Engine Swap!!!
 

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has ever done an engine swap on an 86-88 NA, Automatic. I have a question for, you I was wondering what bolts are needed to take off the bottom backside of the engine that connects the tranny to the engine, need to come off, I have taken the two on the Passenger side off, and the one behind the starter off, but I can't get the one off that is by the bolt behind the starter, it looks identical, to the one on the passenger side that was a long bolt. I need to see if this bolt actually needs to come off to get the engine out.

Swap to what? Another engine? Sure.

Easier to pull the motor with the tranny attached, IMHO.

To do it this way, yes, the starter HAS to come out. There's a nut on the other end of the bolt, I assume you have that held with a wrench?

Have you gotten the haynes manual, and have you downloaded the Field service manual for your car from www.fc3s.org?

PaulC

I definately agree with silkworm on the pulling engine and tranny together.

You CAN yank it with the starter, it's not hard. i just hooked the engine up and started hoisting (after disconnecting everything of course, tranny mounts and drive shaft as well). Once it was halfway out, i disconnected the tranny wires and the starter wires, piece of cake.

Next time, try that little button at the top that says "SEARCH" :)

Jameson

I did try the search button, but I guess I must have worded it wrong, I really don't want to pull the engine with the tranny, I have the engine almost ready to take out, but I have, one bolt left, I have tried to take the bolt out but it will not come loose I was wondering if this bolt really is need to come out before you can take the engine out, to me it looks like you could just leave it in.

IM not sure what bolt you are talking about.

There are 2 bolts and one nut that holds the starter on the tranny. ONe is a simple 14mm head bolt, one is a longer 14mm head bolt with a 14mm nut on teh other end of it(engine side). REmove both of these and the starter falls off.

Note that under the starter is another bolt that holds the bellhousing to the engine. You must remove the starter to get this bolt, and you must remove this bolt to get the tranny off of the engine, so you must remove the starter to get the engine out.

IT is better to pull them both, btw. Ever tried aligning a 180lb auto tranny form underneath a car pushing up, versus from standing overtop of it with a couple of helpers? Gravity actually pulls the transmission together with the new engine for you, all you have to do is align them. Let your engine hoist do the work for you...youve already disconnected everything anyway.

Did you look at the picture? I have taken the starter off, and the bolt that is behind that, but there is another one, real close by to it, it is circled in the picture, and it is step number 9. It says it is a trannsmission attaching bolt.

I can't see in the picture what bolt that is, you need to scroll up.

Well, IM no kind of rocket scientist, but if it is a transmission attatching bolt, and you want to "un-attatch" teh transmission, what would you think?

I can see what you have pictured in that diagram, but it doesnt really make sense there at all. Just tell us which bolt it is...there are 2 starter bolts, and 5 bellhousing bolts along with a nut at the top of the bellhousing. WHich of those 5 is it? Regardless, it must come off.

Well actually, I got a better look at it today, the bolt I am reffering to is the one that is near the oil cooler line.

I did also have the picture bigger but, the file was to big to upload to the site so I had to shrink my screen and then the whole page, wouldn't fit on it so i got the best I could, if you really need to see it better it is a picture of the FSM, under the engine section.

I think you may be referring to an engine tension bolt. IF it is a 17mm head, do NOT remove it. IF it is a 14mm head, remove it. There, done with that.

Thanks, again, for your help, yes it was the 17mm one, like I had said before I had one out, so promptly put it back in is there anything else I should know about like, now since I had taken that one out will the engine not run properly, I hope not. Also the other thread wan't started by me, it was started by someone else, it just seemed like it suited my question, and I'm still not sure what to do about the injectors, and the intake. I was wrong about the cruise and accelarator pedal they are both connected it just looked like it wasn't. So then I really wouldn't need to change it out. But I did decide since I had the engine out, maybe I should just check the pulsation damper to make sure it is ok, I just found a how to on this, I would have checked it before when I had the injectors out, but didn't know exactly what to check for. One more question do you know if you were to take out the main cat would it possibly cause an apex seal to blow, because the guy I bought the GXL from had the cat taken off because it had a whole rusted through it, and he replaced it with a flexible pipe, I was thinking about taking both of my cars exhaust systems and putting them both together to make one good system.

Damn that was a long SOB'n sentence!!

Keep i mind that, there are 18 tension bolts, and 2 of those are on the outer lower corners of the engine...if your emoved one of these, you're ok. IF you removed any of the others, its possible you would have a coolant leak...coolant flows through the other 16(round engine pattern behind flywheel) and those washers on the heads are rubber designed to seal only once. Be sure theyre tight, and you will be ok.

The best thing for you to do is take both of them apart, pick a fuel rail to keep. Take the PD out of that rail. Take the banjo bolt from the other rail youre not going to use, on the other side of the PD of that rail. Put this bolt in place of your PD on your rail youll be using. Now, no more worry, ever.

Removing a shitty cat, or fixing an exhaust leak, can only give you more power and make the car live longer. Exhaust leaks sap power, and clogged cats are hard on an engine. Rotaries love to breathe, the less backpressure the better, which will net you more power nad theoretically a longer life(except that you'll likely be harder on the car *due* to having more power). I put midpipes on all my cars. There are no emissions/inspections here, plus all the old exhausts leak and are clogged or what have you...it is a win-win situation basically...more power, better sound, less heat generated in the engine and under the chassis.

Thanks so much, good thing the other 17mm bolt would not come out.
P.S. I just noticed that your sig, says your first name is Kevin, that is my name also, nice name. See ya later.

So what your saying with this you would totaly remove your PD, and it would work correctly,

Uh, I have :cool:

Thanks, for all your help.
After along time I have finally got this thing finished, sort of. Now I think I might have blown the engine, the 17mm bolts you were talking about, I had one taken all the way out, so I put it back in and tightened to back down, but neglected to make sure the other one was tight, because we couldn't get it off, it barely budged. But now that I started it. It is leaking coolant around that bolt, and it seems as if it is burning the coolant.
I will have to check tomarrow if I can tighten the bolt and see if that fixes it. One more question how do you know if your precats are clogged? I decided to put them on, but the exhaust don't sound quite like any other car I've heard, and once I shut the car off, exhaust still comes out by the exhaust manifold, for quite awhile. I saw from searching that if they are glowing then they are clogged, but they don't glow.
I just hope I don't have to take the engine out again, that was hard work, especially since I was the only person doing it, I had zero help.

Actually it wasn't the bolt, I tried to tighten it and, it turned maybe a 1/4 of turn, and it still leaked I found the hose that comes off the engine for the heater core, the clamp on it wasn't on tight.