Okay, so when I bought my Del Sol, I knew the mount for the transmission was misaligned, as the PO mentioned. I figured it wouldn't be hard to just remove the passenger trans mount and strong-arm the engine forward and to the right slightly to get everything lined up, especially considering the front transmission mount was A. the wrong kind and B. not even bolted to the trans, and the driver's side engine mount was torn and seemed misaligned as well. Plus, even just eyeballing the engine, you can tell things don't quite line up.

So that's exactly what I tried doing. And then the engine wouldn't move further forward or to the side. Pics showing the trans bolted into the wrong mounting holes, and the driver's side mount.


So now I'm thinking there's an issue with the rear mount, though it did also occur to me that the driver's side mount and rear mount may have been switched somehow, though I do find that unlikely.

Of note, this is a '93 Del Sol that originally was A/T then one of the POs did a swap to an S20 trans. It's a D16Z6 engine. This was clearly a pretty half-assed swap, so right now my question is if anyone has dealt with this before and have any suggestions on getting to the rear mount without too much headache?

 

Okay, did a bit of searching and found that the T-bracket for the rear mount is the most likely culprit. The one for a M/T is longer than an A/T, and I already have enough indications that this swap was done incorrectly, so I find it very likely this was either unknown to whomever did the swap, was overlooked, or they had their dick in their hand instead of a wrench, so this is the hypothesis I'm going with for now. Will report back when I can get my hands on a T-bracket and swap it out.

 

EK and EG rear "T" brackets are different... the EG is longer from front to back. The difference between an "auto" and "manual" "T" bracket is the spacing between the two bolt holes on the base of the "T". The auto's holes are slightly closer together. So in short, you need a '92-95 Civic/Del Sol manual rear "T" bracket. You HAVE one from an EK ('96-00) Civic.

 

Gotcha. I did get under the car today and confirm that I have the "short" bracket, so that seems to be the case. My guess is the person who did the swap thought 93-00s were all the same. Also noticed there's no splash guard over the bottom of the transmission. God, talk about half-assed.

I don't think the person I bought it from did this, I think it was done by someone before them, but this makes me want to meet them and smack them over the head with a broken input shaft.

 

um....auto to manual transmission bracket....

 

That wouldn't create a "front to back" issue... it would increase the height of the transmission end of the power train significantly so the valve cover wouldn't appear anywhere close to horizontal. It is definitely a rear "T" bracket issue... pulling the engine block rearward and swinging the transmission end of the assembly toward the rear of the car as well. It certainly appears from the OP's photos that the bracket ears welded to the passenger side frame rail are level on top... suggesting that they are in fact a "manual" style bracket.

This is a simple fix. Any Civic/Del Sol/Integra using a 5G or Integra style rear K-Member and steering rack will utilize a long "T" bracket. Any of these chassis previously mentioned that uses or is using an EK style K-Member and steering rack will utilize the shorter "T" bracket... like the one found in the EM1 ('99-00 Civic Si).

 

Yeah but its evident in the pics he has the wrong mount. It's being held on by one bolt which isn't right. It's also not lined up with the mount as you can see the 2 other bolt holes are off

 

It doesn't line up because the engine is being pulled too close to the firewall by the shortened t-bracket. I already went under the car to check this.

 

Just ordered a new (used) bracket off of ebay. Hopefully it isn't crap, I only paid $20 for it. We'll see how it turns out in a few days.

 

Alright, got the new t-bracket in, and somehow managed to do it without removing the whole engine or killing myself. Took about 5 hours to do, but it was worth it!

​​​​​The engine is now properly aligned, and the driver's side engine mount is no longer being stretched to the rear of the car. Likewise, the passenger trans mount now lines up perfectly!

But my god, what a pain in the *** that was. I basically had to pick up the front of the car and use my floor jack to raise and lower the engine incrementally to fit the old T-bracket out and get the new one in. So, in case it hasn't been done before, it can be done without removing anything but the transmission mounts.

Also, fun fact, the trans mount (is an aftermarket A/T to M/T mount) was reversed between the part that mounts to the trans and the part that bolts to the frame, as evidenced by a pair of thicc bolts holding them together from the bottom of the mount. Had to turn it 180 degrees to make it line up with the trans properly. I can post pics of that if needed.