Has anyone made their own motor / diff mounts?
 

My OEM mounts are shot so I was thinking about making some new ones. This is for a Grassroots car so the materials need to be cheap or free. There are tons of free hockey pucks that have been lost at the frozen pond near my house. I was thinking that 2 pucks per side should work for motor mounts. Not quite sure how to make bushings for the rear diff. Might cut down a few pucks and make inserts for the rear diff. Has anyone tried this before or have any other solutions? Anyone running solid mounts?

3M Window weld.

I made mine out of hockey pucks. 2 is too tall, and one is too thin. I ended up using 1.5 on each side using one whole puck and half of another, and made a small spacer out of Lexan to make it the right height. I pressed in a steel sleve in the center of it all to keep things centered and stiffen it up more. If you cut half an inch on both sides of the puck, it fits in the stock steel cups so it hides the ghetto-ness. In the end, I spent $13 total. You would be better off making the spacer out of steel or aluminum, but I had a sheet of Lexan next to me and it just seemed badass at the time.

:edit: I think the pics are in here. https://www.miataturbo.net/gallery/b...imageuser=2536

that is pretty friggin cool

Dude, thats bad ass. Wish I didnt just spend so much on 2 new mazdaspeed mounts. Looks like an easy and fun project. How do they feel compared to old worn out stock mounts? Id guess a bit stiffer with more vibration.

It looks like you are running the bolt straight through, basically solid motor mounts.

I made solid mounts out of a stack of washers for my buddies FC RX-7. The Miata has similar mounts. I got the washers, bolts and nuts from Lowe's it ended up being ~$15.
Same basic idea as the hockey puck.

It feels like a hard core massage chair, like non daily driver material. It also amplifies every single squeek and rattle in the car x50. My open down pipe masked most of it, but when I put exhaust on it for a week to pass inspection it drove me nuts.

Also, any bolts on the car that weren't tightened properly fall off in a few miles..

Eh basically. The pucks help dampen some of the vibrations though. I would call it a 75% solid mount.

I hope not. That would be alot of impact loading on the bolt.

mounts are cheap, just get real ones. i think i paid $40 for my MMR solid mounts and the mazdaspeed ones are only $90 or so.

Nah. They are snugged up enough to keep the engine from moving, not overly torqued, and I used lock nuts with a second nut on top to keep them from backing off. The pucks are slightly compressed, with the top and bottom cup of the mount clamped on the steel insert. I trust this more than a piece of molded rubber (stock) keeping my engine in place. Just throwing my mount idea up there for the OP to brainstorm.

Wheres the ghettofied fun in that??

These were intended to be temporary, but they work well enough I am leaving them in.

I would trust MAzda's engineer's versus a semi solid mount made out of hockey pucks. I am not putting your idea or what you did down, I just want everyone to know that its effectively either a solid mount or your impact loading the bolt.

I made a set of solid motor mounts for a 94 T bird I did a 302 swap in when I was 15. All steel and you just bolted the engine to the subframe. I'll never do that agian. Ruined the car. Every piece of the interior was shaken loose and made soo many noises.

I understand what you are saying, I just don't have any concerns of the grade 8 bolt failing. My welds on the other hand.. Eh. I'll report back if they break this year. If this kind of mount can hold up to small block Chevy's at the track it should be fine on a Miata.

i got box steal the same exact size at the stocker...... and a stud strait threw the bitch.... yea it shakes alot..... makes you double check everything on the car..... some of the girls i know like it, some dont.. i just dont feel like replacing my mounts ever again so i deal with it....

If your welds break, and you want a hand or my 220v welder let me know.

ApexOnYou, this is exactly what I was thinking of doing. The pics will help out a lot. If things don't work out with the pucks I might just box and weld the factory mounts solid.

Now does anyone have some ideas for the rear mounts? Filling them might work out if I don't destroy the bushings when removing them for the diff swap.

you pretty much have to destroy them when you take em out. Maybe something could be made with pucks, but they would have to be trimmed to fit in the carrier.

My welder just broke too.. :doh:

I could use a hand welding in a cage soon though ;)

a while ago I sent my factory mounts to TRZ motorsports to have a set made (for me to sell) because he has made me a bunch of nice stuff for the mazdaspeed 3 and 6. A few weeks after I sent them out I got a package back with two solid bricks of machined aluminum with offset studs, not exactly something I can sell to many miata enthusiasts.
The mounts are fairly simple, just pull one out and try and make something that will fit. Shit I have seen people use wood (turbo dodge owners) to make motor mounts.