Swapping a Motor

This is an email I sent to a fellow Mazda enthusiast about pulling the motor out of one of our cars.  I may be missing some stuff, so I'll update this and make into an actual how-to later on...

Hey there,

For me the process was a little drawn out because it was my first swap, friends were unreliable and I was going back and forth to MA and CT.

So you're just going to remove it, no installing?  Removing isn't hard, it depends on what you want to keep and such.  The car I took my motor out was totaled so we took a sawzall to the front of it, doubtful you're doing the same haha.

Tools...what do you have?  It's easiest to take out the motor and trans together, and separate them when everything's out.  Engine hoist, breaker bars, GOOD set of sockets and wrenches etc.  

First thing, take off the shit on top, battery, intake...drain the oil, trans fluid and coolant.  Take off the hood.  Take out the radiator and hoses.  Put the car up on stands, take off the wheels, pop the knuckles from the control arms, pop out the CV shafts.

In the rear of the bay...there are two heater hoses, the wiring harness, power steering lines, O2 sensors, vacuum lines.  There's the two VRIS solenoids and EGR solenoid bolted to the back of the intake...those usually break when taking out the motor, so I suggest taking those off.  Make sure you write down everything you take off, and remember where you put the vacuum lines.

Inside the car...under where the radio is is the ECU, and the wiring runs through the firewall on the passenger side, disconnect all of that and pull the harness through the firewall so it'll go with the motor.

Under the car...exhaust is the biggest bitch, I just cut through mine...but if you want to save it, undo the downpipe from the cat, where the flexpipe is.  There's the shift linkage and another bar that you'll have to take off, one bolt each.  

On top of the car again...attach the engine to the hoist, two brackets coming off the intake manifold.  I found it easier to have the side where the belts are a bit higher than the tranny, so that the tranny can go down a bit to get around the mount.  With the engine attached, undo the pass. side and tranny mounts, followed by the front and rear mounts.  As far I as can remember that should be it.

The motor, like I said, will have to drop the tranny a tad to get around the mount.

Before you do this take a look at everything to make sure I didn't miss anything.  Anymore questions feel free to ask.

- Ashley