10/19/2002 Pat's 3SGTE drop page 2 of 2

Thanks to Adrian and Scott from my local MR2 club ( MR2-Northwest ) for helping me drop the engine on 10/19/02.

I got this 1,000 lb capacity furniture dolly from Home Depot for $19.95. The oil pan should sit on the right side, and the tranny has two spots that will sit on the left side. With just these three spots, the engine will be balanced. Get the engine hoist hooked up (you're probably going to need a load balancer in between the hoist and the engine to keep the sides even).

Another view. Notice the blue slave cylinder hanging (we'll remove it in a minute). Be sure to support it so that the hoses are not being stressed.

4. Remove Slave Cylinder and Front Motor Mount through bolt and Tranny side of the motor mount

Time to get the slave cylinder off the tranny otherwise you'll have to cut the lines which would not make things any easier on you later.

The Slave Cylinder can be challenging to remove and install. It's hard to see the bolts, and to reach them.

There are only 4 bolts to worry about. In the past I've always seen people (myself included) undoing most of the pictured bolts just because you can't see what's holding it on from above or below very well. The top two just hold it down to the tranny. The bottom two sandwich it to the front motor mount and the tranny. The motor mount is not pictured in this pic.

The next few pics are of an install, but will still be helpful, just do the reverse. Under the car, lining up that bolt hole on the right to make things easier.

First step to installing it, temporarily mount the two lower bolts without the engine mount installed.

Here you can see the upper bolt on the drivers side being tightened down with a small wrench and small socket. This is to give you an idea where the bolt is.

Same as above.

Another pic of that bolt.

Here's the upper passenger side bolt being tightened down. Notice the longer socket than the drivers side bolt.

Another angle of the passenger side bolt.

Finally, remove the lower two bolts which were loosely on there, and put the motor mount on, then re-install the two lower bolts.

Remove the through bolt for the front motor mount.

On the left, the through bolt is removed, and on the right in the tranny side of the motor mount there are two bolts that due to lack of space must be undone with a wrench. The reason to pull these off is because they are holding the slave cylinder to the tranny.

5. Remove drivers side motor mount bolts

From below, these bolts hold the tranny to the tranny side of the motor mount.

Can't remember what this one was???????

The left two arrows point to the top view of the bolts we saw from below two pictures ago. The bolts on the right hold a stay bar, and a mount for the speedo cable.

Another view with bolts loose.

6. Remove passenger side mount completely

Now we're attacking the passenger side motor mount. We ended up undoing all 5 bolts.

Here's are some more shots to show you what needs to come off.

Start with the two bottom nuts (easily accessed from below with a long extension). Then the three top bolts.

Finally the through bolt (which can come out even with the intercooler in place).

7. Dropping the engine

Then, just slowly lower the engine. If it gets caught up somewhere, raise it back up a little, and see what the problem is. Take care of the problem :). We had to shake the chains a bit to swing the engine around and get it unstuck from this and that. Also, be sure you're clearing the AC compressor if you have one.

Here's some shots to help show the balance points.

Once the engine is down, you may have to raise the car up to get it out. To do this safely, get a good thick chain that the rear crossmember bolts will slide through, hook it so that it goes bolt through chain into rear crossmember hole - chain goes to hoist up top - chain goes to bolt on other side rear crossmember hole. Then use a towel or some old carpet to keep the paint from getting scratched by the chain, and raise the car up slowly. Watch what the front wheels are doing (rolling backwards) don't let them fall off the boards (if you used them). You want the front wheels free so that the hoist isn't pulling on the car enough to cause it to jump forward when you lower onto the jackstands. Raise the jackstands up to the new height, then lower the car down to the jackstands.... (Thanks Carl Crawford for the idea). Now hopefully you have a nice dolly to make this easier, pull the engine on out.

Ahhh, wasn't that easy?

Now you could leave it on the dolly (or whatever you lowered it onto) or you could put it on a stand. To get it on a stand you have pull the tranny, pressure plate, and flywheel (well, you could leave the flywheel on, but why would you want to?). Then you gotta get some bigger bolts to hold the block to the stand. This will be covered a little on the tear down page.

If I've missed something, or you gotta suggestion or question, shoot me an e-mail (link on the front page). Back to page 1...