augmented heat shield project is coming together well.
I'll start a thread on that, the BW mount nhv review, and the VT autopsy next week.

[Varinn]

How does it look in person? Is it the right size and all?

Mine should be here by the end of this week. I was hoping to get it installed this weekend but it looks like I'll be at work so it's gonna have to wait a bit.

[jdoublehcubed]

Originally Posted by StickMon

1) There's an off chance Lang broke the mount. I noticed the increased vibe after I got the car back from the rod bearing job.
I doubt it, but if they did, there should be tell-tale signs that they "missed" when reattaching the front end.

After going down there and talking to them for a while when they did my vanos rebuild, that would really surprise me. Seemed like a top notch shop.

[StickMon]

Originally Posted by Varinn

How does it look in person? Is it the right size and all?...

It's spot-on.
I drilled holes around the edge and attached a curtain of ThermoTech.
Still needs some trimming and shaping. Will post more pics when done, but here's a preview.

[XMetal]

Excellent mods

You may want to consider taking orders for them now

[Vanne]

[inTgr8r]

Excellent !!!!!!!!
Nice work.

[SaltyNC]

Cool beans. I would love to see how that skirt wraps around the mount. Is the material hanging off the bottom (facing away from us) a couple of inches?

Nice bandages.

Salty

[Varinn]

That looks good, question though. Some heat will inevitably find its way inside, are you leaving provisions for that heat to escape? I'm looking at it in the sense that almost all oem heat shields are more for blocking the direct radiant heat than to fully encapsulate the mount. What you did with the fabric is pretty cool, I'd say depending on what angles it needs coverage on to basically just have it cover the front face, like an extension to the shield and trimmed to fit around the subframe etc. See my lovely art for a crappy example of my thinking.

That way (in my mind) you would get heat resistance at the front face, and plenty of open air to vent out what got through around the back.

[StickMon]

Originally Posted by SaltyNC

Cool beans. I would love to see how that skirt wraps around the mount. Is the material hanging off the bottom (facing away from us) a couple of inches?

Nice bandages.

Salty

It's currently a foot long. I left plenty of material to make wings or flaps or tucks or such.
Tonight I hope to mock up the brackets and do some initial trimming.

Originally Posted by Varinn

That looks good, question though. Some heat will inevitably find its way inside, are you leaving provisions for that heat to escape? I'm looking at it in the sense that almost all oem heat shields are more for blocking the direct radiant heat than to fully encapsulate the mount. What you did with the fabric is pretty cool, I'd say depending on what angles it needs coverage on to basically just have it cover the front face, like an extension to the shield and trimmed to fit around the subframe etc. See my lovely art for a crappy example of my thinking.

That way (in my mind) you would get heat resistance at the front face, and plenty of open air to vent out what got through around the back.

I'm aiming for 180° coverage of the side facing the engine, and long enough so the cat can't do an upskirt.
And I don't think it will lay right on the mount, but rather be about 1/2" away.
The entire back 180° facing away from the engine will be open.

[Varinn]

Originally Posted by StickMon

I'm aiming for 180° coverage of the side facing the engine, and long enough so the cat can't do an upskirt.
And I don't think it will lay right on the mount, but rather be about 1/2" away.
The entire back 180° facing away from the engine will be open.

Looks like you've got it figured out right! We have damn near the same idea, let's see how it works out for us. My heat shield should arrive by the end of this week hopefully.

[longress]

Are you guys using an above engine support to change out your mounts or jacking the engine from underneath?

[StickMon]

I'm going to jack it from underneath. That's how I did it last time.
But I'll admit, it is a bit cringeworthy.

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by StickMon

I'm going to jack it from underneath. That's how I did it last time.
But I'll admit, it is a bit cringeworthy.

i did it this way and tbh i found it nerve wracking, i was waiting for a crack, lol!

i did it right on the corner with a really thick piece of wood.

[longress]

I have access to a engine support so I'm going to lift it from above..

I ordered some Bimmerworld mounts last week - thanks to this thread

I had marks on the sway bar where it looks like the oil pan had contacted the bar. Upon further inspection the right mount was deformed.

[StickMon]

I used several pieces of wood trying to spread the load around as much as possible.
Unfortunately, the oil pan's not under the CG, so there's a trade between lifting it by the whole oil pan and getting it to come up reasonably straight.

