Rear Engine Mount
Ford Focus ZX4 ST Modifications - Rear Engine Mount - Phil Usher - May 2006
$99.95 VF-Engineering Rear Engine Mount
$7.18 UPS Shipping
$107.13 - Total
"The Ford Focus factory engine mounts were designed as soft, flexible units, to provide a comfortable drive. The drawback was the relatively large amount of engine movement the OEM mounts allowed under torque load and on hard acceleration. Such engine movement decreases stability under high performance driving conditions and rapid gear selection.
To reduce this movement VF-Engineering engineered a complete bespoke replacement fitted with specially shaped molded, high durometer polyurethane inserts. The mount body is machined from billet aircraft grade aluminum, being almost twice as strong as the OE cast material. Installation should take no more than 10-15 minutes. This high performance mount provides a difference in the stability of the car when accelerating and braking hard. Gear changing under hard acceleration is also enhanced."
This mount is available from several sources. I selected FocusSport.
May 21st, Order made.
May 23rd, Product Arrived - It will be installed along with other items at Nevarez Racing Products (NPR) shop at Las Vegas Speedway.
May 31st: Installed. Josh at NRP replaced the stock rear engine mount with the VF version in about 20 mins.
The stock part (pictured below) has considerably more flexible that the replacement. In driving the car it was had to notice the difference.
Conclusion
I failed to create an environment to test this product properly. I should have thought of a good sequence of turns and throttle adjustments to have put the engine mount under stress and "felt" the behavior then tried the same after the new mount was put in place, but I didn't and so driving the car after it's hard to pick out the benefit. As I'm unwilling to put the stock one back on and retest I will just be happy in the knowledge that I have reduced the flex.
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Before
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After
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