For those of you who responded to my earlier thread regarding my ongoing motor mount issues, thought I would read you in on something I just learned about a half hour or so ago.
First of all, apparently I should not have been calling the upper half of the late model version of the G-Body engine mount a clam. It is, apparently, termed a "shell" I discovered this fascinating factoid while surfing the latest e-flyer from OPGI. Since I have purchased a few odds and ends from them, I now get to hear about the newest neatest and greatest that they have introduced into their catalogue.
Purely on a whim, I opened the flyer and entered my G-Body specs. One of the sub categories that got returned to me was a listing for performance headers. Okay, let's see what OPG has to offer. That turned out to be two pages of Hedman manufactured products that, according to the captions, were all made to directly fit my year of vehicle. Yeah, right..............
It turned out that my skepticism was justified, EVERY single entry came with a list of qualifications, one of which specifically stated that the product in question could not be installed on a vehicle that used "SHELL" style motor mounts. (OH, yeah, for shell, read clam.) At least a dozen variants on the theme and no exceptions. Different flange thicknesses, different tube diameters, shorties, Black finish, HTC finish, and All of them suitable for installation, provided you had the early version motor mount, or something like what UMI offers, that being a flat mounting plate with a pair of ears on it for the bolt. Most of you have seen the results of my efforts with a 4.5 DeWalt and a combination of razor blade wheel for the initial material removal, and a 60 GR type 29 flap wheel for the rest of the shaping and metal removal. The last bit of finishing was done with a couple of coarse tooth metal files. While mine have been shaved and relieved substantially, they still possess more material in the critical areas than that pro-built UMI product. Again, back to build vs buy. The pair I completed are sitting on the bench and waiting for some chassis paint to give them that last bit of protection and beauty!?!?
So I guess where I am headed with this is in the direction of having to lift the motor, Again!!, slide out the stockers, and slip in my version of motor mount reality if I want to use headers. Apparently, sometime between when I took this car off the road for its rehab, and now, all the manufacturers decided to upgrade their pipe designs for some reason and all the old versions got trashed. Doom On Me. And, since the only benefit to trading the Flowmasters for the Hedman's is the thicker flanges and tubes, which, for what I am doing, that is primarily the street and the highway, may be overkill, I may just retrieve those Flowmasters back from the shop, do the clam swap (Screw 'em, Shells are for shotguns, I like clam better), and use the Flowmasters. At least they are paid for and I do not have to deal with the exercise of arguing with the restocker.
Nick
First of all, apparently I should not have been calling the upper half of the late model version of the G-Body engine mount a clam. It is, apparently, termed a "shell" I discovered this fascinating factoid while surfing the latest e-flyer from OPGI. Since I have purchased a few odds and ends from them, I now get to hear about the newest neatest and greatest that they have introduced into their catalogue.
Purely on a whim, I opened the flyer and entered my G-Body specs. One of the sub categories that got returned to me was a listing for performance headers. Okay, let's see what OPG has to offer. That turned out to be two pages of Hedman manufactured products that, according to the captions, were all made to directly fit my year of vehicle. Yeah, right..............
It turned out that my skepticism was justified, EVERY single entry came with a list of qualifications, one of which specifically stated that the product in question could not be installed on a vehicle that used "SHELL" style motor mounts. (OH, yeah, for shell, read clam.) At least a dozen variants on the theme and no exceptions. Different flange thicknesses, different tube diameters, shorties, Black finish, HTC finish, and All of them suitable for installation, provided you had the early version motor mount, or something like what UMI offers, that being a flat mounting plate with a pair of ears on it for the bolt. Most of you have seen the results of my efforts with a 4.5 DeWalt and a combination of razor blade wheel for the initial material removal, and a 60 GR type 29 flap wheel for the rest of the shaping and metal removal. The last bit of finishing was done with a couple of coarse tooth metal files. While mine have been shaved and relieved substantially, they still possess more material in the critical areas than that pro-built UMI product. Again, back to build vs buy. The pair I completed are sitting on the bench and waiting for some chassis paint to give them that last bit of protection and beauty!?!?
So I guess where I am headed with this is in the direction of having to lift the motor, Again!!, slide out the stockers, and slip in my version of motor mount reality if I want to use headers. Apparently, sometime between when I took this car off the road for its rehab, and now, all the manufacturers decided to upgrade their pipe designs for some reason and all the old versions got trashed. Doom On Me. And, since the only benefit to trading the Flowmasters for the Hedman's is the thicker flanges and tubes, which, for what I am doing, that is primarily the street and the highway, may be overkill, I may just retrieve those Flowmasters back from the shop, do the clam swap (Screw 'em, Shells are for shotguns, I like clam better), and use the Flowmasters. At least they are paid for and I do not have to deal with the exercise of arguing with the restocker.
Nick