Less roll, more rock - DIY mod

FE 065

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I made up this steel plate a year or so ago for my 2002 GTS to control how much the engine torques over under acceleration and thought I'd pass it on for those who might be interested.

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It's approx. 7" long x 3.75" wide. Like a big flat J hook, the end with the curl in it slips under the bottom of the rectangular tubing supporting the driver's side motor mount down by the frame with the curled end facing outward, and the holes slip over the long motor mount bolts at the engine.

On my 2002 anyway, I could install it just by adding some nuts to extra long motor mount bolts that were already there, eliminating the need to undo the OEM motor mount bolts at the engine.

Installation is easy then. Once underneath the car, just reach up and slip the hooked end under the bottom of the rectangular tubing, then lean the top of the plate over onto the long bolts, and bolt it to the engine's motor mount bolts with a couple extra nylon lock nuts, or nuts and lockwashers.

I made the curled end first. As I remember, once I knew the angle I wanted after practicing with posterboard, I just added an inch or so to the plate's length, then placed the plate in a vice at an angle along the line where I wanted it to bend to begin folding that little bit over , then stuck a long 1/4' bolt in the crevice as I used the vice and a hammer to complete the U bend. Lo-tech at it's best.

After dabbing a little grease onto the exposed ends of the engine side motor mount bolts and leaning the plate over onto the grease, the grease marks let me know where to drill the 2 holes for a nice fit.

In the old days we'd run a length of chain from the block to the frame.. :shocked: to control engine torque over, but there's isn't much room for that on a Viper (thankfully) so this solution came to mind.

I don't have any other pictures, and though I think it'd be adapatable to most any year Viper I can't vouch that it'd fit all of them as you see it.

It seemed to work fine. The engine torqued over less when free revving it, and though there was just a tad of slack built into it not holding the engine 100% tight in position, the cream puff did rock a bit more at idle-almost like my '96GTS used to :)

If anyone's interested I could fax you a tracing of it so you can try and duplicate the angle etc. The curved J end is at an angle to the plate, not straight across. Just PM me your fax number and let me know if you need a cover sheet with it.
 

Vic

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Simple, yet tastefully elegant.

Very creative! But you know I already thought of it. Yes, in a dream, it came to me.
 
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