I broke both my L&L motor mounts last week. These were the 460 swap mounts to bolt in to small block frame perches. L&L advertises these as having a lifetime warranty. This is a lie.

First I called Bronco Graveyard, who I bought the mounts from, along with several hundred worth of parts to do the 460 swap. They didn't have any interest in doing anything for me. Said they couldn't look up a receipt from over a year ago (bought April 2009). I told them I had a PDF of the receipt and a copy of the packing slip in my file I could send them. No interest whatsoever in helping me, they gave me the L&L phone number and said call them. I will be giving second thoughts to any future orders from Bronco Graveyard. I would expect a vendor to step up to the plate and take care of customers, especially those like myself who have bought thousands worth of parts from them for my own projects and other people's projects.

So I called L&L and spoke with a friendly woman there. She informed me the warranty is prorated and I should receive about $70 credit towards new mounts, which is a shocker to me. I don't understand how you can advertise a warranty as lifetime and then say it's prorated. How long is it prorated for before the mounts are completely devalued by L&L and the warranty is no longer valid for any credit towards new mounts? This is shady marketing, if not outright lying. They should simply state "5 year prorated warranty" or similar for whatever period they'll give partial credit on broken mounts.

So in a bind since this is my daily driver and only a modest 400-425 HP, I ordered a new set of mounts from L&L at a cost of $125 + shipping so around $140-$145 total as I recall. They also require me to send the old mounts back to get credit under the warranty. So I should get a $70 credit towards the new mounts minus $30+ in shipping so it amounts to a $40 or less credit towards the new mounts. Bronco Graveyard sells the mounts for $115, which is what I paid, yet I'm stuck with an extra $10 charge.

It especially burns me that they require me to send the old mounts back for any credit. Normally since it was the weekend and it's my daily driver I would have pulled the old mounts, drilled them and bolted the two halves together so I would have motor mounts holding my engine in to get to work. I can't do this due to their requirement of sending the broken mounts back.

I'm irritated that I got burned by their shady marketing practices and questionable quality. Generally I assume when a company offers a lifetime warranty that they make a top notch part that they are confident will not fail, much less after 1.5 years of use in a mild application. I mean, if I was runnig a 600+ HP monster mud bogging with huge tires and such I wouldn't even try to claim on the warranty as it would be clearly past what the mounts were designed for and either solid mounts or block plates would be appropriate.

So after this fiasco I'm looking into alternative mounting options. I may order a set of solid mounts so I'm ready for next time the L&L break. Plan B is to use off the shelf '65-'68 Galaxie FE mounts. Drill an extra hole to bolt to the 460 block, but the factory stud off, drill another hole in the proper location for a truck mount, weld it on the back side, and bolt in. Only thing is the FE mount is thinner, but not significantly thinner in which case it may work. Total cost for these mounts is around $30 after buying mounts and some bolts to weld in. If this works I'll have mounts that shouldn't break but if they do I can get new off the shelf anywhere for cheap and faster than time to get new custom conversion mounts.

I jsut feel burned when I spend good money for a custom part so I don't have to make my own to fit a swap, and then they fail and I get burned on warranty. I don't mind paying the price, or even more, but the lies about a "lifetime warranty" leave a bad taste in my mouth. I'm doing another 351w to 460 conversion in a friend's truck this spring and have two more trucks potentially lined up after that to build a 460 for and install. I will not be using L&L motor mounts in these trucks, nor will I be using any other L&L products. Haven't decided on whether I'll purchase from Bronco Graveyard but I'm sure there are other vendors with what I need who would happily take my business.

 

!!!

I am about 500hp, and plan to have fun with that power too.

I'm still only on a rolling chassis so a mount swap would be a lot easier than breaking it later. What to do.....

 

Unreal....

Now I'm a little leery of buying their headers, as they are "life time garaunteed" against rust through. They're pretty pricey, I thought maybe that was why. I might consider other alternatives.

 

Just an update... I received the new motor mounts yesterday and installed them. Upon removing the old mounts I found the drivers side completely separated and the passenger side almost done. The passenger side is missing a bolt that goes through the rubber portion of the mount and is de-bonded all around the edge of the mount.

L&L enclosed a catalog with the mounts. In the catalog it mentions a "Lifetime gaurantee against saparation." In the back they mention warranty details on the Tarms & Policy page, which mentions "Replacement or refund will be given for items found to be defective." To be fair it also mentions that this would be contingent upon return of the item and their approval. They mention in the first page of the catalog "... we are able to maintain the absolute highest level of product quality which is very important to us at L&L Products, Inc. second only to total customer satisfaction."

Be that as it may, I snapped a couple pictures of the mounts before I send them back to L&L. I will likely get these in the mail tomorrow and will post an update once I receive credit to let you guys know the amount and final outcome of dealing with L&L for warranty claims.

Pics...









I'll take a moment to plug a company with awesome customer service. When I did the mounts I put new headers on and didn't have my preferred header gaskets on hand so used the ones included with the headers. They blew out within a few miles. So I ordered a set of Remflex gaskets today for the flanges and collectors at a cost of $70. A lot for header gaskets most would think, but I think they're worth every penny.

My first time I tried them to seal up a leak on my Galaxie (brand new headers, went through two sets of other style gaskets). They sealed great and I was impressed with the quality. I got a set for my truck to seal up a crusty old pair of headers (the ones I replaced yesterday). They sealed up the leaky flanges on the head as well as the leaky collector flanges. I was very impressed.

