i put new seasl from 914 rubber.com,put engine back in and there is a gap between tin and rubber on passenger side.not sure why.i installed rubber with j part down and folding up towards enginekinda ok on drivers side ,some gap there too.bad rubber,wrong install.?,back of engine ok.

Got pix ???

The 'J' should reach under and catch the outer lips of the cooling tins all the way around.

A picture might help. How does the engine tin to engine shelf gap look on both sides?
Side shift or tail shift?
Thinking that the engine placement might be a little off.
Bruce

Post a pic, I'm sure I can help. Not sure why you would have a problem on one side and not the other, unless it's shifted over , but it's a pretty tight fit. The bottom of the "J" hooks under the sheet metal, so there is a "gap " when it's put in, but it will fit nicely under the edge of the tin.
The back is a different seal (spilt "Y" above the engine and trans area), the one closest to the firewall is the long "J" piece.
You may just need to hook it under the sheet metal.

That's what I was thinking, Mark. I've seen a lot of them that aren't 'latched' under the tin lips.

I have even seen guys staple the corners, but that's overkill. I suspect just not under the lip on the tin.

ill get pic soon,and will see if it will hook under,the engine mount and trans mount bolts are all in.is there any wiggle room to mounting that would pull engine one side versus other?

the cv joints match up.

by the way its a 73 2.0 ,side shift

The mounts for the engine will not have much "wiggle" room. Unless you have some kind of frankenstien'd mounting should fit right in. The rubber does need to be pulled down and tuck the end of the rubber J under the engine tin. The design allows for some variation, but should be able to accommodate easily 3/4" either direction, which is way more than you should need.

ok,thanks,will pull rubber tonite.

Wondering if your engine tin got bent up/down upon the installation.

Mine's sometime did....then I bend it back as much as possible to fit the rubber right.

True if you put it up in the hole and catch an edge you can bend it up.

Really need to see a picture to help

i get the idea ,i assumed engine placement was off,now will look more to bent tin etc.ill get pic as soon as i can.

I actually have the same problem but Ive forgotten about it.

My engine sits too High in the engine bay for the tins to sit far enough down to catch the lip in the rubber.
I even tried to bend the tins down far enough to hook in the "J", but its just too big of a gap to close.

Makes me wonder if I have some frankenstein engine mount combo that makes the engine sit about 1" too high.

(That actually made me wonder if you could lower the engine by an inch from the stock location....)

Post some pix of your mount, Stu