i have heard of people doing it with just a floor jack, but i havent seen a write up or anything on how to do it or where to place the jack under the engine to be sure not to damage anything? Any info is appreciated.

 

I've dropped the motor out of a couple cars through the bottom, but always put them back in from the top (into different cars). The procedure for getting them out involves removing all the connections from between the motor/subframe and the body of the car. Lower the car so that the subframe is resting on a moving dolly, unbolt the subframe and anything else holding it to the body (strut towers or other suspension pieces) and then raise the car away from the motor. Once the car is high enough, you can just roll the entire subframe with drivetrain attached from under the car.

You can put the motor in from the bottom using the same steps in reverse. The only downside I can see is that you have to get the car pretty high in the air in order to roll the motor and subframe from underneath it (see attached pic). A floor jack usually isn't good enough to do this. I use my engine crane in order to do this and on the several Hondas I've put motors into, if you have a crane you might as well put the motor in from the top.

I guess in a few Civics you don't need to remove the subframe to get the motor in through the bottom and you could try sliding the motor in on it's side to avoid getting the car too high in the air, but that seems like a PITA to me. I would either buy, rent or try and borrow a crane from someone first.

 

i have the motor sitting underneath the car right now ready to be bolted in, but i am tired of using my engine lift, it is in very bad condition and i don't trust it anymore, so can i put a floor jack under the engine to lift it into place?

 

What motor is it? If you have two jacks and can use both to spread the load, that may be the best way...one on the oil pan (I would put some wood under the oil pan to spread the load even further and make sure you don't dent it) and one on the trans.

 

jdm b18c from hmotors so i wanna make sure nothing breaks haha, but yea i have two jacks, i am going to try that later.

 

Try and have a buddy or two around to help balance the motor on the jacks. It would suck to drop it off.

 

I just swapped in a h23-Vtec hybrid into my 'Lude using an engine crane. Also I was using brand new motor mounts from Innovative. Had a tough time aligning all motor mounts, and this motor went out/in from the top. So, the reason I'm saying this is .. imagine the difficulty you're going to have if you go in from the bottom, difficulty in attaching motor to car with having motor in one position only. At least with my method going in from the top, I had the engine crane holding the weight of the motor while I used a crow bar to move motor or tilt to align everything .. just my .02 ... go from the top in a Honda.

 

i do not agree with that method, having a few people around you can muscle the mounts into place, i know what im doing now, thanks.

 

^ good luck.