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I spoke with an engineer at Smooth-on. He said he knows of people making bushings with their products. I read about shrinkage and asked this engineer who said "yeah, it's 0.001 %". The product below is the 2 part dude in the above video used
I suppose this would be the way to go. What do you guys think? I'ma give it a shot next week but first I'll do a little more research. There's other youtube vid's to watch as well. https://www.smooth-on.com/products/reoflex-60/
It's not reversible in the sense that with the Z1 inserts if the NVH is too much you can just pull them out again and keep running on your blown rubbers. With the poly fill you'd have to drop the subframe and do a proper bushing replacement.
Gotcha. In my case, it is reversible because if it doesn't work out (which I'm willing to bet it will) then I have to replace it with a potentially unreasonably stiff unit. I don;t plan on buying a new sub frame to replace a bushing. The z1 units are great but overkill for my AWD FX. With RWD, better traction but that's not a concern for me. As the guy in the u-tube vid above explains, 40 is stock, 80 is aftermarket poly so 60 would be a good happy medium between the 2, especially for a daily driver.
One might consider this regarding any of these bushings in that they're going to, for the most part, eliminate the give, the purpose of these oem bushings. For the track but for the street it's not gonna be so pleasant.
McMasterCarr sells casting poly in various hardnesses, you can get plenty for all the bushings you need for less than $20 and it's been proven to hold up very well in engine mounts and similar.
McMasterCarr sells casting poly in various hardnesses, you can get plenty for all the bushings you need for less than $20 and it's been proven to hold up very well in engine mounts and similar.
That's good to know. I'll check it out tonight. Thanks!
You say it's been proven and I obviously don't doubt that, so... can you easily point me towards some success stories? I say easily because I'll be researching a bit later and I don't want you to waste your time trying to dig anything up.
I think this is a pretty f'n trick option for those like me with an oddball car that has many drive train options because of it's relation to the Z & G but is lacking elsewhere and those guys that want to replace bushings but want something in the middle rather than metal on metal on metal or track friendly ultra dense poly.
I don't really have any long term scientific results or anything like that, but I've used McMasterCarr many times for work and everything they sell are top quality engineering-grade materials with next-day shipping, because wasted R&D time with poor quality products is a big nono.
If McMasterCarr says it'll hold together at a specific hardness with a 1% shrinkage rate, I believe them. I'll be using their 80a on my subframe, ordered it last night. This stuff is specifically designed to be cast into shapes for engineering applications such as bushings, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if a company like Energy gets their materials from McMaster during the prototyping phase for their products.
If you wanted to go through the effort of making a mold out of sand and some bolts to make holes in the bushing, you could cast yourself a real poly bushing which would perform identically to one of the same dimensions and hardness as a much more expensive one from a company - just depends how much your time is worth.
Last edited by cswlightning; 08-20-2018 at 02:00 PM.
1% shrinkage? I was concerned about the shrinkage as I wrote above and was told by smooth-on .001%, so hardly anything. I guess they make they're products to make molds, so they don't want shrinkage.
In my particular situation, I might want to stick with smooth-on's ooze because I'd be essentially making a mold, forming a bushing within it's housing without shrinkage.
I don't think shrinkage is a big deal here honestly, this isn't exactly rocket science. 1% is a pretty typical number for injection molding plastics. .001% is extremely low, I imagine they made some compromises to attain that value as it's not at all typical for polyurethane.
My thought is that the bushings fit in so tightly that z1 sells a f'n tool to remove them. Now, I wouldn't need the tool personally because I'm a f'n animal but it's an indication as to just how tightly these things are fitted. It sounds to me like they're similar in tolerance to a seal so 1% might make a big difference, especially to you corner carving mo fo's who are putting ****-tons of pressure on the suspension.
"I suppose I'd need to cut away as much of the original bushing as I can, front and back. I'd clean the housing, tape off the font and back and then punch a hole just big enough and at the highest point to slowly inject the jb weld using my little $8 pump that I've used to add diff fluid, power steering fluid, etc. I'd hate to sacrifice that little ****...we've been through so much together.
I'm not so sure adhesion would be a concern though? My thoughts are that so long as the jb weld or epoxy is in a liquid enough state to displace all the air, it should encapsulate everything within the bushings housing and replace all the silicone that was prematurely ejaculated all over my exhaust and with less than 100k miles on the odometer, I'd say that's definitely premature."
I'ma get up close and personal with this bushing tomorrow and make sure my strategy is gonna pan out and if not, formulate an exit strategy just in case shtf!
It looks and feels like the sides of the bushing are solid. I press on the top and bottom and it easily gives but the sides do not. I'm not sure if this is the same for the G? I do think that this bushing has far less importance to an all wheel drive car but still needed. Top and bottom of bushing is indented and wrinkled indicating wear. Sides are solid. I think this bushing is only 1/2 filled with siicone. Bushing popped on the diff side.
It looks and feels like the sides of the bushing are solid. I press on the top and bottom and it easily gives but the sides do not. I'm not sure if this is the same for the G? I do think that this bushing has far less importance to an all wheel drive car but still needed. Top and bottom of bushing is indented and wrinkled indicating wear. Sides are solid. I think this bushing is only 1/2 filled with siicone. Bushing popped on the diff side.
It's fluid filled in the top and bottom portion, but not on the sides. The sides have a solid rubber portion of sorts.
That looks great as far as a blown bushing goes. My car had been beaten with it for god knows how long with the previous owner and the top and bottom had lost their fluid long long ago., and the sides were starting to crack from all the flexing. You should have an easy time masking since most of that's OEM intact. Once the poly's in place, it'll reinforce what's left of your bushing.
How do you plan to clean and fill the cavities completely without any spillage?
08-20-2018, 09:51 AM
but for the street it's not gonna be so pleasant.
