Lowering engine.

[PapaBurgundy]

After looking in the tech pages I learned how to lower my engine by making my own mounts, and as I am completely obsessed with vehicle physics I nearly had an automotive orgasm. Anyone know how low you can safely go? I ask because I dont have my car right now and therefore can't find out myself.

[IanS]

Depends on what oil pan you are running, if you hit something with an aluminum pan you could end up with a nice big hole. I run a small skid plate and I have the stock SR steal pan, it hangs kind of close to the plate already. If I didnt have the skid plate I wouldnt want to risk oil starvation due to a dented oil pan. Is the benifit of a slightly lower center of gravity real worth the risk?

PS. welcome to Nico, and good question.

[PapaBurgundy]

I have the stock KA pan, and as I've heard about SR pan clearance problems but not KA I assume there smaller. And since I'll be autocrossing in a stock class I'm looking for loopholes in the rules. Do some research on physics and you'll see that your cars world revolves around its CG and having it an inch or two lower would give me a huge advantage against a bunch of nearly stock 240's.

[gumby74]

The SOHC in my car sits about an inch over the crossmember with new motor mounts. The oil pan itself has a slight hump around this area to begin with so as to clear the crossmember and P/S lines. I doubt you could go too much lower than that with out some serious head scratching.Do-able, but with some well thought out fabrication and measuring.

[gumby74]

Now if you were to shim the crossmember with a pair of 1/2" maybe 3/4" blocks and use longer, stronger grade 8 bolts to attach the crossmember to the chassis....Just a thought...

[krazydriver]

I followed the tech article and made my own mounts.

Engine sits about 1 inch lower.... it's not close to rubbing anything (crossmember, PS wise).I'm still at factory ride height so i'm not too worried about hitting things on the road with it, but i did make a sheetmetal skidplate just for the protection.

[PapaBurgundy]

Thanks. How noticable was the effect on handling? I'd just as soon make a splitter/undertray before a skidplate, not sure how that fits with SCCA rules......

[krazydriver]

well two things will completely bias my response.

First my factory mounts were COMPLETELY BLOWN, all torn and just destroyed.when i took the transmission off to change the clutch my engine was able to rock back about 3 inches.And when i revved the engine it would kick over in the engine bay at least 4 inches or so.

Secondly, at the same time i swapped out my engine mounts i put in a new transmission mount. Now my engine doesn't move at all when i rev it.

As far as difference, yes i did notice a decent change in the way the car handled. Much less front end dive and less front end body roll going into turns, obviously because the weight of the engine was now down lower.Could also have just been the lack of inertia as the engine slopped in the mounts and attempted to throw my car off the road.