Solid mounts
 

According to all the research I've done I need to have solid mounts to run the EJ20 in my beetle. I've already made the mounts and the engine and tranny are installed, however, now I'm wondering if it's possible to use the solid mount idea, but stick a piece of rubber or something in between the mount and the tranny. This differs from regular style mounts because the rubber is not structural but just sitting between the metal surfaces.
I haven't driven in a beetle with solid mounts but have heard its not very pleasant for daily driving/long trips which I will be doing. The whole thing will be dynamated and carpetted to reduce sound. I know the vibration probably won't bother me as much but I KNOW it will bother my better half :laugh: Comments please!?
Mike

I have no idea where you read that, I have never seen anybody running a subaru engine with solid mounts and I certainly wouldn't recommend it! There is nothing to gain other than reduced movement so better for engine clearances.
If you are running a quad cam engine, you need to reverse the rear cradle and use a mid mount instead of a stock front mount and everything will squeeze under stock external metalwork.

That's good to know. So far I reversed the rear cradle turned old rubber mounts into steel solid ones, cut the front mount out and welded in a plate for the front mount to bolt to. You're saying I can ditch the front mount altogether, and use mounts at the back and at the midmount? What kind of mounts do you use?
Also, With this setup I've clearance things a bit but I can't quite move it ahead as much as I want. As it sits I would have a little gap in the rear apron where the timing covers are and have to cut the flange off of the new CCC fenders :eek: <- that's actually the expression on my face.

My EJ20TT engine's timing cover clears the rear apron and the fenders, it's only mounted forward with reversing the rear engine mount and that should be enough.

How did you make the tranny clear up front? Did you have to clearance the torsion tube at all?

If you look on my website you can see that I did some grinding to the webbing on the nosecone, I also ground a tiny bit off the torsion tube and had to remove the reverse light switch.
I used a berg style mid mount and German rear bushes..

Thanks Ricola, I've got the reverse light switch out and the webbing ground, this is really good news for me because I was not looking forward to solid mounts.

same as with Ricola for my setup, only difference is that I use a solid rear mount and a gene berg mid mount

What is the vibration like while driving? Is it ok on the highway? Does it rattle everything apart?

Where did you get your mid mount from? I thinking I might just make one since the berg one seems to be ridiculously expensive.
MIke

I have driven the car with the rear solid mount and the stock front mount on my old pan and can't say much about vibration. It was more like trying to keep the thing on the road without crashing into anything, crazy fast with the TT engine. On my new pan I moved the engine forward and used the mid mound but have not yet driven it since I'm doing a body off resto on it.
Think I ordered the mid mount from the VW speedshop in the UK if I remember correctly.

Thanks, I think I'll try that route first, berg-mid, solid rear and if the vibes are too much then its easy to throw the rear rubber mounts in.