Engine mounts - life and performance

[Firstlight]

Hello Friends,

How many of you have changed your engine mounts? How did you determine it was time to change them? What differences did you notice after you replaced them?

I'm something over 700 hours on the mounts in my '4. I have a very rough feeling engine/prop combination that drives me pretty crazy any time I'm straight and level for a few minutes. Just wondering if changing to new Lord mounts might make a difference.

Thanks,

Wayne

[Ironflight]

Have you had the Prop Dynamically balanced? Before I change mounts, I'd give that a try. My -8 has almost 11 years and 1800 hours of flying - with lots of Acro in there, and it's smooth as glass with no sag from the mounts - so I'd look at other things before the mounts.

[Firstlight]

The prop has been balanced, but I'm still looking for better (smoother) results. I used to fly an airplane that had a balanced io-320 and it was just a lovely thing to fly behind.

I think it might be time to look into another balancing session.

Cheers,

Wayne

[chrisbryanolsen]

Recently changed the conocal mounts on my 4. These were the simple lycoming parts all rubber with no support. Installed the lord mounts with new bolts and all new hardware from vans.
The old mounts were very, very shot (Pic below).
This was a bitch of a job, the new bolts are longer so you can not re-use the existing hardware. The bolts are too long to pull out of the mount on the bottom. Ended up cutting holes and patching the firewall to get them out / in.

Was worth it though to convert to the lord mounts, much smother at high power settings.