hi everyone.

for almost 5 years now i have been driving a 2003 mitsubishi lancer oz. i recently seized my engine due to running through about 2 ft of water with an injen CAI. i now have another stock lancer engine with about 90k miles less than my original.

i have a few questions regarding the replacement of my engine. first one, is the engine removed from the top or bottom of the car? (this question is the deciding factor in whether or not i can do this myself)

for the sake of my other questions, lets say the engine does in fact remove from the top. how hard/easy is the removal?

is there a diagram or pics of removing/replacing a lancer oz engine? i have searched and searched (most probably with the wrong keywords, but i HAVE attempted to do the research).

and last, is there anything you guys would recommend i do to the new engine BEFORE i put it in the car?

thanks for your help,
-eric

 

I'll just be the first to say, if you have to ask, you probably shouldn't be doing this by yourself, or at least not without a lot of help from someone who knows what they're doing.

 

well you know, you're quite possibly correct. yet i really don't have the cash to pay someone to put my engine in for me...unless you want to do it for $4 cash and an order of chicken nuggets from (insert name of fast food joint here).

anyway, my father is engine savvy but he has mostly worked on domestic v8s not import front wheel drives. so, i'll have plenty of help from someone who at least knows quite a good bit about other engines.

i mostly want to know if my car requires a lift to remove the engine or if it is possible to do it with overhead rigging and a 5 ft deep pit to enable effortless movement underneath the car.

 

Remove the engine from the top with a cherry picker. I am not sure if you need to take then tranny out with it or not. Im my honda prelude when I replaced my engine I had to take the tranny out because there was no support to hold it up with the engine out.

It really is not hard to replace a stock engine with a stock engine. Just make sure you lable everything you disconnect.

As far as doing anything to the new engine before putting it in, timming belt, accessory belts, check all gaskets. Pretty much all maintance stuff for it since it will be easier to do while the engine is out.

What are you doing with the old engine?

 

awesome. thank you! i'm from out in the woods so if we don't have the equipment to properly do something, we'll rig something up to work for the moment. :-D

as for what i'm doing with the old engine, all i had planned on doing with it was sending it to a scrap yard. i'm not 100% sure what exactly is wrong, but i know that #2 cylinder was full of water and if i get a rolling start and try to pop the clutch my wheels completely lock. i'm not very smart when it comes to engines, but i believe that to be a fubar engine.

 

if water got into the cylinders you may have hydrolocked it. Replacing is probably the best thing to do any way.

Personally i think if you wana learn more about your engine you should take the old one apart and see if your can put it back togethor.

 

yeah, that's what i was going to do. gah, i'm just not looking forward to that job. is there possibly any good manuals or something of that sort to maybe help me in that task? i'm quite sure i'll be able to easily put it back in, but i'm going into this blind.

anyway, thanks for your help.

 

I would highly recommend getting a shop manual. Otherwise you could easily screw something up.

 

You can get manuals pretty cheap off ebay

 

well you could just rebuild(new head gasket, piston rings etc...) the engine, but since you have a new engine. seems easier

if you want theres http://www.alldatadiy.com/

try searching for your car and buy the manual its $26.95 for a 1 year access and you could just print out all the pages and have yourself a manual. And its instant.

It'll help about torque specs and etc..

 

Engine comes up and out. Much easier with the hood removed. The transmission cannot come out with it due to the design of the fender well. Besides, you're better off leaving the axles, trans mounts and stuff in place, it will save a ton of time. The engine is only connected to the passenger side motor mount and the bellhousing bolts, if I remember correctly. Both manifolds can stay in place.

 

It comes out thru the top. I would replace the rear main and timing belt. It is pretty straight forward.

 

If you have A/C just disconnect the compressor from the block and let it hang from some bungee cords. I've found it's easier to just leave the steering pump on the engine and disconnect the lines. Just make sure you refill and bleed the system when you're done.

 

well the newer engine has new manifolds so i'm going to go ahead and swap all of that. i disconnected all the wires on the harness today and labeled them all. tomorrow i'll begin undoing my hoses. just looking over and under the engine, it seems to be quite a bit easier than i thought it would be. but then again all i've done so far is disconnect and label wires.... i'm sure it's a little more involved than it looks.

 

It really is not that hard. Basically all yoru doing is disconecting things then reconnect. The hard part is probably gonna be getting to some things.