Engine swap questions

[huesmann]

Can the engine on these cars be swapped without removing the entire engine/transaxle assembly? It seems to me the engine would need to be shifted to the passenger side to clear the transmission input shaft, but I'm not sure if there's enough room in the engine bay to accomplish that. Maybe if all the accessories and crank pulley are removed?

[Locker]

just pull the engine with the tranny. It is much easier to put the new motor on the old tranny outside the car.

[huesmann]

Don't you have to pull the axleshafts with the tranny?

[Locker]

nope. Unbolt the axel nuts on each end. get underneath the car and remove the carrier bearing then using two small pry bars pop the axels out of the tranny. Dont forget to drain the tranny fluid or it will spill out the input shaft.

[huesmann]

OK. Now, I understand about all the electrical connectors, fuel lines, etc. What about the shifter inside the car? Does that come out with the tranny?

[Locker]

Well I've never worked on a 7th gen before but I would assume it pretty similar in all cars. Simply remove the shifter cables from the tranny and also remove the slave cylinder. (its got a hard line going into it and should have two bolts holding it on.)

[huesmann]

OK, thanks. Next question: Accessories will need to be swapped over to the new motor--I assume the A/C compressor will need to be evacuated and refilled?

[Locker]

yep sure will!!!! Technically you should not evacuate the AC into the atmospher due to environmental reasons. There is a tool you are supposed to use though I have no idea where you would get one. As for a refill go to any AC shop and they can do that for you.

Biggest piece of advice I can give you is to label as much as you can as far as vacume lines electrical and what not. It will save you time and headaches!!! even if you don't know exactly what the plug is for simply label the harness a letter or number and then do the same with where it connects on the motor/tranny.

[huesmann]

Actually, I looked again at the A/C compressor. It's connected to some flexible hoses; it appears that once I unbolt it I might be able to just lay it over the passenger fender while I lift the engine/tranny out, without having to evacuate the refrigerant.

I also looked at the lock nuts on the ends of the axleshafts. It looks like a 12-point 30mm nut--do you know if that's the correct size on these things? It's something I'll have to buy, don't have one of those in my tool collection. The Toyota manual says the lock nuts aren't reusable...

[johnnylaw21]

Isnt the 2zz the same motor used in the lotus that can be easilly, tho mabye a bit costly, tuned to around 300hp. anybody seen this swap done or should i put that idea to sleep and just either get a lotus or be content with underwhelming speeds.

[slvrdgn42]

ok just to put in my info on 2 different posts. First as for the person doing the engine swap no you don't have to completey disconnect the a/c but you do not want to lift the engine out of the car. You want to leave the engine and tranny together and lift the car up and over the enging and tranny. If you pull them out of the car from the top then you will break stuff. believe me i made that mistake on my own. you need to set them on a table and use the lift to lift the car up off them and vie versa with putting it back in.

second Yes a 2zz is what is in the lotus and yes it can be tuned, currently in the process of building a turbo and supercharged application, but you should not swap a 2zz into a gt. you would have to change wireing harness ecu's and all that other fun shit. the easiest thing is to jsut get a gts

[huesmann]

Actually, we did lift the motor and tranny out of the car. Did it this past Sunday, with my boss (whose car it is) and his son (who drives it). We rented an engine hoist and lifted the motor as high as the hoist would go, which wasn't enough because I'd put the car up on jackstands to unbolt exhaust and bolts and whatnot. So I jacked it back up and removed the jackstands and lowered the front of the car on the jack. That gave us enough clearance to get the engine up over the front clip. I was able to remove the right axle before yanking it, but the left axle had to be left attached.

I would never have been able to drop the motor out the bottom and jack the entire car up over top of it; the motor is just too tall for a regular floor jack. Maybe if I had the car up on a lift that would work.

Locker's advice to label the electrical plugs and whatnot was good advice.

I was able to just unbolt the A/C compressor and just lay it over the fender (still attached to the hoses) out of the way while we pulled the motor/tranny.