Does anyone else use a wcxm in their car? Are the vibrations pretty bad?
 
I've put one in my mk1 with a crossflow, and I did know that it would be harsher than the standard one, but it really is pretty bad with the vibrations. It doesn't help that there is no interior in it and the bonnet skin has come away from the frame so rattles good and proper.
 
I really like how the engine is nice and solid, but a little bit more give might mean the car won't get shaken to bits. Is there some way to dampen things down a bit? I've read that you can drill the mounting rubbers out. How many holes do you drill and where abouts? Is there a softer rubber mount you can get? Any other tricks? I don't really want to put the std one back in.

Mine is quite harsh especially at 8000rpm.  Broken a few alternator brackets so far.
 
Why would you put in a WCXM then try to make it more like a standard cross member?  Doesn't that defeat the purpose of using one in the first place??

That's a fair point too Oz. Maybe I just need to take a concrete pill and harden up a bit

Just a long shot idea (as ive always wondered what exactly they were for) but would one of those engine dampeners help in any way? Or does it make things even worse as it directs vibration directly to the chassis?
eg:

Make things worse, especially if it keeps knocking on the intercooler pipe like that. Haha

The engine damper/ stabilizer( baby shockers) are normally used in conjunction with 'soft' engine mounts that have a lot of give in them to reduce sudden engine movement and make the movement progressive, this in turn reduces nvh. Commonly used on oem fwd setups such as early Magna and Camry amongs others.

Won't do much to reduce nvh on an engine that has solid/ hard mounts at all.

It does however make for a fully sik bolt on modification to your import!!! Hahaha

Cheers

I thought so. Couldn't for the life of me come up with anything why it would reduce the shock. So the word "dampener" doesnt really apply does it.
Didnt notice the shoddy install.. he probably couldn't hear it over the fart valve.

You can replace the wcxm rubber bushes with nolathane to reduce some vibe.. the bush is rear leaf spring front eyelet bush, or if you have some old manky leafs about swap them over. I used nolathanes in my mk1 zetec running a weld in engine mount to chassis kit and its quite smooth .... tho zetec are way refined compared to a pushrodder !!

Isnt nolathane less compliant than rubber?  Dont we use nolathane as it reduces suspension movement???

Could the excess vibration be that the WCXM lowers the centre of gravity of the engine in the engine bay, should the gearbox cross member be lowered to suit? Maybe the vibration could be from the strain on engine/gearbox not being level? Just my two bobs worth