[How to] Pull the engine

SuperWhite92

New member
I wrote this quite a while ago, so there's nothing new here, but I figured I'd repost this in a thread for easy searching, since the question does come up.

So Here's my really basic write-up. If you have any questions, let me know. I'll do my best to answer them.


BASIC ENGINE REMOVAL WRITE UP



-Remove Hood and undercovers (If they're still there)
-Remove Battery, Drain all the fluids (Tranny, Engine, Coolant).
-Remove the Airbox and intake piping, as well as the intercooler.
-Remove the Throttle Cable from the throttle body
-Remove the Injector Solenoid Resistor and Fuel Pump Resistor (One Unit near the radiator under where the coolant hose runs)
- Remove the Radiator Reservoir Tank
- Remove the cruise control unit that's mounted to the strut brace, as well as the strut brace itself
- Remove all the electrical connecters between the main fuse box and the ignition coil on the drivers side firewall (There's also a bracket near the strut tower that needs removed). Make a note of where everying goes.
- Remove the charcoal canister (Be careful of the hoses on the bottom, they're hard to see)
-Disconnect the heater hoses and the speedo cable near the drivers side strut tower. 2 Heater hoses and 1 speedo cable that just unscrews using your fingers
- Disconnect the fuel hose from the top of the fuel filter. Be careful doing this as to not screw up this very important and expensive bolt, and also to catch all the leaking gas in a bucket or something.
- Disconnect the little connectors down around the fuel filter
- Remove the starter from the front of the transmission.
- Unmount the clutch slave cylinder from the tranny. Don't disconnect the tube from the cylinder
- Disconnect the shift cables from the tranny. These C-clips are a bitch, so don't lose them
- disconnect the tranny cooler lines from the underside front of the tranny
- Disconnect the MAP Sensor and all the vaccuum hoses from the firewall next to where the ignitor was. Remember to be labeling all these lines.
- disconnect all the vaccuum lines from the passenger side of the intake manifold
- Free up the wiring harness on the passenger side of the car. Keep taking notes of how this harness runs through the engine bay. It's tricky.
- Get under the passenger side dash, and pull the carpet back from the firewall/floor/center console corner. There's the ECU. Disconnect all the plugs from the ECU, and the one plug that goes to the AC system directly underneath the passenger side of the glovebox.
- Back to the engine bay. Undo the nuts that hold the wiring harness shroud to the firewall. Remove the harness by pulling from the engine bay side as a friend helps to guide it underneath the ridiculously packed dashboard.
- Remove the Side-to-side crossmember from under the front of the car.
- Remove the Front to back crossmember from under the car
- Disconnect the Downpipe from the rest of the exhaust, and tie the rest of the exhaust as far away from the center as possible. It's best, but very difficult, to remove the center section altogether.
- Remove that stupid damper and deflector from under the transfer case
- remove the front wheels and the axles. The axles will pretty much pull out of the transmission once you have the hub disconnected. Don't pull apart the little bolts on the axles, it's a real pain to get it all back together.
- remove the alternator, and all the accessory belts. Also remove the two vaccuum lines from under the PS pump, as well as the cylindrical sensor they attach to. This piece breaks super easy and is pretty expensive.
- Remove the AC compressor bolts, but don't undo the lines. Also remove the idler pulley bracket at this time.
- Remove the front and rear engine mounts
- BGB says to remove the primary cat here, but I didn't. It's up to you
- Remove both the right and left side engine mount stays.
- Time for an engine lift. Attach the lift to the two pre-designated hooks
- get it to a point where it will hold the engine, then remove the LH and RH side Engine mounts
- Start lifting the car up (very carefully, there is now NO support in the front of the vehicle), while lowering the engine down. Watch for grounds and stuff that you missed that may still be attached to the car. You will probably also need to hang the AC compressor up and out of the way with some wire at some point. At some point, you will need to remove the driveshaft from the transfer case, so just be aware. It pretty much slips out, and once it does, I suggest tying it back up under that car with some wire or something sturdy.
-as the engine nears the ground, put a homemade 2x4 and rotating wheel "engine dolly" under the engine and tranny to prevent it from being stuck under your car. I basically built a bigger furniture dolly, if you know what that is. I suppose a regular furniture dolly with possibly a sheet of plywood on it would be just fine. Keep in mind the lower the engine sits when fully removed, the less you'll have to lift the car up to get it out from under.
-Once you get the car high enough, and the engine low enough to seperate the two without breaking anything or beating the hell out of your front bumper.

