First Engine Pull!

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Magik

Senior Member
That's right after tomorrow I will no longer be an engine 'virgin'...I am pulling the D15B1 out of my old (smashed) STD. I'm actually quite excited about it...
I know, I know...big deal...but hey...any words of wisdom from anyone?

If not...wish me luck!

Jason
 
Take pictures, label all connections and vaccum lines. Put bolts in bags and label them, Use jackstands
 
true, do a CLEAN swap, don't make a huge mess with all wirings n' bolts n' what not. Good Luck man :)
 
damn right, use jack stands.... Don't forget to undo the shift linkage. There will be your linkage and a torque rod, only one comes undone from the tranny w/ out being a bitch. Jack your car up real high and pull the other one out while you are lifting the motor out..... Have a good air compressor and impact wrench to break the hub bolts loose..... Keep all of your bolts in a box, and don't disregard washers and what not...... Unbolt your exhaust after you jack your car up. You will need a good 12mm socket and a good impact wrench to separate the bottom half of the header from the catylic converter..... Other than that, good luck!!!!!
 
the hardest nuts to break loose will be the axle nuts. I'd break them loose before lifting the car real high. Then disconnect as many things as possible from the top before lifting and going underneath. I like to use a couple different color paint pens to mark everything. On harness plugs, I just make corresponding dots lines or both on each side. Most of your vacuum hoses will have numbers, so I write the hose number on the intake where it goes(just easier to know where each hose went), although it probably doesn't matter. My accord has a crossmember like skid bar that you don't have to remove. However, I always do, because getting the new engine in will take half the time without that bastard in your way.(for whatever car you put the engine in)

Don't overthink things. I can spend twenty minutes thinking about how to do something that takes five. Keep tacking away and the time will fly.

Now would be a good time to drink coffee. :beer:

edit: definitely use jackstands, or some other safety method if you don't have them.
 
Here some advice....

If you did not know, pull the engine with the tranny. It will not come out if you just try to pull the engine without the tranny. we tried this method this weekend to pull a blown engine out of a old civic that we were just throughing in the same engine. Did not work.

Axle nuts. They can be a bitch. The reason why we tryed the above method was because we broke 3 1/2 ratchets/braker bars trying to get them off with no luck. Buy a GOOD lifetime Warrenty braker bar. take off the wheels, undo the notch in the axle nut, then put the wheels back on, with the center cap removed. Now put your 32mm socket on the nut, put the braker bar so you can stand on it (pushing down to loosen) then put a real long pipe over it. The longer the better. Once you get them loose, then take off the wheels.

For seperating the ball joints, buy or rent from autozone, ball joint/tirerod pushers. These things basicly push the ball joint out without risking mushrooming the ball joint or ripping the boot (if you use a pickel fork, it can rip the boot very easily) How it works is it snaps on the bottom of the ball joint with a screw that you turn and it slowly pushes the ball joint out.

For the Axles, go to autozone and rent a hub puller/axle pusher.
This thing >
s3fd3d14a7ef56.jpg

In the helms it says to just use a plastic hammer and lightly tap it out. lol, yea right. Will not work I pounded the hell out of it for over 2 hours and completely destroyed a brand new dead blow hammer. Remove the ball joints, tire rods, damper fork, then remove the axle from the tranny, then use the above tool. To remove from the tranny, use a good pry bar. A screw driver just does not work that well.

If you are not going to use AC in the future, take out the AC condensor, and to clear up more room, take the radaitor out. It is really easy to do. Also, remove the intake for room

-Shift linkages
They are connected at 4 points. Remove from every point that you can. However, you dont need to remove the bitch pin to get the engine out. When you pull the engine, you can swing it far enough that you dont have to remove that part of the shift linkage. Here is a pic of that to prove to you.
s3fd3d1c45a563.jpg

Kinda hard to see, but my engine is above the bumper at that point with the shift linkage still attached.

-Wire connectors
You can not remove the connectors until you take them off their holder. Once I found this out, it made removing them alot easier. Remember label everything good.

Again, label all the hoses and wires good. I followed everything to were they were attached to and label them like "to brake booster" and stuff like that.

Final and best advise. Have a helms right by your side the entire way.

And even better final and best-er advise, lol, have fun, take pictures, and you will learn a ton.


finally, once it is out, clean the sucker out. Some of those spots you will never be able to see again, and it so easy, theres no reason not to. Just have a good wheel cleaner brush, a bottle of simple green, and a hose connected to a hot water foset.
 
Take your time, dont' rush shit.

wear some type of gloves, gets some GoJo/Lava - cleaner for hands

get someon to help you

bag all nuts and bolts and label them together

replace your timing belt, gaskets, belts while the motor is out of the car.

and take your time.


good luck.
 
Werd, I've pulled a couple engines, none of them seemed to hard, just try to get a friend to help you and a manual. I did the civic swap by myself, and a hyundai with a friend. I can say one thing, when I did it in the civic, it only took me 6 hours to pull the engine/tranny, replace the clutch and put it back in..in running condition. Now when I had a friend and toolbitch help with the hyundai it took 10 hours, but we had 2 female distractions and a baby to take care of.
 
yea I remember my first time. Except this time you dont want to rush. Curious what motor your droping in?
 
Originally posted by asmallsol@Jan 3 2004, 07:15 PM
Here some advice....

If you did not know, pull the engine with the tranny. It will not come out if you just try to pull the engine without the tranny. we tried this method this weekend to pull a blown engine out of a old civic that we were just throughing in the same engine. Did not work.

