darrenjlobb's Adaptronic Managed Compound Blown Derv Bus Build

[darrenjlobb]

Another small update,  As somewhat anticipated, I had some issues to overcome with the BE4 conversion. At some point I think around 2004, PSA changed the angle that most of there engines sit at in the engine bay, from the old 30degree, to a more upright 15 degree.. This seems to be mainly achieved by the bell housing on the BE4, which is rotated 15 degrees to that of the older BE3...Now as you can imagine, this is  a problem, as I ran my RHW at 30 degrees (stock for 306) previously, but that puts the gearbox in on the piss, shafts foul the subframe, and box mount is at an angle. So decided I would convert the engine mount to actually run the engine at the intended angle in the 306, which was going to give me some extra advantages with down pipe clearance, and also fuel pump clearance as the front of the motor drops down. Was able to use a late model lower mount to line up the driveshaft center bearing, and also pull the sump towards subframe. 


After lots of searching, and measuring, it seems from what I can see anyway, there is no such thing as a stock drop in mount that will fit a 306, and put the engine at 15 degrees, Maybe I have missed one, but I searched for quite a while (far to long) and couldnt come up with anything, and given no stock mounts fit my engine 100% anyway as I use the 4 bolt volvo style engine bracket, it was never going to be "ideal" anyway. So decided to just make one rather than spend days searching / waiting for one to turn up and be wrong!

So I got the engine up on the trans mount and lower mount again, and then jacked / manipulated engine into a "happy" position, so where the level was sitting level left to right, and also inline with the axle on the car, which left me with the stock mount sitting around central to the engine side:



So cut out two plates, vee'd out the weld lines, tacked them together and center drilled all the mount holes:



Then welded it all up solid:




Then ground back all the welds to try and make it appear an OEM item:







Then welded some extra 10mm sections on the top to add strength lengthways across the mount, likely a bit overkill given the strength of the plates anyway, but wont do any harm:






Lick of paint:




And fitted it to the car with some new stainless bolts:




So engine is now hopefully sat in its final position, just need to flip the mount in the lower casing. Got to kick car out the workshop now for a few weeks to work on the 305 etc!

Thanks for reading