Can I have some advice or technique to remove/replace the engine rubber mount. Just found out its cracked around it. I just dont want the engine to drop on me.

 

Remove the 4 nuts
Use a 2-ton engine hoist (the arm on a 1-ton lift is too short) to elevate the engine a few inches until you can reach in and pop out the mounts.

 

I replaced the engine mounts in our '99 DII last January.

I jacked up the engine using a small bottle jack sitting on some wood blocking and a 4” piece of 1x4 between the top of the jack and the bottom of the oil pan, next to the oil pan drain plug.

First, remove the lower nuts on both the left and right mounts to allow the engine to be jacked up without either side being restricted. A $3.98 3/8 drive, deep-well, 18mm socket from Northern Tool plus a couple extensions made quick work of the bottom nuts.

A ratcheting box wrench made getting the upper nut off much easier than would have been the case with a conventional box or open-end wrench. There is a lot of room to work on the passenger side despite the constraint of the nut being located inside the bracket bolted to the block.

There is less working room on the driver's side due to the steering box and a power steering hose. You may want to tie the power steering hose out of the way as best you can. A stubby 18mm ratcheting wrench works better than a standard-length wrench on the driver's side.

Once all four nuts were removed I pulled out the pieces of the old mounts and put the new mounts in place. Install the top nut first on the new mount and tighten it down at least far enough that the locating pin on the mount engages the hole in the upper bracket, then lower the engine (carefully, slowly …) until the lower threaded rod comes through the lower bracket far enough to get the nut back on. Keeping the upper nuts loose makes it easier to guide the mount into position as the engine is lowered.

Once the two lower nuts are started lower the engine the rest of the way and then tighten up everything. Double check to make sure all four nuts are tight. It’s impossible to get a torque wrench on the upper nuts so I just tightened them as much as I could. The lowers got tightened to the 63 lb-ft spec.

 

After you remove the lower large nut, you can remove the stud itself using the correct size socket, if your lucky, the stud will come out (sometimes they don't due to corrosion) and you then don't need to lift the engine as high in order to slide the new mount in (remove the stud on the new mount first of course)..use anti-seize on the threads of the new mount lower stud.

 

Just a short comment. I replaced all of my engine and autobox mounts on a TD5 a couple of years ago and it makes a hell of a difference. On the TD5 you can measure the underside of the mount via a hole to see whether they have collapsed which should be about 20mm. I don't know whether this rule applies to the V8 but after 11 years + most engine and autogearbox mounts are usually cracked or collapsed and just toast.

 

I just did mine last month due to one being ripped in half. One thing I ran into which might help if it's as bad as mine was to hold the rubber with a large c clamp or vise grip to prevent that half of the mount from rotating in case the pin slips out while removing the upper nut. You can also grab on to the heat shield if nothing else is there. Since I had a tendency to wiggle it a bit while removing the upper nut the pin would come out and rotate the entire half causing a little damage to the heat shield ( nothing that can't be bent back into shape in case it happens ). It's a pretty simple job so don't be intimidated by it, it's one of those once you do it you see little things you can improve to do it quicker next time although you probably won't get the chance for a while!