That should be it. Any questions, please let me know. Any additions from anyone experienced, feel free to chime in.
 

Simba

New member
I'd also suggest pulling the radiator out so you don't mangle it, removing the front bumper skin so you don't mangle that, and pulling the turbo and downpipe so the engine's a bit "thinner" and easier to manipulate.

Also, you forgot the power steering lines, and it's a good idea to remove the idle up air valve from the PS pump as it's easy to break the nipples off, and the stupid thing costs a hundred bucks or so to replace. As part of that, drain the PS fliud and pull the reservoir.
 

Sifu

New member
You forgot to mention that they should also have baggies and mark everything otherwise they will have a handful of bolts with no home to call their own.
 

TomsGT4

New member
I gave up on baggies, use clear macaroni salad containers now, stacked nicely on shelves.
Do you guys have Ziggy's brand over there?
Been collecting them for years. :D
 

___Scott___

Active member
My method for keeping track of bolts and where they came from is to put them back in the holes they came out of whenever possible. This way, if the project gets unexpectedly delayed, everything is easy to find when it's time to put it back together.

Don't do that with parts that you'll be sending to a machine shop, they may remove and lose them.
 

gt4tified

New member
Also, if its easier and you can get them out without stripping the bolts (try not to use air tools...a good snap-on ratchet with power handle should do it), I'd recommend actually disconnecting the driveshaft.
 

ST165-2765

New member
SuperWhite92 :wink: I'm going to give you one of those "HOMER" moments where you go DOOOOHHH!!!!!! :doh:

An engine cradle is an excellent idea and the good lads at Toyota have one allready installed (at least on a ST165 and I'm pretty sure it's the same on a ST185)

Why use an engine cradle?

- The main reason is that engine and transmission oil pans are not really designed to support the weight of the engine or transmission and you certainly don't want to dent your oil pan and have the crankshaft hit it (up here in Canada our pans rust further weakening them)
- The second reason is that the crossmember will support the engine and prevent it from moving/tipping over and potentially breaking or crushing an expensive sensor or other external part.


So here's what I would do different

SuperWhite92":whdcel9o said:
- Remove the Side-to-side crossmember from under the front of the car.

On a ST165 I would leave this crossmember attached to the engine/transmission (ie leave the front and rear engine mounts attached) until after I had the engine/transmission on the ground and removed from under the car. I would only remove frame bolts.


SuperWhite92":whdcel9o said:
- Remove the Front to back crossmember from under the car

I would leave this attached to the front to back cross member until engine/transmission is fully removed. I would only remove frame bolts.


***The 2 cross members that I would leave attached to the engine but unbolted from the frame leave incredibly convienient holes to attach castor wheels too***


So when I remove a ST165 engine/transmission these are the steps I would do with respect to crossmembers and engine mounts

- remove the 4 bolts that connect the front to back crossmember to the frame.
- remove the 4 bolts and 2 nuts that connect the side-to-side crossmember to the frame.
- make sure the one 14mm bolt that is attaching the 2 crossmembers together is good and tight, you don't want the 2 crossmembers pivoting
- attach a hoist to the engine/transmission.
- remove the left and right engine mounts that attach to the shock towers.
- lower the engine/transmission a bit and attach castor wheels to various crossmember frame holes if you wish.
- if your not going to use castors then place a sheet of wood underneath to help you slide the engine/transmission out.

The front-to-back crossmember is curved so when you add castors it hardly raises the height if you get the right size wheels. I find 1 castor on the front of the front-to-back crossmenber and 1 castor on each side of the side-to-side crossmember works best. You don't really need a castor on the back of the front-to-back crossmember.

The engine/transmission is now only supported by the front and rear engine mounts so you may want to try securing it to the side-to-side cross member with some wire or rope to prevent it from wobling as much as possible (I would use a ratcheting tie down strap and go from one end of the side-to-side crossmember up over the engine and secure it down to the other side of the side-to-side crossmember).


I'm pretty sure that this would also work on a ST185, no idea what an ST205 looks like underneath. This is also guaranteed to work on any 4th gen celica ST16X.

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If you need temporary wheels look around 8)
 

ST165-2765

New member
Sifu":3g57lwvj said:
If I had an extra crossmember I'd def. try that ...