[StickMon]

Preliminary trimming done, now that I've had a chance to fit it to the mount.
Gonna leave the rest of the trimming until I can lay it up in the car, figure out how I want to clock it, and see where line-of-site to the headers is.

[SaltyNC]

Originally Posted by StickMon

Preliminary trimming done, now that I've had a chance to fit it to the mount.
Gonna leave the rest of the trimming until I can lay it up in the car, figure out how I want to clock it, and see where line-of-site to the headers is.

That's one hot mini skirt. This is very nice.

Salty

[Varinn]

Installed my VT mounts last night and it's a very easy job. No fancy tools needed and took max 3 hours on the floor in the garage. I took approximately zero pictures, so this is a bit wordy.

Get jackstands under the car and make sure it's up on high on the forward lift points. Remove the 3 screws from the belly pan to the torque plate. Take out the 4 bolts on the smaller rear pan, then the 8 larger ones and remove the torque plate. You'll have plenty of access now so remove the two lower nuts from the existing motor mounts. I used a 3/8" ratchet, a 4" extension with a wobble head and 16mm deep socket.

Go up top and pull out the Intake from the airbox to the boot. You'll have a MAF connection, a vacuum line, and a hose clamp on the plenum. Wiggle it out past the coolant overflow line.

I used a 3/8" ratchet with an 18" extension tipped with a universal and 16mm deep socket. Undo and remove the top nut on each mount.

Floorjack under the car I used a 10" 2x4 block placed on end. I found there was a nice spot near the stainless braided oil line that I could sit it against the sealing flange where the bolts are. I picked this spot because I was lifting against solid metal versus an open reservoir on the base of the pan. Lift the motor slow, check for interference or anything sketchy about your high tech wood block's positioning.

Go up until you are able to lift the exhaust side mount upwards to clear the bottom stud, then just rotate it and pull it down and out. Swap in the new mount and heat shield, lift it upwards and place the washer and nut on the stud. Thread only a couple turns. I did all of this side from below.

Move to intake side, same process except you work from above. You might have to raise a bit higher, my plenum was just a C-hair from touching the stock brace when it cleared. Pop in the new mount, thread on a couple turns etc.

Bottom studs line up with the holes and keep themselves in place? Good. If not drop the motor CAREFULLY a few mm at a time until they do. Once they're semi-self aligning by being in the holes then you can go ahead and lower the motor down slowly until they are no longer hanging from the top nut. Spin the mounts to engage the pins and stop them from rotating, then lower it completely.

Back underneath! VT sells the mounts with serated flange 15mm nuts on the bottom. These are good, loctite makes them better. I put some blue on and torqued the bottom nuts 42NM. Move up top, same thing but torque to 42NM, in my case no loctite required as they provided separate washers with 17mm nyloc nuts.

Re-install your intake assembly, be sure to check that the plenum-elbow gasket is seated properly.

Re-install your torque plate. Much easier to thread everything in by hand first, then grab your torque wrench and starting with the inner 4 in a criss-cross pattern torque them all up to 59NM, then the outer 4 in the same pattern. They all need to be finished with a final 90 degrees.

Install the smaller rear plate, take the car off the stands and test.




I found a massive improvement in the way it drives. Zero extra NVH, significantly smoother 2nd gear (Into or out of). It still has that springy dual mass flywheel feeling to it, but it no longer has a tendancy to dance around on/off throttle, it doesn't slam and clunk into gears on a lazy low rpm 1-2 shift or grind on a hard 1-2. Definite improvement over the oem mounts.

Tools used:
1/2" breaker bar or large ratchet (18"-24" handle is perfect)
1/2" 17mm socket for the torque plate bolts (Might have been 16mm, can't remember)
1/2" torque wrench
3/8" ratchet, I used a tiny stubby one and a 10"
3/8" wobble-plus extensions (18", 4", and 1")
3/8" universal
3/8" 8mm, 13mm, 15mm, 16mm, and 17mm sockets
3/8" torque wrench
flat head screwdriver

[StickMon]

I hate you!
I just swapped out the VT mounts for the BW mounts today.
Took me 10 hours!
I took the entire intake air box off, and took frequent breaks.
Also, I was uncomfortable lifting the engine high enough to clear the studs, so I lifted it just enough to get some daylight under the mounts, and then removed the brackets from the block.
And I have at least 3 oil leaks, so I spent a lot of time spritzing and wiping.

Took a couple pics of the mount with the augmented heat shield.
Plan to start a new thread on the swap and the VT mount autopsy.