keithv

i know there had been some questions on how people pull motors out the bottom of the car. well here are some pics of how i did it tonight. please note that the car has been stripped down more than one would need to in order to pull the motor out of the car.

so the first thing you need to do is build one of these:




that is what i called the "ghetto engine holder". it cost me $32 to make and i had left over lumber.

the next step is to get the back of the car low enough so you can get the front raised up high. i used come cinder block and some small pieces of wood on the rear jack points.




now you will get the front jacked up on some jack stands. i used 2 ton jack stands. once the front is up on jack stands, you can get the engine holder in place.


once the holder is in position, jack the car up a bit to take the jack stands out. once the jack stands are out, lower the car down slowly. once the car gets low enough, the motor will be sitting in the engine holder.



now that the motor is on the holder, you can remove the mounts. you will have to completely remove the driver's side mount. the passenger side and rear mount just need to be unscrewed. if you notice, the front crossmember is not on the car. i had to remove that in order for my engine holder to get in the right spot. therefore that mount doesn't need to be touched at this point.

ok so after all the mounts are unscrewed/removed, start jacking up the car again. i used a 2x4 across the front tow hooks to jack the car up. i got the car high enough for it to be 2 clicks above the lowest setting on the 2 ton jack stands.



after getting the car up on the 2 ton jackstands, i moved my jack to the passenger side frame rail. i started jack there to get the car high enough to slip out the motor.


i am almost high enough in this pic...just a little higher to go.


to get the car high enough, the car will be a bit unnsteady. i worked quick to get the motor out so i didn't have time to take pics. be very careful getting the car up this high. do not stay under the car very long (i am under there for less than 30 seconds). having 2 people do this helps.


to summarize
as you can see, the front cross member and both radius rods will need to be removed along with the axles (i wouldn't want the axles hanging by the inner CV joints for very long, if at all). other parts have been removed (front LCAs and knuckles) but do not need to be removed. these parts were removed for another project.

i like pulling the motor this way as nothing gets broken. the motor slips out very easy from under the car. you have control over where the car moves, so no sensors get broken. one just needs to be safe while doing this.

i hope this helps some people out who had questions about this whole procedure.
keith

zCivic

Awsome post!!!! . Are those blocks the motor itself sits on do they go around the oil pan and the block sits on it or is it resting on the oil pan just be crated?? So you did this all with a 3 ton jack, jackstands and cender blocks. Looked like it worked alot better then a cherry picker. I've also heard of people using cherry pickers to lift the front of the car and set it on the motor. just another option to think about also

the DR.

iTrader: (1)

My friend who is a tech at a honda dealer does them all this way, it's much easier this way.
Excellent write up.

altoid

when i pulled mine out of the bottom, i just jacked up the car up on the side jack supports to clear the front of the disconnected everything lowered onto a piece of card board (this was with 2 guys carefully lowering it to the ground) car and slid it out. Very easy and worked well

USDM 4G VTEC

how do u actually loose the axles so they come out??
u said it doesnt need to me removed... but i wonder if they move a lil when u loose the front radius and crossmember so the axles come off also do the engine sits on the crate thingy when u lower it onto the blocks??

1st-hybrid

Hmm so this is what you were doing . Well I 've seen it in person, and it works really well. Saves time and headaches, but if your going to do it do it safely.

CRXSi90

does this work just as easily on 1st gen rex/ 3rd gen civ with their torsion bars and all?

Harddrnker

I think im going to try that. How do you know the size of the stand to build??

Vinceg99

OK even though this way of pulling the motor eliminates the need of a cherry picker what if instead of just jacking up the one said and making the car unstable what if you used a cherry picker (since the crossmember is out) and put it around the front and used that to jack up the front of the car?? It would be more stable and I know when I was taking apart my front end (after the motor was out) I used the cherry picker to pick up the front of my car so I could get it up higher plus I have a small jack that doesnt raise the car up much. But then again my cross member was still in and I used where the front mount bolts to as a place to put the chain from the cherry picker. Do youhave to take off the front cross member to pull it from the bottom?? Oh and nice write up by the way!!

