The Civic is a bit of an enigma. It is a car that nearly develops 100bhp/liter in standard form without forced induction. It has stiff suspension, very stiff tyres and a close ration 6-speed gearbox. It seems like a car without too much in the way of compromise, with performance being at the forefront of most design decision. This is not the case and perhaps the most surprising compromise is with the engine mounts.
The engine / gearbox assembly is connected to the chassis via 4 mounts; nearside, offside, front and rear. The front and rear resist the rotational movement of the engine, an important consideration for a high-revving engine. It is these engine mounts that surprise. They are really soft!
Anyone who has owned and driven one of these cars will probably know about the wheel-hop issue. In the wet, accelerating in second gear is exciting. Traction is fine until you hit 5.8k revs, when Vtec kicks in. When this happens, the wheels lose traction and begin 'hopping'. What actually happens is that the engine is rotating clockwise and anti-clockwise, due to insufficient damping by the engine mounts, and traction is lost.
The solution to this problem is cheap. Energy Suspension produce so-called 'engine-mount inserts' which are polyurethane 'chunks' shaped to fill the gaps in the standard mounts. These increase the stiffness of the front and rear engine mounts, and really do prevent this wheel-hop in the wet.
Removing this compromise does actually go some way to explaining why Honda designed the car in this way in the first place. The stiff engine mounts cause significantly increased vibrations within the car, especially when idling. This appeared very bad initially and has reduced since fitment. Whether this is softening of the mounts over time, or I'm becoming accustomed to the vibrations, or both, I don't know. However the vibration issue is easy to live with due to the much-improved gear changes.
With a stiff mounted engine, blipping the throttle on downchanges has become a joy. The car feels much more like a Type R should be: informative, responsive and satisfying to drive. It is hard to drive smoothly compared to a normal car, even moreso after this modification, but it can be driven smoothly with a lot of driver involvement. I am constantly trying to better myself as a driver and having a car that lets me know if I'm doing the right things or not means that even driving smoothly around town is a satisfying experience. This car is not for everyone but at this stage in my life, I absolutely love every minute.
Fitting these was difficult because it required the subframe to be dropped down. I didn't take any under-car pictures but I did take some pictures of the mounts when removed from the car.
One of the mounts showing the gaps all around the mount.
The inserts for this mount.
The other mount. Mount is sad.
Again, picture showing inserts.
How the mount looks with the inserts fitted.
