Why You Want To Run Drop/Urethane Engine Mounts On Your Blown S197

Here is what they will do for you:

Better Shifting

The stock mounts are liquid filled rubber jobbies that move all over the place. They were not meant for 400+ft lb of torque. If you look at one of these cars on a dyno you can see the motor twisting like mad. Because the shifter is mounted to the body and the transmission at the same time you get bind in the shifter when under power. The more power the more twist. The more twist the worse the shifting gets. Fix the twisting and you fix a lot of the shifting problem. We would say 50%. It won’t turn the shifter into T56 Magnum which has no external shift linkage attached to the body, but it makes it a whole lot better. Coupled with a good shifter it’s pretty damn good.

Driveline angle

The S197 has horrific driveline angles.  And they get worse when the car is lowered.  This is one reason it has a 2pc driveshaft stock. A 1pc driveshaft will usually create vibration and/or harmonics issues. We stress usually, not always. It’s a tricky business. Anyway, dropping the motor 1/2″-3/4″ improves driveline angle considerably. These mounts allow you to do that. If you also shim the transmission mount up you can get the driveline angle almost perfect. 200mph rated!

Hood clearance

With a blower hood clearance is paramount. If your stock engine mounts are blown out the motor will move enough to contact the hood. Not ideal obviously. When you drop the motor, you open that clearance way up. And of course, it won’t twist anymore so it can’t get into the hood.

If you want to fit a strut tower brace between the blower and the hood 3/4″ is about a mile. It’s the difference between fitting and not fitting.

Broken engine mounts

The stock liquid filled mounts have and will break. Especially as these cars are getting older.

Easy to Install

We install these from the top. That’s right, we don’t even jack the car up. Just loosen up the stock mounts, put a jack under the motor, jack the motor up, and swap the mounts out. A few have given us a little trouble because for some reason the stud on the stock mounts is longer on some years. If you have the long stud, they won’t pop right out. You either whack the stud in half (what we do). Or you loosen up the engine mounts/ears (the aluminum “mounts” on the block) until the rubber mounts will come out. You do have to get on your back for that. Still easy though. We can do a set of these in a half an hour to forty-five minutes. And we’re not fast at anything when it comes to wrenching.

Other notes:

Will I Be Able To Feel The Vibration?

If you go way out of your way you will be able to detect more vibration. But this is just us being 100% straight forward. If it’s a problem for you………………………..sell your Mustang, and get a minivan.

Will I have Header Clearance Problems?

This depends on what headers you have and how far of a drop you’re going for. They clear the stock manifolds by a mile. We’ve dropped the motors 3/4″ with the Kooks 1 3/4″ headers (same as the Pypes). You can go at least 1/2″, maybe the full 3/4″. We have not heard of any header not clearing when the motor is dropped 1/2″. And if you do get some contact it is nothing a little grinding on the K Member won’t solve.