Engine pitching on my 818S track car

[Dave 53]

I think my engine has excessive pitch under hard braking.

I just discovered my right-side timing belt cover is all busted up on my 818S. I think it got busted up from the engine smashing into the radiator hose/pipe that runs between the cover and a frame rail the fire wall is riveted to. The clearance for the hose/pipe between the timing cover and frame rail is millimeters. As the engine slides forward under hard braking, it's crushing the hose/pipe between the timing cover and frame rail and the cover is the weak link. No indication that anything was rubbing on the actual cam pully.

I drove the car several thousand miles before it was track worthy without a problem and this is a new development since I started tracking the car, so I suspect this is related due to constant hard braking at the track.

Is this a problem for 818R's? What are you R guys doing?

The Subaru WRX donor car had a pitch stop arm that got deleted on the 818. Guess it was there for a reason. Has anyone fabricated a pitch stop arm on an 818?

I have OEM Subaru motor mounts which I suspect are as soft as one can find and were designed to be use with a pitch stop arm. I have found several after-market mounts from OEM, Group N to solid. Is there a solution in motor mounts? Will solid mounts lead to failures somewhere else down the road? I can live with (and might even like) vibration.

Does the coolant hose/pipe need to be rerouted? Maybe cut out the hard pipe section so that crushable hose runs between the cover and frame? But then I'd worry about the hose chaffing.

I made a temporary repair with Gorilla tape and a new cover has been ordered. I'm thinking about covering the new cover in Gorilla tape to keep bits from chunking off if the new cover breaks as the current one did. Is there some other tape product better suited for the job?

I'm willing to bet it also broke the mounting tabs for the rear cover (between the heads and cam pully). There is a little bit of slop when I jiggle the cover. But, I think I'll leave it alone. First, it's a pain to replace the rear cover which involves removing the cam pullies and second, if something has to give, maybe a little bit of flexibility in the cover isn't a bad thing.

Do I need to stop tracking the car until a solution is installed? Scheduled (and paid for) Thunderhill next weekend.

Hoping better motor mounts will fix this - that's the easiest solution.

Standing by for forum wisdom. Hoping you tell me to have fun next weekend and give me a good review on one of the several motor mounts available.