So far as I know there is only one company that is reproducing engine mounts for our cars, and they are not being made in China. What I have bought from them has been the highest quality. Unfortunately, I forgot to look in my pile of stuff at the office to post the name of the company, as I suggested that I would this morning. I do believe that they may be listed on the Web site as a parts supplier. I keep thinking that their name is King, or Royal, or maybe even Imperial...anyone out there know who I am trying to think of here? Paul In a message dated 4/2/2004 12:21:16 PM Eastern Standard Time, daveford1@xxxxxxxxxxx writes: > > > Most of the rubber components installed for isolation purposes such as > powertrain mounts and body mounts but are a natural rubber compound (good > mechanical, temperature performance and low damping for good isolation). > It is comprised mostly of material harvested at plantations of rubber trees > located in good geographic growing areas like Malaysia. It is then > compounded depending on application, with various small powders and carbon > blacks and typically sulfer or peroxide is uased as a cure agent. Then it is > cured and mold bonded to the metal brackets (molded at higher temps for > specific times). The OEM parts go through extensive testing in climatic > chambers (temp cycles, ozone, durability, fatigue corrosion/bond failure > etc.) and are tweaked to pass specific verification tests as decribed in the > DVP&R (design verification plan and report). Sometimes they are a synthetic > such as EPDM but typically you give up one or more of the basic desireable > properties that Nat_Rubber has. They do age and crack fail and there is no > way to stop that process, but it can be slowed down with quality materials > and processing. When you buy an aftermarket replacement from China for $10 > you should probably buy a dozen if you plan on keeping the car. Though they > do have a shelf life so a high quality part that has been sitting for > several years is not going to perform as a new part. > My LHS mount kept failing on my 400+ hp XXXX Replica (been scolded for using > non-Imperial vehicular designations on this site and I don't wanna get my > mouth washed out with soap for a second offense) car so I wrapped a length > of cable around it and welded it together with my trusty Henrob (do not get > the mount of the surface that it is molded to hotter than ~275-300 degrees > and so far it seems to work fine (cars in winter storage but it did make it > there with no problem eh).. > > > >From: DONALDDICKINSOND@xxxxxx > >Reply-To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > >To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > >Subject: Re: IML: bonding rubber -- age issues > >Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 09:12:59 EST > > > >I am under the impression that rubber (which in most cases is really a > >synthetic compound) is due to the loss of plasticizers causing brittleness. > > This > >can be slowed considerably by treating, on a regular basis, with > >vinyl/rubber > >conditioners to replace these plasticizers (same for vinyl covered dashes > >etc). > >You chemists on the list what say you? > > _________________________________________________________________ > Watch LIVE baseball games on your computer with MLB.TV, included with MSN > Premium! > >http://join.msn.com/?page=features/mlb&pgmarket=en-us/go/onm00200439ave/direct/01/ > > >