Engine Removal Tips

[Loren]

Did engine prep today. Just getting the harness and extra hoses off of the salvage engine, installing the alternator, AC, crank pulley, etc. Did as much as we could to make sure the engine is ready to drop in easily next Sunday. If we had the flywheel, we could have easily put it in today and been done with it before lunch!

Couple more bits of knowledge to lay on you:

1. Knock Sensor connector is under the intake manifold and secured with a metal clip that's hard to remove. You can either remove the intake manifold, or if you have a long 12mm ratcheting wrench, you can remove the knock sensor bolt by angling the wrench toward the flywheel. That one's a little troublesome.
2. Oil Pressure Sensor connector. I broke two of them! Never did figure out how the release mechanism works on the damned thing! It's hard to reach, even with the intake manifold off. And it doesn't have the simple lever release mechanism of most of the connectors on the car.
3. The aluminum heater core pipes coming out of the firewall are absurdly easy to bend! I crushed one while pulling the hose... and after that, I looked at the first one I'd removed, and realized that I'd slightly bent that one, too! Easy enough to straighten using a long 3/8" extension. But, be careful with them.

The engine itself looks exactly the same. The only things they took off of it were the coil packs and the throttle body.

[stevedmc]

1. Knock Sensor connector is under the intake manifold and secured with a metal clip that's hard to remove. You can either remove the intake manifold, or if you have a long 12mm ratcheting wrench, you can remove the knock sensor bolt by angling the wrench toward the flywheel. That one's a little troublesome.
2. Oil Pressure Sensor connector. I broke two of them! Never did figure out how the release mechanism works on the damned thing! It's hard to reach, even with the intake manifold off. And it doesn't have the simple lever release mechanism of most of the connectors on the car.

Thank you for sharing the details of your engine pull. Honestly, I was expecting to be the first person to have to do an engine replacement so I'm a bit relieved to not be the first person to figure everything out.

For those difficult wire harnesses, were they just single wires going to two sensors? If so, it might be easier just to cut the wires and install quick connects when doing re-installation. I honestly have no clue what the harnesses look like. Its just a thought.

[Loren]

The OP sensor is a single wire, the knock sensor is two. The knock sensor really isn't that bad. When I pulled it the second time, I realized that the metal clip doesn't wrap around the back side (some that I've seen in the past do). so, you can actually pull that clip from the front side (of the connector... if it happens to be facing a direction that you can see) using a screwdriver or small pick. It's that OP sensor connector that flummoxed me! Yeah, putting a secondary connector on that would be totally doable.

Neither of us are the first to do an engine replacement. There's a thread here where somebody bought a wrecked car with a non-running engine and had to swap it. And at least one other person replaced an engine for some reason.

But, it ain't rocket surgery. Very easy car to work on.

[Fummins]

I forgot about that. https://mirageforum.com/forum/showth...weekend-Pics-(