Axle nuts. They can be a bitch. The reason why we tryed the above method was because we broke 3 1/2 ratchets/braker bars trying to get them off with no luck. Buy a GOOD lifetime Warrenty braker bar. take off the wheels, undo the notch in the axle nut, then put the wheels back on, with the center cap removed. Now put your 32mm socket on the nut, put the braker bar so you can stand on it (pushing down to loosen) then put a real long pipe over it. The longer the better. Once you get them loose, then take off the wheels.

For seperating the ball joints, buy or rent from autozone, ball joint/tirerod pushers. These things basicly push the ball joint out without risking mushrooming the ball joint or ripping the boot (if you use a pickel fork, it can rip the boot very easily) How it works is it snaps on the bottom of the ball joint with a screw that you turn and it slowly pushes the ball joint out.

For the Axles, go to autozone and rent a hub puller/axle pusher.
This thing >
s3fd3d14a7ef56.jpg

In the helms it says to just use a plastic hammer and lightly tap it out. lol, yea right. Will not work I pounded the hell out of it for over 2 hours and completely destroyed a brand new dead blow hammer. Remove the ball joints, tire rods, damper fork, then remove the axle from the tranny, then use the above tool. To remove from the tranny, use a good pry bar. A screw driver just does not work that well.

If you are not going to use AC in the future, take out the AC condensor, and to clear up more room, take the radaitor out. It is really easy to do. Also, remove the intake for room

-Shift linkages
They are connected at 4 points. Remove from every point that you can. However, you dont need to remove the bitch pin to get the engine out. When you pull the engine, you can swing it far enough that you dont have to remove that part of the shift linkage. Here is a pic of that to prove to you.
s3fd3d1c45a563.jpg

Kinda hard to see, but my engine is above the bumper at that point with the shift linkage still attached.

-Wire connectors
You can not remove the connectors until you take them off their holder. Once I found this out, it made removing them alot easier. Remember label everything good.

Again, label all the hoses and wires good. I followed everything to were they were attached to and label them like "to brake booster" and stuff like that.

Final and best advise. Have a helms right by your side the entire way.

And even better final and best-er advise, lol, have fun, take pictures, and you will learn a ton.


finally, once it is out, clean the sucker out. Some of those spots you will never be able to see again, and it so easy, theres no reason not to. Just have a good wheel cleaner brush, a bottle of simple green, and a hose connected to a hot water foset.

Thanks for all of the suggestions! It's done and it took us all of 3 hours. Now I just have to get it in my Si and running...

We did pull the engine with the tranny.

The 'spindle' nuts were not that hard...and actually they were already removed because I had taken out the hub assembly's already to put on my Si and had removed the axles at the same time...axles were very simple to remove. So when I started the pull there were no hub assembly's or axles present. Why did u suggest renting something called an "axel puller"? They popped right out for me?As a side note in regards to the spindle nuts...we used a Craftsman socket and ratchet with a 3 foot piece of steel pipe slid over the ratchet handle...worked fine.

I'm confused about you suggesting seperating the Ball Joints? What does this have to do with pulling the engine? :unsure:

No AC in this car so don't have to remove...radiator was damaged in accident so it was removed anyway...and the intake was taken off weeks ago.

As far as the shift linkage it was exactly like you said...one rod disconnected farely easy from the transmission but stayed connected to the car...the other one disconnected from the car but stayed connected to the transmission...that was removed after the pull and it was a simple tap with a punch on a 'pin'.

It was fun...did take a few pictures (the proverbial standing in the empty engine bay shot)...and might clean it up a bit if there is time before putting it back it my Si.

:)

Jason
 
Here is a little bit of advise although everything is pretty much mentioned. Be careful puting in your new motor I know iam pretty careless and I broke my tps sensor the motor swung back in the fire wall part and up and broke the tip off. Just really take your time when droping that new motor in.
 
Originally posted by Captinb16@Jan 5 2004, 11:43 AM
yea I remember my first time. Except this time you dont want to rush. Curious what motor your droping in?

Cap...I'm takin' the D15B1 that I just pulled and dropping it in my Si that has a dying B2 in it and connecting it to the Si's MPFI. The one I just pulled came out of my smashed STD.

Jason
 
Originally posted by spoolinrican@Jan 5 2004, 06:50 PM
keep it clean good luck

Thanks...hopefully the B1 will be dropped in tonight or tomorrow...then no more burning oil problem from the B2 (Head Gasket+)...I'll keep you posted. :)

Jason
 
dont forget mandatory pics of

thumbs up, middlefingers, and madd tizzight JDM poses
 
I agree with Jason, I never need an axle puller to get my axles out, just a sight tap with ahammer and they come right out. I guess that's because My car is never driven in snow and I have no rust anywhere, oh and you have to seperate the ball joints to get the axles out, now don't you? Oh and yes you can remove just the engine from a Civic, without removing the tranny if it's an automatic. I've done it a hundred times. In case you were wondering, I am a tech at Nassief Pontiac/Honda, in good old Ashtabula, Ohio. I did try to take out just the engine on a maual trans car to save me labor(and make me more money) But it's really not worth the headache, becase you have to undo all the mounts to get the trans to go way up, and by that time you could have just pulled out the whole damn assmebly. Ohand by the way, by far the easiest way to pull a Engine/trans is from underneath. Just unbolt the whole thing, hook up an engine hoist, set it on the ground and lift the car body up off the engine(provided you have a lift, this is how I do the majority of my engine jobs.)
 
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