Engine vs. drivetrain removal?

[Tom Paule]

With my current appetite for motors in my SE-R Cup Car
(along with all the previous engine swaps I've done),
I've tried a number of methods for dropping the motor
out of an SE-R.  Years ago, I used to drop the tranny,
then the motor. Second time I realized it would be
easier to leave the tranny on the motor and drop them
together.  Lately I've gotten into leaving the axles
in, just be sure to drain the tranny first. Also,
there's a couple bolts on the bottom of the engine
that bolt into the tranny (the 12mm ones that you have
to practically remove the crossmember to get to) that
you should remove before setting things on the ground.
Most recently I have dropped the engine with the
crossmember attached. While it's less bolts this way,
the odd "footprint" of the engine, transmission,
crossmember and axles makes it very difficult to set
everything down (the holist ends up getting the the
way and something ends up binding on the way down).
Putting the motor back up with all that attached is
almost impossible because sliding everythign under the
car and getting the hoist to pick it up requires a lot
of complex placement and putting things in places the
obviously don't want to go (basically getting the
motor 1/2 way onto one of the rails on the bottom of
the hoist).

I'd say coming out you can leave the crossmember on
(oh, have fun getting it out from under the motor
without the hoist), but going back in you need to
leave it off. Be sure not to get under the motor when
you're working on things if it's only supported by the
hoist, even when the motor is still supported by 2
mounts (I almost got wonked on the head by the rear
tranny mount yesterday even though the front and side
mounts were in and I thought the hoist was supporting
the motor).

Tom - 12+ engine swaps and at least 2 more to go...

--- Tim Rogers <timrogers@charter.net> wrote:
> I just had an innovative thought.
> I may have to pull my engine so that I can remove my
> timing cover and
> replace my timing chain when I install my new head.
> I was wondering if rather than pulling apart the
> suspension & axles, might
> it be easier to just undo the motor mounts, rear
> subframe & struts and drop
> the whole thing out the bottom so that I can have
> somewhat easy access to
> the front cover?
> Is this possible?
> Has anyone tried it?