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Engine mount

T

trackdom

Well Known Member
Hi,

Ihave to report that I struggle a lot to bolt my Lycoming O320 to the dynafocal mount. Has somebody experienced difficulties at this stage of the construction..it seems the mount is not at all behind the engine holes and I have to force the bolt to come in...
Thanks
 
The trick is to squint with your right eye, hold your tongue in your left cheek and sacrifice a small farm animal. :)
Get one started and get the engine close to the mount, they will all go eventually, or attach the mount to the engine first and then attach to the firewall.
 
OK, have you made sure that you have the correct engine mount for your engine? Make sure you have a dynafocal engine/mount for an O-320.

Assuming that is correct, have you tried the engine mount alignment pins? Here is an example:

http://www.averytools.com/prodinfo.asp?number=282

They work well and can simplify a particularly stubborn installation like yours.
 
I installed (one man job) an 0-360 on the dyn mount and took about 2 hours. The trick I found was just getting the nut on with one thread, finding the right combination of bolt order and number of turns on the nut, slowly compressing the rubber mounts. Got it down to where the bolt hole by the #4 cyl was off by approx 1/16 of an inch. Then carefully used a little elbow grease for the last one. Maybe I got lucky finding the right combination, but certainly was an exercise requiring patience.
 
mounting eng

Mine went on so easy I was disapointed after hearing about how long it took I was prepaired for a fight and it just about fell on.
Bob:
 
The third bolt (lower right) was the tough one for my engine. Once I was able to get the alignment close enough to get the bolt started it pulled into line.

I had to completely tighten the top bolts and that helps a lot to get the alignment better.

The last bolt (lower left) was much easier with all of the other mounts completely tightened up.
 
If the OP does a search ..

.....there have been many threads on this topic. Lotsa good tips in those.
 
I struggled to get mine bolted in place also. When using the alignment pin you are not trying to move the engine but move the thick rubber mount enough to start the pin into the bolt hole on the engine. May have to use leverage to pull the engine up to make a gap between the engine block lower bolt hole and the rubber mount. Once the rounded end of the pin is started in the engine hole the rubber mount will deform into position.

Jim
 
Pat Hatch said:
OK, have you made sure that you have the correct engine mount for your engine? Make sure you have a dynafocal engine/mount for an O-320.

Assuming that is correct, have you tried the engine mount alignment pins? Here is an example:

http://www.averytools.com/prodinfo.asp?number=282

They work well and can simplify a particularly stubborn installation like yours.
Click to expand...

Actually there is potentially two different engine mount styles for a dynafocal 320.

There are some 320 cases that are a Dynafocal 2. They basically were IO-320's designed for use with an extended hub prop. They most commonly were used on Twin Comanches.

Not likely the problem in this instance, but possible.
 
Try it with the engine mount off the Firewall

I just did this on Monday evening. It worked beautifully. I am still on a high as a result.

2z9isef.jpg


I had intended to gather a posse to do this with me but I got to the point where the firewall was ready and it was still too early to quit for the day. I was conscious of a lot of people who have chosen to attach the engine to the mount first and then bolt the assembly to the firewall. So I though "I'll just give it a try and stop at the first sign of trouble" 45 minutes later, (including clean-up time) there it was.

This method gives unimpeded access so that you can sight through the holes and see exactly what movement is needed to get it lined up.

I followed the order of bolts quoted in the illustrated guide. I found that fully tightening each bolt helped to bring the next one close to its final position but it was necessary to slack it off a bit to give some wriggle room. The next bolt could then be angled to get one thread onto the lip of the hole in the engine block. From there I turned the bolt to 'screw' it fully into place, as recommended in the guide (no hammering). The threads help to pull the bolt through the hole to a point where you can easily get a washer and nut on it. The bolt obviously straightens up as it goes through the hole and brings the mount into alignment.

I also used one of my temporary wing bolts that was ground to a bullet shape as a drift pin but this was mainly to get the rubbers in line. You can't do much pushing and pulling with the engine hanging like that but you can still lever the mount against the engine. I must confess to trying that on the third bolt but it probably wasn't necessary (protect the powder coating if you do that).

In case anybody notices, this is a pre-loved engine, which accounts for it's slightly less-than-pristine appearance (O-320 E2A, 274 hours since rebuild to new specs by Mattituck - taken from a retired Cherokee with an expired CofA.)
 
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