Camera's 818C

[Dave 53]

Something to consider with the 818 is it deletes the fore and aft top engine / transmission brace (I forget exactly what it's called).

It was impossible to see with a casual inspection, but I discovered my timing belt cover was all bashed up. I concluded that without that top brace and the soft OEM mounts, the engine was free to move forward and slam the timing belt cover against the coolant piping. Perhaps someone can repost the video of the engine movement at an autocross.

I used the stiffest Cusco through bolt engine and transmission mounts available. The next step is solid mounts. Vibration is absolutely not an issue and my timing covers are still intact. These cars need more than the OEM mounts just to make up for the top brace delete.

[Bicyclops]

Something to consider with the 818 is it deletes the fore and aft top engine / transmission brace (I forget exactly what it's called).

It was impossible to see with a casual inspection, but I discovered my timing belt cover was all bashed up. I concluded that without that top brace and the soft OEM mounts, the engine was free to move forward and slam the timing belt cover against the coolant piping. Perhaps someone can repost the video of the engine movement at an autocross.

I used the stiffest Cusco through bolt engine and transmission mounts available. The next step is solid mounts. Vibration is absolutely not an issue and my timing covers are still intact. These cars need more than the OEM mounts just to make up for the top brace delete.

I think that most call it the dogbone. I went with the stiff Cusco mounts, and they are stiff. I had a belt adjuster pulley come loose and embedded the pulley into the timing belt cover. Yikes! Fortunately I heard the noisy belt when I was putting her back in the garage before it came all the way apart. My scavenge pump woulda quit and I would have been very sorry. Changing out the cover without pulling the engine wasn't easy.

On another note about movement, my car had started pulling left under acceleration and darting right when I would lift for a shift. I've got nearly 3Kmiles on her. It was getting scary so I did another string alignment on it and it got a lot worse. I took it to an alignment shop and they got it straight but discovered that with it up in the air, you could shake the left rear wheel substantially. Pretty scary stuff. I got it home and found a lot of loose bolts. The jesus bolt through the lateral arms was the worst of them. I know I had all of them tight. I'm going to start checking all the suspension bolts every thousand miles. I do drive it hard on canyon roads. Lots of side loads.

Ed

Ed