Motor mount bracket opinions

If you don't want the whole story I am asking if I should get the brackets because I will want them later, or do I likely not need them and be wasting $? Also If I don't go with brackets should I go with m.o.r.e. over B.D. for a bigger bushing that might ride better and a zinc coating instead of paint for rust prevention?

Okay I am missing out on wheeling this weekend due to being indecisive and would like some input. I am looking for a better Motor mount after falling for that how many miles did your stock one last B.S.. We wasted time doing new stock style mounts and a trans mount only a couple of years back because I like a smooth ride.

Maybe stock ones are good enough for some but even though I only wheel 3 or 4 times a year (rocks) they couldn't handle it and gave way finishing Lower rock garden in Harlan ripping my Spectre intake off and damaging it. Spectre was nice enough to replace the damaged part for free.

Anyway here is where I am at, I am leaning toward the Brown Dog rubber mounts but am ready to do this and not worry about it for a long time.
On their site though it says the stock brackets are not made for the extra stress of a HD MM and would start to fail and could cause damage to the bolt holes on the block. Or with less rubber am I more likely to break a block boss from force while crawling? I try not to beat on my rig and do not do go fast stuff or jump my rig.

If I am not getting the brackets I wonder if m.o.r.e. would be a better option since they use a C.A. bushing that has more rubber. I would get a better ride quality (dd). They are zinc coated as well where the brown dogs are painted.

Anyway lmk your opinions, it is a DD that sees at worst medium to intermediate difficulty rocks, and with your help to tip the scales of indecision I will be back out on the trails!

brown dog brackets and poly mounts. the brackets are worth the piece of mind, ive seen a few fail on the trail.. both with and without HD motor mounts

I think we are likely going to order the brown dog with the bracket, unless I change my mind by tonight. ( gave myself a deadline)

We did a Jasper shortblock and built a motor for it a few years back.
So with some $ into the motor already the extra peace of mind that I won't snap a bolt out of the block or break a stock bracket is probably worth it. We are a little broke right now so spending $300 on replacing something as simple as a motor mount is hard to wrap my mind around lol.

I don't think I will go with the poly, I want it to vibe as little as possible still since my Xj is a DD and rides great as it was set up.

I just finished putting an new engine in my 89 and used the BD brackets and rubber mounts. Both were exceptional quality and very easy to install. Vibrations are only noticeable when at idle, and even then they are minimal.
One install trick that I will recommend is putting a light coat of Ivory soap on the bushings prior to dropping the motor back in. They are TIGHT!

Evidently "acceptable vibration" is like beauty -- it is in the eye of the beholder.

There are people who have found the Brown Dog motor mounts, even the rubber ones, to be too stiff for a daily driver -- they transmit too much vibration. Take a look at http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1109060 for more details.

In summary, some people tolerate the added vibration well and accept it as the price of having a motor mount that will *not* pull apart under any conditions. Other people are not willing to accept the added vibration and harshness because their vehicles are daily drivers that are occasionally used off-road, but very rarely in places where the driveline is put into really high torque.

I just picked up a set of Stinky Fab engine side mounts and will be doing a write up on them shortly. They're a bit less than the brown dog mounts and are top notch. They'll work with any frameside mount, I'll be installing mine with the currie frameside standard height mounts. I may get it done Sunday. I'll take some pictures before I paint them tomorrow. They come bare metal and will need painted.

One of the reasons I'm doing this is that my first exposure to a jeep cherokee back in the late 90's was my mom's 95 that sheered the passenger side engine bracket.

http://www.stinkyfab.com/heavy-duty-motor-mounts/jeep-motor-mounts.html

Just a thought. I dont see that the stinky mounts come with hardware. The browndogs do. That will eat up some of your price difference right there.

I made home made mounts after losing the driverside mount. I really did not notice too much noise/vibration but I run 36" MTZ's! I got lucky and was walking thru the Pomona swap meet a year or more back and saw some mounts on a table full of random parts. I noticed that they were brand new and zinc coated. As I got closer they had the M.O.R.E. sticker and again unused! I ask the guy how much he wanted and he replied about $10.00 if I remember correctly. Being the bottom feeder that I am on swap meet merchandise I told him I did not know if they would work but I'd take a chance and I think I offered $5.00 he said ok! I am completely happy with the ease of installation, the strength of the mounts and finally, I did noticed less vibration! I recommend these as opposed to solid mounts all day long! The zinc coating after a year or more is still intact and is not showing any signs of bad factory coating (no rust)! I think if I had to have painted them I would be touching them up by today!

GordoSmasho said:

Just a thought. I dont see that the stinky mounts come with hardware. The browndogs do. That will eat up some of your price difference right there.

Click to expand...

Mine came with a bag of bolts. The difference is they're not painted, but for the savings I'll paint them myself.

Mark

i have the stinky fab ones as well, they definitely came with hardware. I did a writeup on them a couple years ago. I got them with the currie mounts, and so far they're still good.

Still haven't pulled the trigger.

I don't think I am interested in the stinky fab ones I am wanting to avoid as much of the vibes as I can, so poly is off the table.
I am however prepared to live with SOME vibes for the piece of mind. Much like my spectre intake that I do not mind at all, some will tolerate more than others without agitation.

I want as much dampening as possible though and unless I am mistaken the M.O.R.E. or Rusty's ones look to have more rubber than the Brown dogs. I am thinking they will absorb a touch more vibes possibly.

Rusty's doesn't have brackets which I have decided to get and their build quality seems to get questioned a lot so I will eliminate those.

It seems like Brown dogs main advantage is the ability to run an aftermarket header. After researching cost vs gain on headers and exhaust I decided mine would stay stock and quiet like it is especially since I do not have a stroker.

