Engine Removal procedure LONG

[Michael Jez]

SR20DE Removal

by Mike Jez

1) Remove the fuel pump fuse and run the engine till it stalls out and then
proceed to removing the airbox (or aftermarket intake) along with all the
piping off the engine. Remove the 2 lines- supply and return off the fuel
rail. The reason we run the engine with no fuel pump fuse is to get rid of
pressure in the line before we remove it- and get lots of fuel all over the
garage floor and engine. If you smoke while ya work, this will help ya not
have to call the fire dept to put out your garage.

2) Remove the clutch cable off the engine- gonna need a 10mm open end wrench
to loosen up the stopper screw, now loosen the thumb wheel till you can remove
the cable off the throw out bearing release arm. Remove the distributor- so it
doesn't get damaged in the proccess, remove the coil- its held onto the head
with 2 12mm bolts, remove the ignitor that sits right next to the coil- NOTE
95- up engines have built in coils into the distributor assembly. Now remove
the clips that hold the wireing harness to the fuel rail, remove the harness
connectors off the injectors, EGR solenoids on top of the intake manifold-
they have metal pins that hold them in. Remove the Charcoal canister purge
valve that is below the throttle body- just unplug it. Unplug the TPS, 02
Sensor, speedo sensor - 93-up is electric, where the older cars have a
mechanical linkage- with the mechanical sensor type car I just remove the
whole sensor out of the tranny- its held in by a 10mm bolt, twist it some and
it should just pop out of the tranny. Coolant temp sensors- which are located
next to the oil filter- unplug those, unplug the tranny switches from the
trans. Remove the battery along with the battery tray if you have not done so
yet. Remove the 10mm bolt ontop of the alternator that feeds power from the
alternator, along with the 8mm ground wire that is bolted to the side of the
alternator by the exhaust manifold, unplug the 2 pin connector that goes into
the alternator using a small flathead screwdriver. Unplug the AC compressor
harness- if the car you are working on has AC.

3) Remove the harness connectors from the pass side of the car near the
coolant overflow bottle and washer resevor- it should be 4-5 connectors
depending on the car. Drain the power steering fluid into a safe container and
remove the lines from the resevoir and wrap them around the engine- I stick
them into the intake manifold runners- between the runners. Drain the radiator
and unplug the 2 fans- only one fan if the car has no AC. Remove the 2 10mm
bolts ontop of the radiator support to remove the radiator from the car-
remove the hoses at the coolant passage neck on the timing chain side of the
engine and from the thermostat housing- which is located right below the
distributor. Remove the 2 heater core coolant hoses which are located right
below the throttle body. Remove the thottle body linkage- loosen the 2 12mm
screws that are ontop of the intake manifold that hold the cable down to a
bracket. If car is equipped with cruise controll- remove the cruise controll
line also and put both of the linkages on the bulkhead (firewall) by where the
wipers sit. Remove the hood if you are going to be removing the engine from
the top- leave on if you are going to be using a lift and plan on removing it
from the bottom- I will write up how to remove the engine from the bottom-
similar procedure follows for a top engine removal procedure.

4) Raise the car up on the lift- remove 8 21mm nuts that hold the wheel down,
remove the 32mm axle nuts and cotter pins, along with the washers from the
hubs of the vehicle. Remove the clips that hold the brake lines to the strut-
this gives you more room to remove the axles from the tranny later on. Remove
the 2 17mm bolts with 2 19mm nuts from both sides of the car- these hold the
struts to the steering knuckle. Now with the car in the air, drain the trans
of any fluid. Remove the driver side axle out of the tranny- use a prybar from
bellow the car and pry against the tranny/diff case to pop that mofo out.
NOTE- You can leave both axles in the car if you remove the engine from the
bottom. Remove the starter positive wire- 12mm bolt, and remove the harness
plug that sends signal to the starter solenoid to start engine. Remove the
knock sensor harness- its located just below the intake manifold right in the
middle of the engine block. Remove the oil pressure sending unit harness also.
Remove the secondary part of the exhaust manifold OR header from the manifold
and the cat- if original bolts are still there soak em with PB Blaster of WD40
or any penetrating oil of your choice ahead of trying to remove em- I like to
soak em a nite before.

