Re: Misc Musing re Engine 'Cage' was: Front cross member braces from Ron Wood

["Brian Haygood" <Scirious@hotmail.com>]

Lots of Mercedes use small shocks on the engines.  Don't know which ones in
particular, but my 1976 300D used them.  Pretty darn stiff and very small.

If you are going to the trouble to build an engine cage, why not build a
whole new front clip?  It would give you more flexibility in mounting your
new engine mounts and other components, could be significantly lighter and
stiffer (using steel tubing instead of sheet metal).  I have been
considering the possibility of making tubular steel control arms to save a
little weight, too.  I have a friend who races a Mustang, and he purchased
and installed a tubular front clip for that, which saved him over 100 pounds
up front, and added stiffness.  Hey, we've already got strut tower braces,
lower braces, and now a front cross member brace.  How long are we going to
keep patching these things before we realize we should just redo the front
from scratch?  I'd be interested in designing it and maybe helping make a
prototype.  There are several things we would need, which could be divided
up amongst whomever wants to help.  Here is what we would need:

Locations of critical mounting points - including anything that would be
moved to a different place.
CAD (Pro/E being my method of choice):
1 Maybe someone could CAD an Engine and transmission roughly so we can work
around it
2.Other components that would need to be placed or need clearance (fenders,
hood, wheels, struts)
3.any other parts someone wants to CAD in their spare time
4.  The actual design
Once we have a design, we can do FEA on it with Pro/Mechanica or Ansys or
whatever to check it out and optimize it
Once the design is done, building a prototype is just a matter of time and
manpower.  For example, the last frame I built for a small race car took 2
to 3 months to build (with about 2 people working on it).
Have the thing finish welded by a real welder, paint it, and mount it in a
car and see what happens.

If anyone is interested in doing this, I'd be game, but I'd expect it to be
a long term spare time sort of project that might take several years to
complete.  A good starting point would be to have a stripped straight front
clip to take measurements from

Just dreaming, but sometimes they come true.

BH



----- Original Message -----
From: Randy B <sirocco@telocity.com>
To: T Berk <tberk@mindspring.com>
Cc: <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2001 9:41 PM
Subject: Re: Misc Musing re Engine 'Cage' was: Front cross member braces
from Ron Wood


> How about using some type of shock system...ie..friction shocks, or a
> monotube shock/spring combo in place of one of the mounts.
>
> Would be very hard to fabricate and even harder to find shocks small
enough
> to make it work.
>
> Doesn't VW use something like this on one of the later cars?????
>
> Just musing :D
>
>
>
> >
> >
> > Thought to develop a 'cage' for the motor to live in. High output HP
> > means the standard mounts take a beating. Concept includes use of
> > additional mounting points in the engine bay and grafting in mount
> > brackets that can use standard (cheap & available motor mount rubber.
> >
> > Talk amongst yourselves.
> >
> > TBerk
> >
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