That leaves Brown DOG Vs M.O.R.E. both with their respective bracket option. Am I wrong to think the M.O.R.E. ones should absorb slightly more vibes?

The M.O.R.E. setup is $437 shipped, Brown dogs are $305.95 with the Naxja discount. I think that just made up my mind right there actually.

Get the BDs, install according to directions and don't look back. You won't regret that decision

The MORE product is a great mount that I have no regrets purchasing, but after first installing them it felt like my motor was direct mounted to the frame. They have softened up over time or I have gotten used to it, one of the two. I would have gone with the Brown Dogs way back then had I known about them solely based on their support of and great customer service rep.

Thanks for the input guys, I just ordered the Brown dog super flex kit with the brackets. I will definitely post up how I feel about them for others on the fence that find this thread in their searches.

x2 on Brown Dog plus rubber bushings. I have a Stroker 4.6L with these and its great for my DD.

Did you get the rubber or poly from BD? Not to make you start to regret your decision, but with the HD materials the BD will vibrate more. I purchased the poly bushing BDs for my old TJ and it was bone-rattling at idle. The rubber version will vibrate less, but still will be much firmer/more vibrations than OEM. BD is a quality product, but like you, I like a smooth ride and I swapped back to OEM-style units. With the OEM units costing $20 for two, I decided I would rather have a smooth ride and replace them more frequently than sacrifice the comfort by getting HD mounts. Hope you like your BDs, they definitely will last a long time.

i dont have any real vibes with my stinkyfab mounts with the poly bushings.

The brown dog brackets and mounts are on!

I had a little trouble figuring out and then fitting the passenger side because it was a little tight. Part of that may be I have a larger bodied 160amp Durango alternator.
My larger Wix51515 Oil filter wasn't helping much either and made one of the bolts annoying to get on. Compounding the issue a bit I have another wix 51515 hung in that same area off of a pendant mount for an Aux trans filter before my Aux tran cooler.

One concern I have is that I may have trouble changing my alternator without pulling the whole motor mount bracket. Since the alternator upgrade I never had it out and this time we took the whole bracket and alternator out because it seemed easier.

I called Brown dog and asked them If I should be able to remove just the 2 front bolts on the bracket and slide the alternator bracket out from under the brown dog bracket.
He said yes, but it sure looks to me like there is stuff on the block in front of the alternator bracket that would make that not work.

So here is my question for anyone with the Brown dog brackets. Have you needed to, and does the alternator bracket slide out from behind the brown dog brackets if you remove the front 2 bolts that go through the alt. bracket.

Also If any of you have the Durango or G.C. larger bodied alternators, do you have to take the bracket and alternator apart to get things in and out?
I am pretty sure the stock alt. will swing out of the mount and can be swapped without removing the alternator bracket iirc. I don't think the larger bodied 'Rango one will. If that is the case when my alt. goes out I may switch back to a stock sized Alt. which would be disappointing, I felt like it helped my winch a bit.

As far as vibes go I didn't replace the trans mount and maybe I should have, it was only a few years old and looked fine. Anyway I can see how if you had an XJ with lots of loose panels it would be annoying. The vibes are not hard but are definitely there.
One of my headlights has a buzz because it is loose a bit, it didn't vibe enough before to make the noise but will be easy to get rid of. I Live on a VERY steep hill and you can feel it when pulling up the hill, vibing into the steering wheel mainly and the gas pedal. It does it in a pulsing vibe and almost isn't noticeable on regular roads with average hills. On acceleration it feels more responsive and sportier but a bit rougher.

The trade off is a MUCH stronger setup that won't fail me rock crawling and as a bonus will give a little better response with a sporty feel. The other side of that is sacrificing a bit of the ride quality to perform a touch better. But mainly to be durable enough to handle the worst of what I do to it. Even if it is only a couple times a year.

I swear they look a touch higher than when my oem replacements were new but I may very well be wrong about that, Brown Dog says I am. The Product is Super Beefy and looks awesome all bright yellow with American flags on each piece. They were also signed by whoever built them which I thought was neat.

I spent good $ on my lift components, shocks, and many other things to get my Xj dialed in along the way to be an expedition rig that I have driven halfway across the country to wheel and drive back in. We spend a lot of time in our rig and sacrificing any of that ride quality was not taken lightly but I think the trade off is worth it and my passengers say that for the most part they don't feel the difference except for a few brief instances like on start up and shutdown. As the driver it seems to affect it when I'm accelerating under pressure such as a steep hill or when I was driving faster than I normally would on the highway to feel it at Higher rpms and speed than I would normally drive it.

Would I have had less vibes with a brand with a little more rubber? Maybe but I trust that my bolts, brackets, and motor mounts wont get ripped apart in the rocks again and I think the sacrifice of a few vibes is worth it for me. Service was great, they forgot a few pieces of hardware and that was called unconscionable and rectified VERY quickly.

Hopefully someone has comments about the larger bodied alternator or whether or not the alt. bracket can be removed without completely taking off the Brown dog bracket. If not I will post up after my alt. dies and I learn the hard way.

Yes the alt bracket can be removed. I have done it a few times, it takes light tapping with a hammer or anything more dense than a kitten, really.

I have a set of motor mounts that are about 4" around soft rubber, I ran them on my trail rig and replaced them with brown dogs, I noticed no more vibrations. (they were the ones Rigwerks used to make, if you've been around a while).

I have broken 2 MORE motor mounts (before going to the rigwerks ones and later browndog). Both times the hoop cracked just above the weld where it got brittle.


I've never dealt with a larger alternator, but hope I was able to address some of your concerns.