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Alright Question about swapping engines..

Is it physically possible to pull an engine from the top, so you don't have to have the spider arm lift to pick the car up and drop the engine out from the bottom?

On MTV's thing they dropped it out through the bottom..

I think Poor Jaysun dropped it out through the bottom..

Then putting it in yourself, can you drop the k20a2 through the top or does it have to go up through the bottom...

I'm going to be doing it myself and need to know if it can even fit through the top of the engine bay, or if i'm gonna have problems...

Thanks..

 
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like this
this

And thiss

 
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It says I am forbidden to access those pictures.. What were they pictures of?

 
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And what if the engine will only come out through the bottom? Plan on having a shop do the swap then?

 
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I havent done it yet but I think you can pull it from the top. The only thing that would stop you is the tranny, but you could tilt the engine with the lift.

If that doesn't work just separate the tranny from the block and pull it aside until you pull the engine. That will definitely work.

Good luck and keep us updated.

 
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Well I would have to put in a clutch and everything on the k20a2 so if I had to It wouldn't be a killer to take off the tranny.. and the d17 i really don't care if it's in 20 pieces or not.

No, If I can't pull the engine through the top and I can't find any lifts I can use, I won't do the swap and just turbo the d17.

 
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Good choice

 
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you can pull the motor, and put another one in any way that you want. One way just requires more work than the other. I dropped my D17 from the bottom, and then installed my K20 by dropping the car ontop of it. But I had a lift to use for that, so that was nice. If you want, you can goto a hardware store and rent a cherry picker, and pull from the top though. The reason why they suggest to take it out from the bottom, and put it back on from the bottom is so that you dont have to attach the motor to the subframe. Its easier to have the motor sitting on the subframe, then put the subframe on the car.
Hope that made sense.

 
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my d17 came out from the bottom, the k20 came out from the top out of the rsx, the k20 went in from the bottom into the civic. I had removed the rad support from the rsx when i pulled the motor, which made it alot easier but i think it is possible to come from the top with it in.

this is my k20 leaving its original home from the top, with a good old cherry picker

 
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Thanks hawk.. I was hoping you would chime in.. Looks good, I can't wait

Thanks for the help, and It did make sense

 
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That's awesome if u can remove and install engines with a cherry picker without a lift. I did this years ago on a '69 Ford Fairlane in my garage. To me one of the best things about having a car is DIY. Hopefully, someone can put together a DIY for this.

 
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you can pull from the top or the bottom its on you. we often like to just drop the engines down when taking it out complete and just lift up the car real high so the motor will slide from underneath.

I've never done the k swap myself, but it seems liek you can do either or as well. just have to have the right angles putting it in.

 
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i can tell you this, its probably a hole lot easier to lower the car onto the motor/kframe, its a pretty damn tight fit.

 
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I pulled mine from the top and put the new one in from the top. Wasn't hard.

 
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your d17 right?

The clearence from the rad support to the intake mani on the k20 is next to nuthing. I'd imagine it'd be quite difficult to drop a k20 into a civic from the top, though i'm sure its possible, just alot easier from the bottom.

 
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Someone resize sorry

 
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Thanks for the info guys, makes me a lot more confident.