Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

I'm hoping to replace motor mounts and oil pan gasket, but I can't see how I can loosen the nuts at the top of the mounts... they're right under the exhaust headers and a heat shield. I really don't want to remove the exhaust headers again, and I don't think I can remove the heat shield. I've removed the bolts that hold the heat shield in place, so I can move it around, but it isn't helping much.

Basically, access from below is poor and while I can get a 13mm spanner on, I can't turn it enough to do anything. And the headers make it impossible to get a socket on from above.

Anyone dealt with this problem?

First of all I am going to state the obvious - you will need to support the engine somehow, either from above or below. I use a large trolley jack and a bit of 2" by 4" to support and slightly lift the engine from below.

The passenger side mount is relatively simple to remove. But to get the replacement in will will need to lift the engine slightly as the new mount will be taller.

The drivers side mount you will have to bite the bullet and remove the exhaust header again. But at least you have had it off before so shouldnt have issues with the bolts. You only really need to get the central 2 cylinder headers out the way, you might neeed to loosen the other part as well but shouldn't have to remove it completely.

Warning the engine is not balanced evenly, there is more weight on the drivers side due to the tilt angle of the engine, so bare this in mind when supporting / lifting the engine.

It can be done, just might need a little more effort than you were expecting.

Supporting engine - yup, an engine support is just one of the new tools I had (an excuse) to buy in my current round of maintenance

You're right that bolts shouldn't be an issue... it's just the hassle, and the feeling that I've taken so much stuff apart that I'd really like to stop now and not have to buy another set of gaskets and new hardware (as I tend with these kind of bits to not want to re-use the old fasteners)

I was thinking of getting hold of a 13mm crowfoot socket, might just do the trick.

Also, I seem to remember that it was really quite hard getting the headers out before, just because of the whole 3-d puzzle thing that is the engine bay…

I did it not so long ago, wasn't fun! I had a 13mm ratchet spanner and managed to turn it one click at a time. Lifesaver that spanner!

I had loosened but not removed the exhaust header (Cylinders 2 and 4 I believe) to give a little more access, and dropped the front suspension brace so that as the bolt loosened I could pull the mount away from the engine, rather than the bolt rising into the manifold. To get spanner space I also had to remove the intermediate shaft of the steering column.

The bolt hole on the engine support is slotted, so that once the mount is off you can slide the bolt out sideways to replace it with a shiny new one. You're probably aware but if you're replacing the old style mounts with new style you will need shorter bolts than the originals - I can't remember lengths though unfortunately.

Once the bolt was out, the engine mount came out forward into the engine bay and was surprisingly well trapped! I had to release the tensioner to the power steering pump and fold it out of the way, and remove the inner mount for the ARB in order to clear a path to get the mount out, and the new mount in.

Pain of a job, but well worth doing. Good luck!

ah, someone else had suggested a 13mm flex head ratchet spanner, and I can see that might do it.

Loosening rather than removing would be less of a pain... sometimes working on this car can seem a bit like dealing with the mechanical equivalent of unnecessary bureaucracy.

Yup, a 13mm flex-head ratchet spanner did the trick, with a little patience and caution.

Haven't removed them all the way yet, as I want to make sure that all the other fasteners I need to remove aren't seized up. (Now it's a wishbone-to-crossmember bolt that's giving me trouble.) But I think it'll be easy enough from here on

(Didn't need to loosen the headers btw, though as I say I haven't removed the bolts yet, but it looks as if dropping the crossmember as I go will solve any clearance-at-top issues)