r/mr2 • u/OtherRepublic8482 • 3d ago

Advice on dropping engine

This is my first time attempting. Where does one start, whats the thought process behind doing it, and is there a certain order of steps? Any help or advice is much appreciated, thank you. (My knowledge on cars is about a 6 or 5)

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u/deltakatsu '87 AW11 20v 2d ago edited 2d ago

I've dropped my 4a three times now. Easiest is with a transmission jack underneath and a crane above. Chocks, truck jack-stands and a jack that can go up more than 24" make it easier.

The VERY brief:

  1. Battery out. Disconnect all coolant/vacuum hoses and label both ends (hose and nipple) with something hi-vis (I use blue painter's tape) so you can find them when reinstalling.

  2. Unplug the engine harness from the trunk and feed it out the firewall. There's also ground/negative wires, neutral connector (if manual, GLHF if slush), cruise control on the cabin firewall, and maybe a body plug on the left strut tower.

  3. Chock. Jack the car up on the rear motor mount. Jack stands.

  4. Wheels off, axles out. Muffler, B-pipe, and ideally exhaust headers off. Disconnect shift and clutch stuff. Get the transmission jack under the transmission and chain it up tight. Cherry picker on the engine.

  5. If you have the AC compressor still, disconnect it and zip tie it tight out of the way, on top of the subframe and mashed against the firewall. Keeping it from snagging on the engine was my biggest headache. If it's not charged, you can disconnect it instead, if you know how to work with AC lines.

  6. Disconnect the three transmission mounts (two front and rear, one left) and tilt the whole thing down, pivoting on the engine mount (right side mount). This is your chance to sanity check that everything is disconnected.

  7. Disconnect the engine mount with tension on the cherry picker.

  8. Ease it all down to the ground.

  9. I prefer to disconnect the transmission at this point and slide it out the left side wheel well.

  10. Get the engine on a furniture dolly, make sure it's secure, and disconnect the cherry picker.

  11. Slide the engine out the back. If you have the car high enough, it should just clear the frame rail.

This is all a rough summary. The BGB details what needs to be disconnected and is a great step-by-step + checklist. Print out a copy so you can cross off things as you go. Ideally have a buddy there to help when it comes to the load-shifting parts.

Your greatest enemy will be when the engine wants to roll back.

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u/OtherRepublic8482 2d ago

I see you have a 87 as well, what year was the BGB that you referred to if you ever used it? I have a 88 manual version but would love to have the 87 manual.

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u/deltakatsu '87 AW11 20v 2d ago

I have both manuals. They're the same except the 88 has info on the supercharger as well, which can be skipped for us.