Exhaust leak turned out to be the vacuum hose from the MAP sensor to the throttle body. Man was I happy to find that. The copper RTV and Victor Reinz (NOT MAHLE like the amazon order says) are holding up just fine.
Replace the motor mounts with Brown Dog Polyurethane. I notice more light vibrations. I don’t care about that because I don’t want the rubber to crack, and it’s nothing like what I expected based on other people’s reviews. Plus this is an off road toy first and daily driver second so I’m not too worried about it. I’d rather know the engine is firmly mounted into place than go back to the soft ride I have.
It wasn’t fun. Driver side went just fine. Little bit of work but nothing extensive. Passenger side required a few HOURS of work for me. The engine was twisted so that it was at the very front of the engine mount. Lifting/lowering/pushing/pulling/prying/crying in every direction from both sides and below just wouldn’t do it. Nothing seemed to work so on DAY TWO I pulled out the GoPro, lines up the holes the best I could see and shoved the bolt in. Eventually I grew the balls to try tightening the bolt through the two mounts and it started poking through. I put the bolt in backwards because the radiator side of things was giving me so many problems with not aligning I wanted to start there. Well I discovered on the Renix engine the bolt only goes one way. So our came the grinder and off came the end of the bolt.
It probably deserves an like change now and maybe some more ATF since THAT seems to be low and I swear I added enough when I reinstalled the transmission. I’ll try to remember to post photos of the engine bolt I cut. Nothing eventful on the driver side.
I also scored some locking hubs for $150. Thankfully these WERE NOT on the book of faces because they would have been GONE. Guy was even cool enough to hold them until I showed up with a second offer standing in front of him buying more parts. Yeah. Karma is a thing. I listed his advertisement in some local groups and i WOULD have bought the 38” boogers on 16” aluminum Eagle alloy beadlocks if they were 17s. Yeah they looked like a few trips old and definitely not destroyed.