As the title states, this is a tutorial on how to remove and replace an engine. Mine is a turbo auto with power steering and air conditioning, so apologies to those with non-turbos and manuals. Most of the steps will be the same anyway, I'm sure you can work out the rest without the pictures. If you have a V8, well tough luck!
The steps listed here are the ones that I have followed when taking my engine out (twice). I understand that there may be shortcuts that I have not noted here, and alternative ways of doing things but this method I have written here will work well for anyone who needs to use it. Please do not confuse the thread by filling it with alternative methods, and please do not post incorrect information.
I will try and note where possible, steps that may be skipped in the interests of saving time, however I do not recommend shortcuts when undertaking such a large project for the first time. Once you have done it before, you get the idea of what goes where and the second (and third, fourth...) time you can do most of it from memory.
Note: If you are not sure about what you are doing when following these steps, please either ask, or get a mechanic to do it for you. I take no responsibility for any problems that may arise from following my instructions.
Some original photos have not been recovered yet.
1. De-pressurise the fuel system. Run the engine, and then pull fuse #3 from the fuse rail. The engine should run for a few seconds and then stall. Crank the starter a few times to ensure all pressure is lost from the fuel lines. Turn off the ignition and put the fuse back.
2. Disconnect the battery earth (negative) lead and secure it out of the way so that it won�t accidentally touch the battery terminal. The negative lead usually is coloured black, and the positive lead is usually red.
3. Drain the radiator by removing the lower radiator hose and draining it into a bucket/tray. Also remove the top hose from the radiator and remove the overflow hose from the side of the radiator filler neck. After all the coolant has drained, remove the radiator hoses from the engine.
Be careful not to spill coolant on the paint of your car, and if you do wash it off immediately with water.
4. Unscrew the fan shroud from the radiator (2 philips head screws at the top) and pull it upwards slightly to unclip it from the bottom. Remove the 4x10mm nuts holding the fan on the water pump pulley, being careful not to drop the nuts or the washers. Remove the fan and the radiator shroud together.
5. (For auto) Disconnect the transmission cooler lines from the radiator. They are the two small hoses on the same side of the radiator as the coolant hoses. These will probably drip a little, so have a drain pan ready and plug the ends with a couple of bolts if you have some. Also disconnect the transmission cooler lines from the oil pan bracket.
6. Now remove the radiator clips by squeezing them with a pair of pliers and pulling upwards. Remove the christmas tree clips holding the top radiator strip, and remove the strip. Then remove the radiator by pulling it upwards.
7. Unclip the top of the airbox, remove the air filter, unplug the air flow meter, loosen the clamps on the air inlet duct, remove the carbon canister hose from the inlet duct and then remove the air inlet duct. Stuff a clean rag into the turbo inlet pipe or cover the hole somehow, so that nothing drops in the turbo
8. Loosen the throttle cable nuts and unclip the cable from the throttle butterfly. It is hard to explain how the cable disconnects, but it is easy enough to figure out when you look at it. Tie the cable somewhere out of the way (behind the fuse box is good). If you have cruise control (which I don't) then you would remove that cable now too.
9. Remove the drive belts. Each accessory (power steer, air con, alternator) has an adjusting bolt/s that needs to be loosened. Alternator is a 13mm, air con is a 19mm locknut and a 12mm adjusting bolt, power steer is 13mm (or possibly 1/2 inch) bolt.
11. Remove the oxygen sensor plug from its holder, and unplug. Remove the exhaust manifold heat shield (4x10mm bolts). Unscrew the oxygen sensor from the dump pipe (17mm spanner). Removal of the oxygen sensor is highly recommended, as they can be damaged easily and are expensive to replace.
Note: It is not necessary to remove the turbocharger assembly before removing the engine. I removed the turbo from my engine before lifting it out so that I did not damage either the turbo or the paintwork in the engine bay. If you choose to leave the turbo and manifold on the engine, be very careful when lifting the engine, and also you can ignore the following steps relating to turbo removal.
12. Undo the 4x10mm bolts for the exhaust manifold heat shield and remove, also undo the 4x10mm bolts for the heat shield attached to the turbo near the chassis rail and remove the shield. Remove also the 2x10mm bolts for the heat shield attached to the firewall and strut tower, and remove that shield too.
13. Loosen and remove the coolant feed (19mm) and oil feed (17mm) eye bolts for the turbo from the block. Also remove the bolt holding the coolant feed line bracket to the bloack. Have a drain pan ready because coolant will come out when the eye bolt is removed from the block. Disconnect the rubber elbow for the oil return. Disconnect the coolant return hose at the rear of the engine. New copper washers will be needed for the eye bolts, so keep the old ones for reference.
14. Remove the turbo dump pipe to exhaust front pipe nuts (3x17mm), remove front pipe to catalytic converter bolts (2x17mm) and disconnect and remove the exhaust front pipe.
15. Remove the exhaust manifold to head studs (12x14mm) and remove the turbo and manifold as a complete assembly. The studs must be loosened in order from the outside in (see picture). The turbo and manifold assembly is heavy, so be ready for it!
Some exhaust studs will come out with the nut attached, others the stud will stay in the head. It doesn’t matter which way they come out, as long as they don’t snap. When removing the turbo/manifold, be careful not to catch the coolant and oil lines on anything. Carefully put it down, remembering that the weight of the turbo can easily bend/damage the oil and water lines.
17. Disconnect all the engine wiring. The easiest way to do this is to start from the distributor which is the end of the wiring loom, and work backwards along the loom disconnecting everything as you go. Make sure the injectors are labeled correctly! The injectors all have the same shape plug, so if you don’t know which one goes where it makes it a lot harder than it should be to put it back together.
Note that there are three earth connections bolted to the drivers side engine mount. Separate the engine and battery harnesses when you get to the alternator. The wiring loom may be a little difficult to get past the auto trans dipstick, but it needs to be out of the way to make the rest of the job easier.
