engine swap in home garage

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mustang67n

Senior Member
so.. now im going to buy a new SOHC ZC to replace my current one in my '89 hatch. right now, the only place i have to do the swap, is in my home garage. before, we did the swap in my school's auto shop.
at home, i have a floor jack and jack stands.
i will be getting an enjine lift to pull out the engine.
as i remember, most of the dis/assebly wasnt all that hard, but i had a car lift and any tool i needed right there. is it feasable to do this swap at home, with basic hand tools, or should i find a way to get it up to the shop at school and do it there?
 
i did mine at home
as long as you have a breker bar and acherry picker and a couple cases of beer u can get the old one out and the new in in about a day

and label your lines man
 
alright bro, thanks a lot!

being that im 17, the beer might be a bit more difficult lol

but yeah, i didnt think it would be all that difficult.
thanks!! thats good new! lol
 
I found that an air compressor, along with an impact driver, and air hammer proved very time saving during my swap!
 
:mellow: make sure you have good neighbors or they will call the city or even the cops for noise trust me ive seen it happen
 
my neighbors are all cool, and the ones that arent.. are afraid of my next door neighbor, who backs us up.. i swear its like gang wars lol.

i have a compressor, and ive been waiting for an excuse to get an impact drive and air hammer, so i'll go grab myself those when i start the swap too!
and we do a lot of welding, so im sure we have a good pipe i can use on the end of my ratchet
 
I did mine in my driveway too. No biggie. Would happily do it again. Engine crane is a must though and get a load leveller too if you can.
 
i do lots of swaps on the side for some extra cash and working in the driveway or garage isn't that bad. i don't even use a cherry pick. sometimes i wish my work would take in motor swap work but i'm not the boss so i do them on the side on my off days. with a 4th gen civic you can have that old block out in 2-3 hours with basic hand tools.
long pipe that slips over a 1/2 inch drive ratchet
32mm axle nut
14mm
10mm
12mm
17mm
22mm
19mm
and some other basic hand tools will get you though the swap. i did a 4th gen with no cherry pick by placing 2 jack stands under the car and drop the tranny and axles first. then drop the block using a jack and wood on to the ground and pick the block up on to a dolly this way you can roll it out through the bottom by the wheel well not to hard with out a cherry pick i've done it 2 times for customers 3 hours tops. putting the other block back it depends on what it is but if you staying with a d i say 3 hours tops to put erything back in to the engine bay this is with out changing you obd status keeping it at obd0 if you got to rewire it too then you talking about a total of a 8-9 hour job this is to complete the whole swap. if you have mechanical skills lol i just bought a cherry pick not too long ago and yeah it does cut your time down but on a 4th gen. it's not needed but once you want to go with a h series or k then i would say it's easyer with cherry pick impact tools and som cuting/welding
 
I've seen it done a couple times with no cherry picker and it's not hard but not fun either. Be smart/safe and use a cherry picker... 200 bucks at autozone (cherry picker) or maybe a few broken bones... I'll be a pussy and use the hoist. We swapped my b16 in my civic in a gravel driveway so you should be good to go in a garage lol.
 
i did my first swap on a honda in les than one day in my drive way
drove it with d15 in the morning and drove it with b16 at night.

but i am a mech for a living and have a Snap On tool box full of tools
 
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