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Thread: Engine swapping 2017 engine into 2015 mirage

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    Engine swapping 2017 engine into 2015 mirage

    Hi all!

    I just finished replacing my 2015 engine. It had a cracked block and a broken engine mount, and so I figured rather than replacing it with another 2015 engine I'd upgrade to the 2017. I purchased a used engine with ~67k miles on it from LKQ, and it cost about $700 after taxes and fees. I got $100 of that back for returning the old engine, so my total cost was about $600. So far, it's running fine other than a slight transmission fluid leak at the seam between the engine and transmission, but I think I just need to go back and tighten some bolts to fix that up. I don't have a lift, so I pulled the engine out of the top. Here's my write-up:

    Tools required:
    Standard socket set with at least 10, 12, 14, and 17mm sockets
    30(?)mm socket for the axle nuts.
    Breaker bar that fits each of the above; I needed a 1/2" and 3/8" bar.
    Engine hoist; search for harbor freight coupons, I saved $50 on mine
    Jack stands; again, search for coupons, I saved $5 here
    3qt 0w-20 oil
    5qt cvt fluid (supposedly this car takes 7.XX but I only needed to add 5 after the swap. If you want to be extra sure you won't need to drive anywhere, get 8 quarts)
    1 gallon blue asian coolant, I use PEAK.
    Chisel
    Screwdriver set
    Needle nose and flat nose pliers
    Penetrating fluid such as PB Blaster or Liquid Wrench
    Pry bar/crowbar

    To start, I took out the battery and removed the plastic and metal mounts below it. The metal part has 3 bolts, and I believe they're all either 12 or 14mm. After that, I removed the serpentine belt. Just loosen the bolts around the alternator to release the tension, and there's enough room to slip it off to the passenger side.

    After that, remove the bumper and hood. For the hood, I didn't want to disconnect the wiper fluid hose, so I stood the hood up vertically on the passenger side of the car with the top side facing the vehicle, and supported it with a few wood blocks so there wasn't tension on the hose. For the bumper, just get a chisel and carefully work it around the connectors. I sometimes heard a click when they were free, but often times I just worked at it until I wasn't able to loosen it any more, and then I was able to remove them.

    At this point, I also removed the radiator support. It's the metal bar going above the radiator, condenser, and radiator fan. It's just 4 bolts (2 on each side), and then you lift directly up. I put the bolts back where they came from to keep track of them.

    Because we're removing the transmission, you'll have to break the lug and axle nuts free so you can remove them later. The lug nuts weren't a problem, but the axle nuts were tough to get loose. I didn't have a tool that could fit under the divot in the axle nut locking it in place, so I just put the socket on, hooked up a breaker bar, and jumped up and down on the breaker bar until it came loose. If you try this, turn the steering wheel slightly to the left and get the wheels at maybe 15 degrees off of straight forward. I don't know exactly why, but the socket slips off way less often if you do this. For both sides, you can brace yourself against the car for stability.

    Once you've broken the wheel nuts loose (to where a ratcheting socket can turn them), drain the transmission fluid, oil, and coolant and prop the front of the car up on jack stands. I did the lowest setting; I just needed to get under for the mount and exhaust and that was enough with my set. Make sure to have the parking brake on, and chock the back wheels. Before you do anything else, give your car a few good shoves from different directions to make sure it's stable. It never hurts to be too safe when getting under a car, even one as light as this.

    Next, remove the air intake system on top and in front of the engine itself. There's the resonator (on top), the filter housing (on top to the right), the tube connecting the filter to the choke/air meter, the choke/air meter itself, and then the throttle body (in front, swirly bit, splits it into 3 streams for the 3 cylinders). There's a wiring connector on the filter housing and choke/air meter, so disconnect and label those as you go.

    Next is the rest of the wiring. As you go, label each connector with a letter, color, or something else you can make unique so you know where they're supposed to connect to. Take pictures literally every time you disconnect a connector, and make sure you can see the colors of the wires feeding into the connector. This will make your life so, so much easier on reassembly.

