EDITED AFTER LIKE 2-3 YEARS

Im not responsible for any injury you might have doing this so try this at your own risk.

I have probably done this over 15 times already. So im pretty sure it works

You probably need three jacks for this but you can get away with two. I HIGHLY recommend the bigger jacks that go up atleast 17".

1. start by jacking up the car high enough so the motor will fit under, remember safety first. you might need to use some 2x4's to get the car high enough
2. push motor under car into engine bay, i use my creepy crawler to push my motor around, yes its strong enough to support 350lbs, also it helps to move the motor around once in the engine bay.
3. REMEMBER TO PUT IN THE REAR BRACKET VERY IMPORT
4. lower car slowly and stop about 12" from the ground and make sure the motor doesnt hit anything in the bay (TPS sensor, IACV, ect) and get another jack to put on the radiator support (black arrow)
5. with the third jack on the radiator support, securely in place. lower the other two jacks on the side of the car.
6. move the side jacks to where the red arrows are. its the spot next to the two hook, on the frame. its like a 3"x3" square.
7. jack up the two side jacks in there new spots and take out the front jack.
8. lower the side jacks, bolts up the two side mounts (tranny and upper driver). make sure these two mounts are good and then you can go ahead and jack up the car again and finish bolting up all the motors and doing some wiring.


To pull out your motor, u just unbolt everything (radiator hoses, a/c compressor, harness, throttle body cable, torque mounts, rear bracket, ect) except the tranny and drivers mount, lower the car onto a creepy crawler or something to sit the motor on, then jack up the car high enough to pull the motor out.


(Some images are from 3 years ago and some are from a couple of months ago)






and after u find out all motor sucks, you can go ahead and turbo the bitch



a shot of my ****





Modified by eg crunkmonster at 1:37 AM 7/23/2006

 

thats how it should be done. id advise to sit it on like 2 phonebooks.. then itll be at a good height to align the mounts

 

aight that was nice.....
show some pics of the finshed project when your done

 

nice work looks good as well

 

I just dropped the car str8 on its belly.....no need for phone books then....all the mounts line up prefectly when u just drop it on its belly

 

Sorry for the crappy pic....

 

hey nice... whats up its a local Miami..lol im alex.. nice swap hows it running?? i saw ur car over at finalauto.....

 

thats how i put motors in too.

 

I have done my last 4 motors like that. With a cherry picker the engine usually moves back and forth scratching up the engine bay paint.

 

yeh we did my buddys car like that.
take it nice and slow, and nothing gets hurt.

 

nice job, thats how i swap motors also, i like the civic

 

is it really that easy as it looks cuz i dont wanna go buy a cherry picker

 

Good job and nice pics!

 

all i would need to do is free the harness from the engine bay, lossen all the motor mounts, and take off the axles.i see in the pic the bumper comes off 2. drop the car all the way to the botton as low as the jack takes it loosen it from the mounts, lift the car back up and slide the motor out. then slide the new motor in, and do all the procedures again. is that how u guys do it, or im totally wrong. i want to try it in a couple of months. whats easier the cherry picker or what we are talking about. thanx for the info guys.

 

want to know the same thing. How hard was it to align the motor mounts?

 

yea i just lower it on 2 jacks on the front jackstands. and drop it as far as the jackls will lower. that leavesa about 2 phone book space that the engine needs to be that high. but your way is basicaly the same. thats how cert. honda techs are supposed to drop engines in

 

the cheap way of an engine swap
better then this way:


nice swap

 

haha..thats the og way of putting the motor in

 

thats crazy, how'd you manage to recover from that.

 

You could always rent the cherry picker, but this way does look really easy. I didnt know you could line the mounts up by lower the car though. THat makes the job much easier. Nice post.

 

I dunno a good cherry picker makes things easy. Its true that when you put the car all the way down on it's belly the mounts line up perfectly, but I'd still rather use a cherry picker. It won't scratch the paint if you have someone guide the motor in.

Good job on the car though! Looks awesome, and im sure that GSR will feel alot better than a single cam.. Good to see another Miami Local with a swapped hatchie..welcome to the clan!

 

I've done both ways from the bottom and top and I prefer the motor going in from the bottom by either using a cherry picker to hoist the car over the motor and then the motor from the ground up or using a car lift.

 

ok, now if im going to try this and i may have the ability to use a full car lift, would the best way to be to set the motor on something to lift it up a bit higher, then lower the car down on top of it? Any suggestions on what to set it on?

Also if not, for you guys who dropped the car directly on the ground, what point did you use to jack the front back up to attach all the lower mounts?

 

nice job on the engine swap
car looks pretty nice from the outside too

 

I've done it both ways. Under is much eaiser and you don't need to spend 70 bucks to rent a picker.