I did head gaskets recently, which involved undoing a motor mount to lift up the driver's side. It'll be tight with everything in, but I think it's doable.

 

Thanks saamrgen.

Did you use a crane lift or did you just put blocks under the motor? Or nothing at all?

Ideally I'd like to not have to buy or rent a crane lift if possible.

 

Did you use a crane lift or did you just put blocks under the motor? Or nothing at all?

I just used a standard floor jack with a block of wood to protect the engine. I also disconnected the upper mount (maybe not necessary, but took 10 seconds). I had no problems at all tilting the motor enough for the mount stud to clear the crossmember. I didn't put anything else under the motor because I was working from the top and only used the angle to make life a little easier. If it had slipped, it would have just fallen back into place. You'll want to wedge some wood under the motor in case the jack slips. I sure wouldn't want to get fingers pinched in there. The exhaust header may get in your way too.

I had the radiator out when I was doing the work, so I'm not sure how much you can tilt the motor before you start stressing those components. FWIW, the Haynes manual says to remove the radiator when replacing the mounts.

EDIT: I also had the whole car in the air with jack stands at all four corners, if that makes a difference.

 

I need to replace my front left and right motor mounts on my 00' Forester. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Is an engine lift crane absolutely necessary to do so? Can I support the engine and transmission via a jack and wood blocks from underneath instead?

When I change spark plugs on my 06 XT, I put the vehicle on low ramps (~3" tall). I remove the motor mount nuts and raise one side of the engine using the on-vehicle jack. I use a piece of wood between the jack and the motor mount bolt head . . . using the motor mount bolt head as the lift point. There is no need to unhook the wish bone.

If you lifted at some other point on the bottom of the engine you should be able to remove the motor mount bolt and then remove the whole motor mount. It might help if you tilted the engine, rather than lifting the whole thing - better clearance. The problem with lifting on the engine pan (with a floor jack) is you need much more lift for a given amount of work clearance. Better to rock the engine and work one side at a time.

It is tight under there. For the amount of work you will be doing, you will probably want the vehicle on taller ramps. The front roll bar might interfere . . . not sure what else. But it should work.

One more thought: the motor mount nuts are very soft. Use a 6-point socket (preferably an impact socket) and a breaker bar to remove them. It is very easy to round these nuts with the wrong socket. When you get them off, replace them with new Grade 8 nuts from the auto parts store (M12 x 1.25 as I recall). The new nuts are harder and have more shoulder to grip. I've not removed the motor mount bolts, so no opinion.

 

Thanks so much dave5358 and saamrgen!

We'll see how this goes...

 

saamrgen... Where specifically is the upper mount located?

As far as I knew, there's only the front left and right mounts under the engine and the tranny mount under the tranny.

I took a fairly deep look at things today to get prepped for the install but the lower mounts don't look super horrible. If there's an upper mount, that might be where my problem is actually.

All I know is I'm getting some kind of engine wobble at lower shift points and in reverse to the point where it sounds like the engine is literally tapping something in the bay when it moves. It's causing me to have to shift super slow which in turn I believe is wearing my clutch quicker.

 

saamrgen... Where specifically is the upper mount located?

Pitch stop is the official terminology. I guess I haven't been in the Subaru world long enough to remap those terms yet. In any case, it's at the back of the engine bay, under the air filter housing. It should be pretty easy to access once you take that out.

A picture of the part and a parts fiche are available here if you'd like a visual.

 

Thank you all so much!

So I found the culprit to my engine movement woes... It was a loose pitch stop bolt that the mechanic who installed my clutch forgot to tighten.
Idiot move, but thank goodness for nothing worse.

I took a detailed look at the pitch stop and it still looks Ok after about 5 months of loose movement, but as a former engineering student, I'm a bit concerned about the other mounts that didn't have the pressure relief from the loose pitchstop. I'm thinking they may be weaker now and still may need to be replaced. I'm not really looking to upgrade or put extra money into the vehicle but I would like to return it to at least safe driving conditions.

Also, although the rattle is gone, I'm still getting downshift wobbles when I let the clutch out quickly. I think this may be normal from a newer maybe tougher clutch though.

I'm thankful it doesn't seem the lower mounts need to be replaced yet. I did however feel the lower rear tranny mount about a month ago and it did feel a bit on the soft side. There's no tearing from what I could see.

 

Glad you found the problem! One thing to consider is that the mount material might soften and break down without tearing visibly. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if the main engine mounts on my car have been affected after being soaked in dirty engine oil, road grime, etc. for who knows how many years. That said, I wasn't looking for any more reasons to throw money at the car and left them in place...

 

This ^^^^^^. Plus, motor mounts, being rubber, should logically deteriorate with age.

So much for logic. 99.99% of all vehicles go to that wrecking yard in the sky with their original motor mounts.