    Additionally, the wiring holders can be a bit of a pain to disconnect. For the ones you can reach, pinch the sides of the back (opposite the wiring) with pliers and pull the wiring away with your other hand to remove them. For the circular connectors, you'll stick a screwdriver into the slot near the bottom and pry away from the wiring. The circle should break and you should be able to remove the wiring tubing from it.

    Past that, most of the connectors are simple "push center tab down, pull out" connectors, but there are a few unique ones. Here's the unique connectors I remember off the top of my head going from driver's side to passenger's side:

    Circular transmission connector - You'll push the gray tab in from the side of the connector, and rotate the gray piece counterclockwise ~180 degrees. As far as you can, basically. After that, it should lift out easily. If you can't lift it out, rotate the gray piece more.

    Yellow tab connector to the right of the engine - This goes to a sensor on the exhaust. You'll want to pull the yellow part parallel to the connector (and possibly remove it completely), and then the connector will slide apart as if it was a push tab connector. Put the yellow bit back in so you don't lose track of it for reassembly.

    Single wire connector under throttle body - Stick a screwdriver under the tab on the side and lift up; the connector should release easily after that

    Two wire connector under throttle body - There's a metal wire on 3 sides (front, left, right) under the plastic lip nearest the sensor. Stick a screwdriver between the plastic and the metal perpendicular to the connector, and it should release the metal wire. Then, slide the screwdriver under the wire and lift away from the connector to remove it. It'll be in a square U shape, with the piece you're pulling on being the bottom of the 'U'. If that isn't clear and your salvage engine has the connector, try it on that first and you'll see what I mean. Once the wire is removed, disconnect the plug and place the wire U back in the empty connector to keep track of it for reinstallation.


    I think those are all the unique connectors, but let me know if I missed any. For the rest of the connectors, a pair of needle nose pliers should help with pressing the center tab down so you can disconnect it with your other hand. Disconnecting the wiring took far longer than any other step for me, and I'm hoping to help people get through that quicker than I did.

    At this point, disconnect the fuel rail (two bolts, then simply pull the fuel rail and injectors straight out) and remove the spark plug coils (1 plug and 1 screw each, on top of the engine. The spark plugs are down the holes).

    Once all of the wiring is disconnected, you'll want to remove the shift selector cable on top of the transmission. I just undid the end of the cable attached to the quarter circle piece of metal with the curved slot, removed the two bolts on the bracket 6 inches away from there, and moved the whole cable assembly out of the way to the back of the engine bay.

    The last connectors should be the starter motor under the engine (one slides off, one has a bolt holding it in place), and a couple ground connectors, which just have bolts holding them in. Remove the bolts, remove the connector, and put the bolt back in halfway to keep track of it.

    Your engine should now be fully disconnected electrically. The next step is the coolant hoses. They use this idiotic locking mechanism that's a pain in the rear to open properly without the "proper tools". The best layman's way I found was to find a pair of flat nose pliers with horizontal grooves taking care to not cover the hole the latch is supposed to go into, then grip and lift the side with the metal extended as you pinch it together. It's a pain to do right, but you should be able to get the tab on one side into the gap on the other. As I said, it's a pain in the rear. Once you get it locked "open", shimmy it up the hose and wiggle the hose loose. It'll likely dump a bit of coolant for each hose you do, so be prepared for that. If you're not able to lock it open, just force it open and shimmy it up with the pliers anyway. It's not ideal, but you can still get it done if you ended up bending the locking mechanism like I did on one of the clamps.

    Once the hoses are disconnected, it's time to do the mounts and exhaust. You'll want to undo the 3 bolts on each of the side mounts first. If you're lifting the engine out of the bay like I did, you'll undo the bolts holding the mounts to the actual car, not the 3 bolts holding the mounts to the engine/transmission. There's 3 per side, and make sure you track which hole they came out of. I had issues getting the driver's side bolts to go back in until I rearranged the order of them. Just because they look like the same bolts doesn't mean they are.