You don't need extra crossmembers you use the one's that you would otherwise have to totally remove from under the engine and have lying around anyways before you drop it. Just remove all the bolts that connect the 2 crossmembers to the frame. This will leave the side-to-side crossmember attached to the front-to-back crossmember via one 14mm bolt and the front-to-rear crossmember will still be attached to the engine via the front & back engine mounts. I just shipped my extra engine mounts so I couldn't include them in the picture.


Basically instead of just dropping the engine/transmission your dropping the engine/transmission/and both cross members as one unit. And you get the added bonus that once lowered a bit you can bolt some wheels up to it.
 

SuperWhite92

New member
Pretty cool trick without a doubt. Effective and simple for the perfectionist in all of us. Thanks for the heads up.

Let me just say though, that with the "Oil pans won't support the engine" comment- it's true, but the 3s pan has proven itself time and again to be able to support weight temporarily, so long as you're gentle when setting it down on the pan. Other engines are not so lucky, unfortunately. At this point in time, I've pulled 6 different 3S's a total of 9 times or so, and I haven't ever dented or cracked the oil pan or transmission.



Thanks everyone for the additions. This write up wasn't meant to be all-inclusive, but you guys are helping it to become that. It's much appreciated.
 

tw2

New member
I just pulled my engine and there were a few issues. PS pump can be left in there if you are lowering the engine. Just take the large return hose to the reservior off and get a couple of spanners and undo the pressure line also from the pump. If you are really careful you will not need to remove the valve on the PS pump, I wasn't even close to destroying it.
Carinair.jpg

I had to do my pull in a garage with crappy old carpet on the floor so a dolly to move the engine was not going to work.
Engine.jpg

Here is the back of an engine for anyone who hasn't pulled one before. The propeller shaft just falls out as already said but doesn't actually come right out until the engine is actually on the ground and tranny fluid will come out of it and go everywhere. My engine is a JDM which may explain why I could not find a speedo cable anywhere since it is electrical.

For anyone wanting to remove the tranny there is a bolt more or less directly below where the purple TVIS canister is. It goes from the block to the tranny and is difficult to find let alone get any decent tools on. I managed to get it with a long spanner with the engine in the air.
 

tw2

New member
As you know you need to lift the lowest part of the car over the highest part of the engine so the height is the height of the engine next to the firewall. My hoist in the pic at the top of the page is very close to the rafters of the garage. The intake manifold with the accelerator cable clips is the highest part I found and it needs to fit under the metal walls of the engine bay where the tranny fits through.
 

Corey

Active member
Definately helps if you can get the back wheels about 7 inches up. (4 blocks of wood)

The dolly would be really easy to move, especially if you need to more the engine in more than one direction.

but if your worried about clearance, i found the sheet of plywood on rollers worked quite well, and i was able to pull it out from under the car my self, and im not exactly a big guy.

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The engine was actually quite stable on those blocks, i tried to wiggle it pretty hard, and it didnt budge.

You'll also want to strap the hoist up to something to hold it back, because as the car is lifted, it will tend to pull the hoist towards it... not good.

Corey
 

aus jd 2703

New member
hey guys i have no lifting hook near my cam gears so right hand engine hook. is this normal?
what can i lift by?
cheers guys
 

Sifu

New member
aus jd 2703":11o5buak said:
hey guys i have no lifting hook near my cam gears so right hand engine hook. is this normal?
what can i lift by?
cheers guys
Sorry for the REALLY late reply...

If you can find a replacement. It's near impossible (unless you have a cradle) to get it out w/o the hooks. There isn't anything you can hook it onto safely.

If you can try to find them/purchase/junkyard. They really are necessary.
 

Sifu

New member
Just don't use chains and wrap it around it... Really... its heavier than you think...
 

Hotrodhendrix

New member
Agreed my leveler has brackets that you can actually bolt directly to the engine. Do NOT rig anything when your trying to remove an engine.
 

compy591

New member
As far as doing this just in a garage at home, how are you lifting the front end of your car high enough to lower the engine out completely? Any proven/preferable methods for this?
 

LegacyofDan

New member
compy591":13schcc1 said:
As far as doing this just in a garage at home, how are you lifting the front end of your car high enough to lower the engine out completely? Any proven/preferable methods for this?

that is what i did...let the engine sit on to a lil short push cart thing and then lifted the body up and pulled the motor...it was one of those bunny in the hat sort of occurances
 
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