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  - Email me if you need this in rich text format, the list
will not lemme post HTML format, thanx :)