    Next we'll do the exhaust bolts. Get under the car, and behind the engine there's a shield above the axle held to the engine block by two bolts. Remove the bolts, put the shield somewhere you'll remember, then put the bolts back for safekeeping. After that, you should be able to easily reach the two exhaust bolts. There's three tubes merging into one, and the one tube has a sort of diamond shaped connector on it with a bolt on each side. The bolts through this connector will have springs along them. Remove both bolts, and wiggle the exhaust pipe to break it loose from the manifold.

    Lastly before you remove the engine and transmission, you'll want to take the axles out. Remove the lug nuts and wheels first, and then unscrew the axle nuts until the end of the nut is flush with the end of the axle. Hit the end of the axle (with the nut in place) with a rubber mallet and make sure it moves in. This might not be totally necessary if your car doesn't have too many miles on it, but you do need to break it free from everything else. After that, remove the two bolts on the strut assembly. This is the part of the suspension that goes up to the coiled springs. Once you've removed those two bolts, break the hub assembly loose and remove that end of the axle from the hub assembly. You can remove more parts of the suspension if you want, but I was able to finagle the axle out with only those two bolts removed per side.

    After that, get a sturdy screwdriver or pry bar and pry the axles off of the transmission. You'll want to pry between the clean metal of the transmission and the rusty part of the axle. Transmission fluid may drip out when you remove the axles, so be prepared. Additionally, this is not an easy process and will likely require a decent amount of force. As long as you've removed the axle from the wheel hub, don't be afraid to hulk out. Once they're removed, set the axles to the side on a clean surface where neither end will get dirty.

    Next, you'll want to get your hoist in place. Set it up, strap your engine in, and lift it so all the ropes/chains are taut. We'll be removing the final engine mount next, and you don't want it moving around much after you disconnect the final bolts. The last two things holding the engine in are the two bolts directly under the engine; there's a black metal bar and another bolt in a clip extending from that. Undo the clip's bolt first, and then the metal bar's. The engine will likely shift some as you do this, so be prepared and keep clear of anywhere that might get pinched.

    Once you've gotten those bolts out, you should be good to remove the engine. Slowly hoist it out, checking for missed connections, tubing, etc. as you go. You should only be lifting the engine, transmission, and side mounts as you do this. If anything else is coming up, make sure it's disconnected and free from the engine and transmission. You don't want to accidentally short some cable just because you didn't check as you were lifting your engine. I'll say it again; DOUBLE CHECK THAT NO CABLES ARE CAUGHT AS YOU'RE LIFTING YOUR ENGINE. Your hoist will happily break a wire in half without even thinking about it. I almost did this, even though I was checking frequently.

    Now, you should have your engine and transmission suspended on chains or a rope. Pull the hoist away, lower it to the ground, and get transferring things to the other engine. You'll need to move the alternator, exhaust manifold, and oil drip shields(?). Basically, take anything that your old engine has that your new engine doesn't, and move it over.

    Next, separate the transmission and engine. Undo all the bolts around the transmission bell, and pull them apart. It's important to track where they came out of; I recommend drawing a circle and laying the bolts around it as they are on the bell. It helps if you have another person there, but if not, you can adjust the engine hoist to only hold the engine and pull the transmission off of it. When you do this, it will spill a bunch of transmission fluid so again, be prepared for that.

    Once the engine and transmission are separated, you'll see there's a round bubbly looking thing (torque converter) attached to the engine still. You'll need to move this to the new engine. Ideally, you'd move the gear behind it as well, but if I'm honest I'd been working on this for 3 days and I couldn't be bothered. The torque converter is balanced to the gear behind it, so mark both with tape or something so you can keep them lined up. Remove the 4 bolts holding the torque converter to the gear (I braced a ratcheting socket against a crescent wrench I wedged into the "front" of the engine), and then remove the 6 bolts holding the gear to the engine.

    Attach the gear to the new engine, and reattach the torque converter using the same bracing method as before. Now you have to realign the torque converter and transmission as you slot them together. Look in the transmission and find where the two spots extending are. Try to line the torque converter up with those, and then bring the two together. There might be a better way, but I just used trial and error, as well as my dad and 2 uncles to help me realign them until all the bolt holes and pins lined up properly. At that point, I torqued down all the bolts around the transmission bell.

