Mounting Materials

[Ani_V]

Hi guys... we are first time car and iam looking into engine mounting.

Engine dry wt is 67 kgs. its a 2 cyl engine.
1) I had a doubt over what material will be fit for using in the beams, trusses, base plates etc used in mounting. Please comment about the use of rubber bushings and washers also.

2) What about the Finite element analysis? What all things should be evaluated through FEA?

[Ani_V]

Hi guys... we are first time car and iam looking into engine mounting.

Engine dry wt is 67 kgs. its a 2 cyl engine.
1) I had a doubt over what material will be fit for using in the beams, trusses, base plates etc used in mounting. Please comment about the use of rubber bushings and washers also.

2) What about the Finite element analysis? What all things should be evaluated through FEA?

[The_Man]

Material since you are a first year team and with your location I think steel is really the only choice you have. Remember to stick to the rules.

Just goggle for a few pictures and visit team websites and you'll have a general idea of what people use and how they mount engines. Rubber busings and stuff like that is your call and your design intuition. Like if you do not like the engine vibrations on the chassis, have rubber bushings.

FEA is just a tool that helps you evaluate your design. Technically you should FEA atleast all of your critical components. But if you are sure something will not break then sometimes you are better off spending time on other areas than doing detailed analysis to save weight by the grams. Our team, in the first year spent time mostly with FEA of the frame, uprights, hubs and differential mounts as far as I can remember.

Search on this forum for words like "torional rigidity", "loads on uprights" and "frame materials" to know more about these.

Which is this 67kg 2 cylinder engine you are talking about?
Just find out where on the engine mounts are and design the rear of the chassis according to it.

[jrickert]

How was the engine mounted in its stock application? Chances are it is a power sport motor of some type. Chances are it was solid mounted. This might be a good indication of how it was designed to me mounted.

[Ani_V]

Its a kawasaki 500 cc engine..

[L B0MB]

Yeah hard mount the engine with stiff steel members. Make it rigid for her pleasure... I mean... for improved vehicle torsional rigidity and enhanced driver-vehicle feedback