Team Z K-Member Issues (Pic Heavy) Team Z K-M Owners Please Chime In.

Team Z's website, states that "Stock and aftermarket engine mounts can have alignment pins that can cause fitment issues. Removal of the alignment pin might be necessary for correct mating of engine mount to k-member."

This indeed was causing alignment issues. So I ground it down.

After that, I noticed that the studs on the motor mount are scraping the alignment slots on the K-Member. It's like as if the K-Member mounting points need to be pushed to the rear of the car about an inch or so.

Passenger Side Motor Mount 1 of 2. Very noticeable gap and is not seated completely.



Passenger Side Motor Mount 2 of 2. It's hard to see, but the stud is scraping against the rear part of the insert. It's as if the motor wants to sit back more than what this mounting support is allowing too.



Driver Side Motor Mount 1 of 2. It's "almost" seated completely, there's still a very small gap.



Driver Side Motor Mount 2 of 2. Here you can see that the motor mount stud is scrapping the front part of the insert, it's also not seated completely.



I've checked and there is space on both sides of the engine bay, also space on both sides of the trans and the upper chassis above the trans. There's nothing that is getting caught or hung up.

Here you can see that the trans is shifted toward the right of the body. The trans cross member also does not line up.



Here you can see the oil pan is resting on the K-Member from inadequate clearance.



I can get the passenger side almost down, but then driver side motor mount stud starts to scrape, vice-versa.

The K-Member itself bolts to the chassis fine. No issues. But when I attempted to install the engine... this is where the problems arise. Also, I've used these motor mounts before in the past on a stock K-Member and I had no issues.

Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on this?

Pics arent working. Photobucket sucks now.

It's an aftermarket part. It's not going to fit perfect. If you can tighten the mounts and get everything to sit as it should you'll be fine. Even my MM K member wasn't perfect going in

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whitedevil95 said:

Pics arent working. Photobucket sucks now.

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Yeah I just figured that out now!

slo984now said:

It's an aftermarket part. It's not going to fit perfect. If you can tighten the mounts and get everything to sit as it should you'll be fine. Even my MM K member wasn't perfect going in

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If you would see the pictures, the trans cross member is nowhere near being able to get tightened up.

The K-Member fit perfectly in the chassis without any issues bolting up. However, I did just look at my order and it says some motor mount pads would be included.

I did not receive this. What are they?

If I recall I wasnt able to just bolt my UPR k in and drop the motor down. Some issues with the angles and lining up the mounts happened. I lowered my motor down and had to kinda slowly bring them together in order to get the mounts to line up.

whitedevil95 said:

If I recall I wasnt able to just bolt my UPR k in and drop the motor down. Some issues with the angles and lining up the mounts happened. I lowered my motor down and had to kinda slowly bring them together in order to get the mounts to line up.

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I'm starting to think I got sent the wrong K-Member possibly.

I'm not even that worried about the mounts as much as I am the trans. The trans is way off from the cross member mounting points, it's not even close. And I can barely jack up the trans to bolt the cross member because of the studs on the motor mounts fighting the k-member mount support. It's preventing me from adjusting it properly.

Have you called team z? That would be my first call if I had these problems. Seems like you might have motor mounts for a windsor...

I have a UPR K Member in my car, and I had issues with my motor mounts dropping into place due to those alignment pins on Energy Suspension mounts. It took some persuading to get them in, but I got them in with pry bars. I also had issues with the transmission mount looking like it was way off. What you will need to do is take an alignment punch or alignment let bad go align the bolt holes. The engine mounts have some movement in them, so it should line up. Mine looked way off before doing this.


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zredfire04 said:

Have you called team z? That would be my first call if I had these problems. Seems like you might have motor mounts for a windsor...

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I called them and left a detailed message with my phone number. I haven't heard back yet.

SVTdreamin04 said:

I had issues with my motor mounts dropping into place due to those alignment pins on Energy Suspension mounts.

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I did too at 1st, I ground down the alignment pins flat, so I no longer had this issue.

SVTdreamin04 said:

What you will need to do is take an alignment punch or alignment let bad go align the bolt holes. The engine mounts have some movement in them, so it should line up.

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Align what bolt holes? On the K-Member?

These are the motor mounts that I have,

https://lmr.com/item/PT-6504BL/1996...MI1NDMgsj71QIVWlcNCh1eJwFgEAQYAyABEgIAOfD_BwE

Are you saying that these are adjustable?

Pictures should be fixed now, edited from original post.

Edit: I can barely move the trans around or even jack it up because of the studs fighting the insert slots on the K-Member.

If the pan is hitting the K member that's likely what's keeping the engine from sitting correctly. Is the K member made to clear that pan?

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Yup, the pan is interfering. Gotta clearance it or the k.

slo984now said:

If the pan is hitting the K member that's likely what's keeping the engine from sitting correctly. Is the K member made to clear that pan?

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zredfire04 said:

Yup, the pan is interfering. Gotta clearance it or the k.

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The pan is a stock design except for the bigger sump. I've had this pan on a stock car. The part that is hitting the K is the same part that the stock pan would be hitting. The engine needs to be sat a little higher and the trans needs to raised. But the motor mount slots aren't allowing me to adjust it. It's like I need to open up the motor mount slots more.

weird. is the pan hitting the top of that horizontal tube on the K member or just the gussets? it's hard for me to tell what's hitting where.

is it possible you have the motor mounts installed on the wrong side? can't remember if they're side specific...

zredfire04 said:

weird. is the pan hitting the top of that horizontal tube on the K member or just the gussets? it's hard for me to tell what's hitting where.

is it possible you have the motor mounts installed on the wrong side? can't remember if they're side specific...

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The pan is hitting the K-MEMBER because the transmission is not jacked up to the cross member.

UPDATE:

#1. I faught the trans and used a pry bar to get it centered and then used an impack gun to run the cross member bolts in. This looked extremely sketchy. I then ran the motor mount bolts down. Everything is now bolted down.

#2. The passenger side header was smashed against the side of the engine bay. I'm assuming this is why I had to use a pry bar to get the trans tail center, because the headers hitting the side of the engine bay causing me tension.

#3. The oil pan now clears the K-Member, because I bolted the trans up.

#4. The right side of trans's middle body is now smashed against the chassis.

I'm at a loss right now. I didn't take pictures because it was extremely frustrating knowing it wasn't lining up. I'm now convinced that there has to be frame damage or something. This shouldn't be this difficult.

I'm debating on buying a stock K-Member to swap in just to check things out.

UPDATE:

Someone told me that the K-Member rear slots are the OEM location. I have my motor mount studs in the front slot on the K-Member. I guess Team-Z says the front slots are the OEM location.

But I just looked at LMR's "Project Green Bean" when they installed the Team-Z K-member and it looks like they put the K-Member in the rear slots.

Here the video of the install, let me know what you guys think.

Mine are in the front slot of my UPR Kmemeber

Did you ever get this figured out? It's something I've been battling for a while with the exact same symptoms as you, except I'm using the rear slots. I'm so close to just selling the k member, turbos, and coilovers off and throwing the factory k member back in the thing. I don't want to do that, but I'm at the point that this isn't fun anymore.

I bolted up a Maximum Motorsports K member to my car without issue. There was no need to grind the motor mount alignment tabs either.

all I can say is I have been running a Team z tubular k member in my 03 cobra for years. no issues. jack the motor up, bolt k member in and re-align motor intil it fits square and not crooked. I don't really have any other better info on it other then a couple times ive had to lift it up and set it back down to get it to sit right.