    You should be ready to put everything back together now. Lower the engine back into the bay, and DOUBLE, TRIPLE CHECK THAT YOU'RE NOT LOWERING IT ONTO WIRING OR THE EXHAUST INCORRECTLY. I lowered mine onto my exhaust and my entire exhaust line came off of one of the undercarriage mounts. Luckily it wasn't too bad for me and I just had to thread a metal pin through a rubber mount to fix it, but you could easily cause expensive damage here. Seriously, keep your hands clear, move wiring out of the way every inch you lower it, and triple check everything before you start moving again. Your goal here is to lower it onto the lower engine mount (the metal rod and clip/bracket) so you can secure it there.

    Once it's at the right height, bolt in the lower engine mount and the exhaust, then the driver's side mount and finally the passenger's side mount. You should now have your wiring harness tucked to the driver's side, the shifter cable tucked to the back of the engine bay, and the engine and transmission sitting in the bay properly mounted with the exhaust connected.

    Next, reconnect the coolant hoses by wiggling the hoses back on to the tubes and shimmying the connectors up. As before, pliers work decently for manipulating these idiotic hose clamps.

    After that, reconnect your axles. If they slot in but don't butt up against the transmission like they did before, use more force or try removing it, bending the axle ring into shape, and trying again. One of my axles went in without issue, but I had to bend the axle ring 3-4 times on the other one to get it to seat properly. Ideally you'd just get a new axle ring, but it was 3am at the time and I just wanted to get my car running so I bent it into a shape that worked.

    Next, reconnect your fuel rail and reinsert your spark plug coils. Once that's done, reconnect the wiring per your labeling from earlier. Make sure to double check every single connector; I missed one near the bottom of the engine and my car wouldn't start until I connected it. After that, reconnect the battery mount and holder and reinstall the battery.

    Once you've reconnected the wiring and battery and confirmed there's no fires waiting to happen, refill your coolant, oil, and transmission fluid. You're ready for the first start.

    Start your car, and then turn it off after 20 seconds or so. Check all your fluid levels again, and refill as necessary. Do this two more times, but running for 40 and then 60 seconds. You're basically just giving your car more and more time to circulate things around and get rid of air pockets. You just installed a new engine, you don't want to immediately destroy it with something dumb like a low fluid level. After each test, check under your car for any unexpected fluids. There shouldn't be anything on the ground that wasn't there before. If you want to be extra sure, clean the floor and lay down a piece of cardboard before you test anything. If something is leaking, it'll be super obvious. If there's no leaks, it's time for the first drive.

    Go around your block at low RPMs, no more than a half mile or so. Now is not the time to stress test. Check your fluid levels again, and by this point they should still be exactly or close to exactly where they were before. For one last test drive, go a few miles, and check again. If your fluid levels are still good at this point, you can declare a tentative success! Keep checking your levels once daily for the next week, and once weekly for the next month to be sure there's nothing wrong. Additionally, check under your car in the mornings before you drive and make sure there's no fluids on the ground.

    If I missed anything in this please let me know, and if you have any advice to add please do so!


    Last edited by RavenMirage2015; 07-04-2020 at 04:23 AM.

  2. The Following 7 Users Say Thank You to RavenMirage2015 For This Useful Post:

    Adam - UK (07-12-2020),Cobrajet (07-04-2020),foama (07-04-2020),inuvik (07-12-2020),Loren (07-04-2020),MCMfan92 (07-09-2020),Top_Fuel (07-04-2020)

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    Nice write up! Got any pics to add?
    1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX
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    None that would really be beneficial. I'm going to be doing some more work in the engine bay soon, so I'll see if I can get some good pictures then. No promises, though.

