How to remove Corolla engine ?

[corolla16]

I need to remove the engine from my 89 Corolla. It has a noisy big end, I need to fit new bearings or replace the engine.
what is the easiest way to do this?
Do I remove the gearbox and then lift the engine upwards
Or do I undo the engine and trans mounts and the front struts and lift the body up ?

[Smokey228]

Id take the bonnet off, and lift the engine and box out together. once its out remove the box from the engine!

But there is plenty of different ways to do this...
My personal favourite is, detach driveshafts, all accilleries and anything holding it in place...

Then lift the engine up and out of the car...

Alternatively, you could jack up the car and put it on stands. then jack the engine up, rmeove everything holding it and the gearbox there. and then drop it down, only thing is you'll have to get the body of the car pretty high to be able to slide the engine out from under tehre...

This is a very broad topic, if you dont know how to take the engine out, maybe you shouldnt be taking it out, and deffinetly dont think you should be replacing bearings... But then again, i was in your same seat a handful of months ago and just gave it a shot

My 2c,
Jase

[oldcorollas]

i would say definitely easier to drop it out....

undo and label pipes/hoses/cables.... undo struts, undo 5 or 6 bolts? holding subframes up, and drop it down

[Smokey228]

oldcorollas, what would you say if you were pulling a rwd engine out?

Cause i was trying to see how i could go about it with the celica's, but it just seemed alot more complicated as you'd have to get it sitting f'ing high up so you can slide the engine out from underneath and what not! I ended up shoe horning them both out, and both times, had trouble with getting the shifter out! Deffinetly going to remove it before i do anything next time! lol

Jase

[oldcorollas]

RWD, depends if it has a removable radiator support panel or not

if it does, remove shifter first, then remove radiator and panel, and engine comes out easily forwards.

if engine is tight fit, then when tilted, it may not be able to be pulled upwards (ie bottom of front and top of rear of engine will hit ).. and so seperating engine and box, and pullign engine upwards is possible... can also drop it down tho...

after seeing engines dropped out the bottom of AE8/9 rollas.... dropping down looks wayyy easier

heck, just leab ethe wheels and struts on and roll it out (and make sure you can lift car up enough.... it's a lot lighter with no engine/box... get 3 or 4 mates to lift the car up .... and not drop it )

[BrianRA23]

As oldcorollas says - it will be easier out the bottom. But to do it you will need to lift the front of the car right up - a peice of chain between the strut tower bolts to hook onto works well.

Disconnect the plumbing, cables and elctrical stuff.

Jack up the front of the car using the subframe and then undo almost all the bolts that hold it onto the body. I lowered mine onto a flat trolley so I could pull it out and once everything is disconnected. Pick up the car with the overhead crane, remove the wheels and lower onto the trolley (or used pallets). Once the weight of the subframe etc is being carried then remove the remaining bolts and lift the car up away from the engine.

If you ondo the bolts at the bottom of the shocks the hubs and lower suspension comes out in one peice with engine/gearbox/subframe.

Having a rattle gun makes this so much easier again. One of those 12V ones will be a cheap time saving investment. If you plug it into your cigarette lighter they are unimpressive (almost hard to think it is going to work), but connected to the battery (or cig lighter with heavy wiring) they work well.

If you get under the supported load make sure it can't fall and squash you.

While you have it out get the clutch checked out and maybe at least replace the friction plate and thrust bearing.

[corolla16]

Thanks for the advice guys, I've pulled out plenty of RWD engines but never a FWD before. It doesn't look like there is room to move the engine away from the g'box and then lift it up, so it looks like the go is to lift the body off the entire front end and then searate the engine and box.
Thanks again.

[LeeRoy]

You'll have to raise the engine up a little and then drop out the crossmember that runs under it. You may also have to unbolt the whole crossmember assembly which i had to do when i changed a clutch. The hardest things to do will be undoing the rear engine mount and getting that crossmember out. Driveshafts may also present a challenge.

Since you were thinking about pulling the engine upwards i would imagine that you have an engine crane. Use this to lower the motor onto a pallet and then undo the chair and attach them to the front of the car and then use that to lift the car up. You should get enough height out of that.

- LeeRoy

[TRAV-KE55]

You can take the engine out by itself in a 89 corolla, just unbolt all ancillaries, remove balancer, unbolt gearbox mounts and the gear box will move back far enough, just got to be carefull about the clutch plate, its all do-able, hell i did it the other day!!!
Trav

[mideon_696]

yes up and out is the go with FWD corollas, helped my mate a couple of times, he swears by that method, but we r not pro's, lol

[BrianRA23]

Taking it out the bottom sounds difficult but I remember thinking how easy it was. Especially considering how hard I remember it was pulling the gearbox off to do the clutch.

I guess it all depends on how much weight you can lift with the crane though.