New mounts

Yeah...it was time for new engine mounts...  The drivers side mount was literally separated into two pieces, and the passengers side mount was torn most of the way through.  The engine in the Viper was being held in place primarily by gravity.  After drying my tears from the cost of the purchase, I set about installing the new Woodhouse mounts.  It's a pretty straight forward job on a Viper, jack up the engine, slide the old mounts out, and new mounts in.  I did have a little bit of trouble because the suds on the new mounts are slightly longer than the originals and I couldn't jack the engine up any higher.  There are some very good how-to's on the internet, so I won't go through it step by step.

I did need some new heat shields though.  There have been reports of people melting these new polyurethane mounts, though they are primarily cars running headers.  The stock shields don't give full coverage to the mounts.  There are a few different options for heat shield material.  What a lot of people don't realize is that cardboard has tremendous insulating properties.  Because it works so well and is easy to work with, I decided to use some cereal box cardboard for mine.  First I cut out the shape of the shield I wanted.

Then, I installed them on the motor mounts.  I put the printed side out because the glossier surface will help reflect more heat.

No, I'm kidding.  I used the cardboard as a template for some stainless steel shields.  I made them in a rush, and quite frankly they look like garbage.  I made them before taking the car apart using the new mounts as a guide and guessing at the rest.  They are over sized and not made very well.  While they will get the job done, if you saw them in person you would gouge out your eyes in horror.  It's shoddy workmanship like this that people are OK with that makes me cringe when I see it on many "look what I made" type posts around the internet.  I'll soon be making a set that fits better and actually looks decent.  Here's the new shields next to the originals.  Note the utter lack of quality and file it under "How not to make things for your Viper."

As many people have noted on the Viper forums, there is slightly more vibration in the car with the new mounts.  It's most noticeable at idle, and isn't enough to bother me.  The whole car feels more "solid" driving down the road without the engine flopping all over.  It shifts much better too, the shifter used to move back and fourth 1/2" when I got on the gas.  Now it stays in place and shifts like it's supposed to, though there is still room for improvement.