New Product: Wunderladen Racing Honda Civic Side Motor Mounts and Presale!
First things first, we're going to get the specifics of the presale out of the way and then we'll continue on with talking about the design process of the mounts.
PRESALE INFO
Here's what you need to know about the presale:
- Pricing: All 3 mounts are available separately. Each side mount is $260 or the pair of side mounts is $500. The 3 mount combo is $690.
- Quantity Cap: The presale will be capped at 20 sets. We have ordered enough material to make 20 sets of mounts for this presale. After the presale is over we will be working to make these a regularly stocked item.
- Lead Time: We are currenting operating around a 6 week lead time from when they go live (9/27) but there is a good potential for it to be less than that. Orders will ship in the order that they are received.
- Options: There are two color options for the bushing carriers: purple and black. There are two color options for the bushings themselves: red and black. There are two options for bushing stiffness: street and race. Street stiffness is 75A, race stiffness is 90A.
MOUNT DESIGN
After we released our rear motor mount we knew we were going to circle back around to offer both side mounts for the full trifecta! Our main goals with our mounts is to offer something that keeps the engine and transmission from moving around, which helps reduce wheel hop and put power to the ground better, but not induce an excessive amount of NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) into the cabin. Suffice to say, we feel we've more than met these goals.
Starting with the passenger side motor mount (PMM), the factory mount is a huge piece and uses a gel filled bag as a form of bushing to isolate the engine from the chassis. This does a great job of keeping NVH low, but does a very poor job of actually keeping the engine in place; it's fairly easy to flex this mount with just your hands. As the mount is strained from the engine torquing (which happens every time you accelerate) the gel thins out and the more it thins out, the less it is able to hold the engine in place. Due to the lack of stiffness in the mount to begin with, this mount is prone to wearing out fairly quickly ESPECIALLY if you're tracking, drag racing or autocrossing your car.
For our PMM we made the main base and engine mounting flange out of a mixture of steel and chromoly because it gives us the ability to make a mount with a smaller footprint yet still be very rigid. The steel base and engine mounting flange are powdercoated in a durable wrinkle black finish to stand the test of time in inclement and corrosive environments. The bushing lives in a billet aluminum bushing housing because this allows us very fine control over the ID that the bushing lives in which plays a part in how much NVH is transmitted as well as maximizing bushing life.
We opted to use a conventional polyurethane bushing, but unlike other mounts on the market the bushing is oriented to be parallel with the engine rather than perpendicular to it. We did this because it puts the load from the engine torquing tangent to the bushing which gives a larger surface to dissipate the load across than if it was oriented perpendicular. We've also found that this orientation is beneficial for reducing NVH and the bushing lives a longer life. We use polyurethane bushings because in our experience they live a longer life than rubber because the chemical bonds are more robust, and they're more resistant to oils and solvents.
Moving on to the transmission motor mount (TMM) the factory piece has a pretty large footprint once again, but this mount uses a more conventional rubber bushing to keep the transmission in place and not transmit too much NVH. In order to keep the amount of NVH transmitted low the rubber used is a very low durometer so the mount has a lot of flex in it which doesn't do a great job of holding the engine and transmission in place under acceleration. When the engine and transmission are free to move around like this the result is wheel hop which reduces traction and can damage drivetrain parts like axles and internal transmission components. This movement also means that the shift cables are moving and shift quality can suffer.
Our TMM is constructed similar to our PMM by using steel for the main body of the mount and the connecting bracket on the trans with the same billet aluminum bushing housing. Again, the bushing is oriented to run parallel to the length of the engine to extend bushing life and improve the NVH characteristics of the mount and extend bushing life.
Both of these mounts coupled with our rear motor mount makes for the most comprehensive engine and transmission mounting system for the 10th gen Civic! The combination of all three mounts results in a massive reduction in wheel hop, improved shifting, and less wear and tear on hoses and wiring due to reduced engine rocking. We're beyond pleased with these mounts and are confident our customers will be too!
Transmission mount product link
Three mount combo product link