5) With the exhaust out of the way, remove the longitutaly mounted
crossmember- its bolted down with 4 bolts to the body of the car- these like
to rust out so watch out that they don't break on you while trying to take em
off. On my car- these are 14mm bolts. Remove the front engine dog bone mount
from the engine- its one 14mm bolt that goes through the mount- just take that
out. Rear mount is more difficult to remove- but with the exhaust out of the
way you should be able to remove it eassily. I remove the mount along with the
bracket right off the tranny- there are 3 14mm bolts that are kinda hard to
see inside the bracket that bolt up to the trans/engine- the bracket also
holds down the shifter rod with 2 kinda hard to reach 12mm bolts- I just
loosen the shifter rod on the pivot it sits on 12mm bolt and then remove the
hard to reach 12mms from the engine trans mount- kinda hard to explain here
but if you look at the shifter rod you will see what I'm talking about. Remove
the shifter work from the trans- 12mm bolt that goes through it, and move both
trans shift rods out of the way. After removing them you can lower down the
crossmember on the floor- NOTE make sure the trans mount on the drivers side
of the car is in good shape along with the pass side engine mount- if not the
engine WILL drop down on ya, kissing ya right in the face :D.

6) Crawl out from under the vehicle, take a small Heineken break, have a cig
or whatever U like to smoke. You are almost done with removal of the engine.
Now look at the engine and check out any spots you might have missed- like
unremoved engine harness someplace. Make sure the harness will not catch on
anything while you are dropping the engine out of the car, also make sure no
hoses will catch on anything. Remove any vacuum hoses- like the brake booster
hose, any emissions hoses off the engine that might connect to something on
the body of the car. My car has a JDM motor in it right now so I only have a
total of like 3 vacuum hoses on it now- only which 1 comes off- its the brake
booster hose. Now get something very struddy to hold the engine and tranny up-
last time I used 4 big 4x4 supperswamper tires on the ground- but a large
on-wheels-bench works alot better. Raise the car up till the bench can be slid
under the car and positioned so that the engine will not tip off it- will
leave it up to you to judge where ya should put the dead engine at.

7) Have someone climb ontop of the engine bay, remove the 3 17mm bolts/nuts
from the pass side mount, which bolts up by the timing chain cover. Then
unbolt the mount on the drivers side of the engine bay from the frame rail-
its a one long ass 14mm bolt that goes through there. Now the engine should be
free from the car- look over anything that you might have missed out, and lift
the car up checking that the engine comes out of the car freely and doesn't
hit anything. Make sure no harness gets pinched by the coming-out-engine, if
the car has AC- mine didnt, remove the compressor from its bracket- 4 12mm
bolts that old it down, remove the belt- just cut that sucka off since its
time to get new belts anyways. Push the AC compressor out of the way, and zip
tie it to the radiator support- this is why I take the radiator out so I got
enough room. This way you do not have to discharge the AC system- which will
cost ya some dough $$$ if its stil R12 Freon kind. 91-93 SR20DE powered cars
are R12. Now with the engine out of the car, you can see the engine and tranny
with 2 axles sticking out of it, unbolt the bracket with 3 12mm bolts from the
back of the engine block and slide out the axle out of the axle bracket- then
remove the bracket from the engine. Remove the tranny from the engine, and
inspect the clutch side of the trans case for any leaks from the input shaft
seal, good thing to repleace it anyways since the tranny is out. Remove the
clutch and flywheel. To remove the flywheel U will need a 12pt socket in a 17
or 14mm size- depending on if the car is a auto or stick, GTi-R or regular
engine. Swap anything over to the new engine. JDM engine swaps- remove the
coolant sensors off the old engine and put them in the JDM engine- some
SR20DEs have diff coolant temp sensors and the gauges can be off.

THE END- NOTICE- everything I have described here I have performed on my 93
SE-R, few customers cars, ranging from 200SX to NX2Ks. I do not hold any
responsibilities for injuries sustained from this engine swap, any car or
engine damage. Everything you do is at you own risk basically.

Happy Motoring,

Mike Jez

93SER@attbi.com