The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Front motor mount issue

I pulled the harmonic balance today to install my front motor mount and noted this spacer (???) installed and preventing me from installing the motor mount bolts. Has anyone ever seen this before? I cannot tell for certain if it is welded in place. I need to scrape some of the paint away first. Thought I would ask about this before I go messing something up trying to remove it. Any help/advice will be appreciated.
Oh, I did line up the motor mount from below and the bolt holes are correctly spaced so if this spacer was not here it would have gone together fairly quickly or at least that is what I keep telling myself.
This is a rebuilt 235 going in my 53 3100. Best I can tell the motor was made in 1955, that is based on the numbers I noted on the engine block.
Deegs

My 216 didn't have that spacer in there. It looks like something that would get a bolt threaded into it from the bottom, maybe for a different type of motor mount? On second look, the holes for the bolts look round where mine had square holes to engage the carriage bolts and keep them from turning. A round hole wouldn't allow that. I think you could work around that by grinding off one side of the carriage bolts to allow them to drop in place. You might have to also remove the square shoulder on the bolts also for them to seat all the way down. I don't think it would affect the mount at all with 3/4 of the carriage bolt head still intact.
Or maybe it'd be possible to remove the spacer. It's likely spot welded on, and might be removable using a chisel to break the welds loose. But you'd then need to make the bolt holes square for the carriage bolts to engage.

I'm with Kevin on the easy fix of cutting off enough of the bolt head to allow it to fit beside that piece of metal.
I would then weld the head of that bolt to the that piece of metal to keep it in place. I would put the motor mount in place and tighten up the nuts before welding to ensure that the bolts a aligned.
I believe that the original carriage bolts were welded a tiny little bit on the assembly line which did not hold up very well.
The problem that occurs over time is that the rubber deteriorates, causing the nuts to no longer be tight, causing stress on the square holes and they wallow out round preventing the square carriage bolt to hold while trying to loosen the nuts once rust locks them to the bolts.

Deegs, Your front engine mount cam/crank gear cover appears to be from a 1960-62 235. It had a different style single front mount (see pictures in this post by Jethro in Va ) which had two bolts molded into the rubber to attach to the cross member and a single bolt hole in the center for a bolt that threaded up through that hole and into the threaded plate welded to your front mount plate.

Both Kevin and Carl provide possible solutions to skip having to find one of these rather rare front mounts.

I would fit a hex head bolt in the round holes instead of a carriage bolt. Grind a little off of one of the hex flats just enough to slip the bolt in the hole. The bolt head against the welded spacer will keep it from turning.

I've installed square head bolts which work perfect and don't turn in the hole

Perfect

Same issue with a 62 235 in my 1939. Took the easy way out. Hex bolts from the bottom with Nylon lock nuts on the top.

Donf,
Thinking about doing the same thing. If we had the correct motor mount we would have only one bolt in from the bottom holding the mount to the engine best I can tell from pictures. I just can't bring myself to begin removing parts off a newly rebuilt motor. Also thought I would see if my neighbor (retired machinist) would drill a safety wire hole in the nut and bolt head so I could safety wire them. Not sure though, maybe just add a torque check of these bolts every time I change my oil.

Deegs

With a single bolt threaded up into the (threaded) plate on the engine mount, one could install a jam nut on top of the plate. The possibility of that coming loose would be pretty slim.
Also, that single bolt likely only holds the engine mount to the engine, with two independent bolts going down thru mount to the frame with prevailing torque nuts on them. That would allow the mount to have some vibration dampening effect. On the AD series front mount, there's no metal-to-metal connection between the engine and the frame. Two bolts hold the mount on the engine and another two hold the mount to the frame separated by the rubber insert. The nuts for the engine to mount bolts extend thru oversize holes in the crossmember. Attached is the cross-section of the front mount from the 47-51 Shop Manual.