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    Senior Member Dirk Diggler's Avatar
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    Are concerned about the cvt leak?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dirk Diggler View Post
    Are concerned about the cvt leak?
    That's actually the main thing I'm going to fix. I'm 99% sure it's a loose bolt in the bell, so I'm going to go around and retorque all of those. The leak is definitely coming from the seam between the transmission and engine. My guess is that as it heated up things shifted a bit, so now a bolt isn't as tight as it needs to be. I'm actually going to go through and retorque everything I touched, just to be sure I don't run into any other issues like this down the road.

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    Still Plays With Cars Loren's Avatar
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    Uh... if you've got oil coming from between the engine and bell housing, you've got a LEAK somewhere. Tightening the bell housing bolts won't fix it.

    Try to figure out if it's engine oil or transmission fluid. That will determine appropriate course of action. But, if it's leaking enough that you're noticing it... sadly, you'll probably need to pull the engine (or the transmission if that's easier) to fix it.

    Oil in the bell housing is most likely coming from either the engine rear main seal or the transmission input shaft seal. If tightening the bell housing bolts reduced the VISIBLE leak, it would only be because the oil is now puddling up inside the bell housing... but, it's still leaking.
    Simplify and add lightness.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Loren View Post
    Uh... if you've got oil coming from between the engine and bell housing, you've got a LEAK somewhere. Tightening the bell housing bolts won't fix it.

    Try to figure out if it's engine oil or transmission fluid. That will determine appropriate course of action. But, if it's leaking enough that you're noticing it... sadly, you'll probably need to pull the engine (or the transmission if that's easier) to fix it.

    Oil in the bell housing is most likely coming from either the engine rear main seal or the transmission input shaft seal. If tightening the bell housing bolts reduced the VISIBLE leak, it would only be because the oil is now puddling up inside the bell housing... but, it's still leaking.
    It's definitely transmission fluid, it's got the same acrid smell. I know the transmission is starting to go bad, so I'll have to just hope it lasts long enough that I'll be able to keep working and save up for a used one. It's only losing a few drops a day, so I'm easily able to keep it topped up. Fingers crossed, I guess.

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    Still Plays With Cars Loren's Avatar
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    As long as you can keep up with the leak, you should be able to keep rocking it for a while.

    At least you don't have to worry about oil-soaking your clutch disk. Not much bad can come from a minor transmission leak.
    Simplify and add lightness.

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    Senior Member Dirk Diggler's Avatar
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    How can you tell your cvt is going bad? Sounds like unfortunately you have a lemon. Why did the original engine break? They're supposed to be bullet proof especially at only 5 years of age.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dirk Diggler View Post
    How can you tell your cvt is going bad? Sounds like unfortunately you have a lemon. Why did the original engine break? They're supposed to be bullet proof especially at only 5 years of age.
    The CVT is slipping, according to the shop I trust and the weird pulsing RPMs I sometimes get when accelerating. And yeah, she's been nothing but trouble all of 2020 but honestly I'm loving getting my hands dirty and it's great to finally learn how to fix cars; I've been wanting to since I was little. Plus, a lot of the issues are at least partially my fault.

    I've put 50k miles on her in the year I've owned her doing delivery work and cross country travel (she's up to 109k now including previous owners), and I'll admit I didn't realize you needed to change the CVT fluid until I'd put about 35-40k miles on her. Plus, who knows how many miles she'd been without a fluid change from the previous owners. I also don't exactly drive her gently, except when I'm trying to hypermile. My old automatic Honda ran perfectly for 5 years or so without a transmission fluid change, and I just assumed that wasn't something you needed to do regular maintenance on.

    I found out the CVT fluid needed regular changing (through this forum) when my dash shift indicator started blinking, and when I looked it up I found out it meant the transmission was overheating because I hadn't been keeping up on the fluid changes. I've been changing it religiously since then but some damage was definitely done.

    The old engine probably cracked from overheating or slamming around because of the busted engine mount. I'm betting on overheating. My radiator fan is broken, and I'm planning on replacing that ASAP but I just straight up don't have the money for it right now. I know I'm risking damaging the new one if I don't get that fixed soon, but I don't really have a choice because I drive for work and I'm broke. I'll get a new one later this week or early next, depending on how work goes.



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