About 6 months later, right after their warranty period ended I had a collector gasket blow out on the truck. I was irritated but wanted another pair of Remflex gaskets. I would have paid for new collector gaskets but figured I'd try on the warranty. I emailed them with my order # and asked if they would replace the blown out collector gasket. A woman responded very quickly that same day and was apologetic about their gasket failing. She asked if I was still at the same address and if that was fine to ship to. I responded yes and she said a new pair of gaskets would be in the mail that day. I received two new gaskets promptly (two, despite only one blowing out) and they didn't ask for pictures, to send the old ones back, or charge me anything for shipping. Now that's awesome customer service!

Remflex is a great company and they make an awesome product. They truly make customer satisfaction a priority. For this they have won me over and since then I have bought several sets of exhaust gaskets from them for some of my own projects and for some of the side projects I do for others.

By offering excellent customer service and honoring your warranties you win lifetime customers. This seems to be lost on some companies these days.

 

They don't look too impressive when they are apart like that...

Can I pick your brain for a sec?

You said you bought April 09, when did they actually get installed into you truck?
Are you an auto or man trans?
You're at around 400hp, what was your driving style like?
You mention other 351W-->460 swaps you are dealing with, were you the first or have you also swapped others and are they experiencing anything?

Different scenarios and power, mixed reviews:
460 motor mounts - 460 Ford Forum
** if I read clearly, you also posted in this thread a year ago?

Variety of likes/dislikes and power differences, as well as mentioning L&L's poor customer service with after fact pro-rated warranty approach.
L&L motor mounts suck! - FSB Forums

I called Unlimited Performance - that motor mount talked about several times in the links is a very hot item. They are currently sold out. Regardless, he said he doesn't have a mount for 351W in 80-86 chassis to a 460.

I haven't found any other non-solid mounts. I'm afraid solid mounts will vibrate the hell our of my DD.

Thank you for bringing this up. A mount swap at my current progress will be a pita, but at least better than pulling the engine completely assembled.

 

I called JBG with a question I can say I won't give them my money if it was 50% off I would much rather deal with LMC or NPD any time and pay more.

 

Thinking back on it I must have got the truck together the first week of June. I went on vacation mid June and put 1500 miles on the truck on that trip. Before the trip I had only put about 100 miles on it. So mounts lasted June 2009 until Feb 2011.

Running a ZF5 trans.

Driving style is mostly like an old fart. Shift around 2000-2200 RPM, double clutch my downshifts. Gets beat on occasionally off road and after the engine was broken in I had a some stoplight to stoplight fun shifting quick and winding it out to 6500. Now I have a more mild cam in it that has a broader torque curve... Better suited to towing.

This was my first 351w to 460 swap in one of these trucks. I am currently building a 460 to swap into a friends truck and after that I have two others that I will probably be building engines for and swapping from small blocks. I have done several 460 swaps into other Fords though.

Yes I am a member of 460ford and posted in that thread. If the performance unlimited mounts will work they look stronger. They say for '79 but I believe they will work for '80-'97 as well (that's word on the street, not sure if any modification of the mount is necessary). Either way, my next mount will not be L&L nor will I use L&L on any of the other 460 swaps I'm doing.

 

Sorry to hear about your motor mounts

I have had L&L motor mounts in my pulling truck for 14 years and have never had an issue. I also have their tripple nickle plated headers with no issues either

 

Educate me on this. Why do you need these custom mounts, when Ford installed the 460 from the factory in these style trucks? Why would you not go with the factory mounting for the 460?

P.S. Chevrolet used to have mounts like those you pictured, and had problems after they got old with them separating. The aftermarket makes the mounts now with a metal interlock that will at least hold the engine somewhat in place when the rubber gets old or gets oil on it. Chevrolet re-designed their mounts with a design that surrounds the whole thing with metal to get rid of this problem. I believe it's going to happen again and fail.

 

He used 315 frame perches w the adapter mounts to put the 460 in, but still using the 351 frame perches.
He probably could not find 460 frame perches(kinda an odd duck), so he used his 351 perches and adapter mounts

 

The 460 perches are that hard to find in the junkyard? If the pieces you need left with the 460 when it was pulled out, I could see that part being hard to find, but if the pieces you need are left on the frame, you would think you could find some stuck on a old frame somewhere.

 

The JYs around me they are. Once the truck is stripped, it gets crushed.

 

Exactly. Around here anything that comes into yards with a big block, ZF5, anything classic or with less common options is set aside, stripped and pieced out are ridiculous prices to fools who will pay the inflated prices. What's left is promptly sent for scrap. If you blink you'd never know any of these pass through the yards. Ask questions about them and try to get parts from one and they don't want to let you anywhere near those vehicles or give you some crazy high numbers 2x-3x the going price for the parts you're interested in.

Beyond that, even if I could find a 460 truck in a yard to take the the frame perches from, every yard I've found in NJ won't let you use power tools, torches, etc. So good luck grinding those rivets out with a hand file to remove them.

So, that's why I used conversion mounts. I imagine others have similar trouble finding a factory 460 set of frame mounts.

 

Sounds like looking very hard for a 460 donor truck before doing the swap mounts would be the way to go on this swap. You would get the motor and everything else also. You know what they say," hindsight is 20 20"

If you weren't stuck with the "warranty" and time constraints, probably fabbing some mounts would be the next best thing to do, though you have conversion mounts to use as a pattern where other people doing the swap would not.

 

I've been thinkin of making a template of my perches (I have a factory 460 truck), but I'm not savvy enough to get em on here to share with everyone...plus stock mounts use 4 studs (????) so there may/not be an issue there. But once the weather breaks and I can devise a way to pull the engine, I'll try to persue this hopefully to help people out. 99% of the time, stock is better than aftermarket anyway. Prolly cheaper, too.