Vinceg99

Yeah some measurements would be nice....

philly-O

damn breaka, you went high tech with the cart . i havent used the cart but this is the easiest way to pull a motor and reinstall it. a buddy of mine and i pulled the motor/trans out of my car in under 1 hour this way (no cart). but i think i need to make one cause it looks much easier to reinstall the motor instead of using a picker to line up the mounts. homade tools ROCK!

keithv

thanks for all the comments guys. i did this all by myself which was pretty nice. i always needed help with the cherry picker method...

and this reply is way too long.


the 2x6 that sit up high go around the oil pan and use the edge of the oil pan to hold the motor.


i used 2 ton jackstands, but yeah 3 tons would work.


i have heard of that too. the room i had err, didn't have wouldn't allow a cheery picker in there. so this is nice if you are cramped for room, which i am even though my garage is by no means small. i just got too much crap in there.

are you saying 2 guys each jacked up a side of the car???


oops, i forgot to write in there that you need to remove the axles. well you might not need to, but i did. i wouldn't like the axles just hanging by the inner CV joint.


yeah the oil pan edge sits on the 2x6's that sit vertical. and the tranny lays on the flat portion of the holder. i will try to take some pics of the motor in the holder.



i'm not sure as i haven't tried this on a 1st gen rex/3rd gen civic. its been a while since i worked on a 1st gen crx, so i am not sure if it would work. you are free to try it on your own.

well that will cost you guys. LOL. but seriously, i can take some measurements once i get the motor out of the holder. it might be a few days before that happens.

here is how i built it (the measurement numbers are all from memory)
1. i measured the width of the motor which is ~36".
2. i measured the width of the oil pan which is ~8".
3. i measure how "long" the oil pan edge is which is ???. i forgot.
4. then i just cut everything to length and screwed it all together. 2" long screws should work ok for you. i used shorter ones, but i countersunk them into the wood.

the one thing i need to do is support the vertical 2x6 better. they are def. the week point in the "system".

keithv

q&a from this post:
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=411174


well i don't know for a fact that they don't need to be removed, since i have done it this way 2 times now and both cars had the knuckles missing. i think if you jack the car up a little bit higher, you can slip the motor out without any problems. the more i think about it, the more i realize that i pull the motor out under the front frame rail, so the knuckles wouldn't be in the way (i am pulling the motor out more towards the front).


you just need a breaker bar, a 17mm socket and that is it. the crossmember comes out without taking the bumper off.

actually i had a jack holding the car up. the car is so low that jackstands would keep the car too high. i used a 2x4 across the front tow hooks and a jack to keep the car up. i think a 4x4 would work better since the 2x4 flexed some, but you would need a very low profile jack...

RevinRex

Good job breaka_1_9!
I'll be building mine in a month or so cause we'll be doing 2 swaps when the motors are done!

.cingham

thats funny i just use a skate board

turbohf

im thinkin im just going to drop it on the creeper

altoid

hehe, nah im saying where the front jack supports are we jacked the car up with hydro jacks. But before alllll of that we unbolted the engine and 2 guys (me and a friend) lowered it the ground while it was in the engine bay.

xtrafastcivic

use a skateboard! as an engine holder :D

escocrx

made it look hard. my 5'7" asian *** with my white boy friend did my b16a1 swap with NONE of those. we dropped the tranny wit a jack. cheapy kmart special. then put the engine stand forks on it. giving it a somewhat handle. and lifted it from the top over and laid it on the cross member. then after a 2 s break. we moved it to the stand. reverse process to put it in. easy stuff. note we took the tranny off first though. with no removal of anything but the radius arm bars, tranny, all axles, etc which need to be pulled anyway. radiator also was pulled. honda motors are very light considering. motor+tranny is a pain. but one at a time normal joes can do.

very nice pics. made a cool engine dolly. whcih i wanted but said f it.
nice work. congrats

AbaZ

piece of cake guys.. its the only way, especially on newer 5g+ civics/tegs

keithv

yeah i could have done that, but i wanted something that would hold the motor upright as i wheeled it around.

and just so you guys know, i pulled the motor ALONE using this technique, which is nice when no one is around to help...

USDM 4G VTEC

of course that way its easier when u have a car lifter~

White 99

hey, somebody on superhonda was looking to ghetto pull, so i forwarded the thread url on to him for ya..

up for a genius

keithv

here are the "blueprints" as some of you requested.

Rob!

you dont really need a engine holder...for one swap i used a piece of card board to slide the motor out and for another swap i used one of those carts that you lay on to slide you under the car...both were just as easy...theres no need to make a special cart to hold the motor