ok well next weekend ill be pulling the engine out of my 2000 TA A4 and im just wondering is it easier to pull the whole engine harness with engine and cradle or unplug everything and then drop it, if its easier to pull engine with the harness then how many plugs go i need to unplug that go in the firewall i know there is one on the passenger side but i dont know how to get to it that info would be very helpful too

thanks alot in advance

 

unplug everything, then drop it. Just unplug everything that connects to the engine. Its really not bad. and the wiring harness lines up everything pretty well and all the connectors are different, so labeling stuff really isn't an issue

 

On my 96 there was a main connector on the inside by the passengers feet that would allow you to leave the harness hooked up when you drop it out.

 

I left mine hook up to the engine and dropped it. I then pulled the harness after the motor was on the engine stand. Took 5 minutes.

 

I unpluged every thing and left the harness in the car. Big thing to watch is the ground wires on the back of the heads. See link in my sig for a bunch of pics of the first time I had my engine out.

 

inorder to unplug everything i need to take the manifold off to get to the cam positioning sensor and knock sensors right... do i need to unplug the front wheel sensors?

 

Nope just unplug what you can, then steadily drop the motor. Once you can get to the connectors at the back of the intake un-plug them.

 

I've done this several times and feel that i've got it down to an art. Unbolt your PCM and flop it over on top of the intake manifold, you may have to unhook an A/C line or two. Unhook all the connectors between the PCM and car, these are all on the passenger side fender well, I believe there's three, then there's one harness that runs into the firewall, sometimes you can carfulley tug it out of the car untill the connector is out far enough to unhook it, if that don't work you have to get inside the car on the passenger side and unhook it. That's it for the connectors between the PCM harness and car. I leave all the accessories on the engine, even the battery cables, just uhook the positive battery wire from the car. There's a couple grounds to unhook, one on the driver's side towards the front of the car, and one right by the battery. Then unhook your A/C lines from the compressor and The Heater/Radiator Hoses and trans cooler lines. Unhook your front brake lines from the ABS block. Then unplug your wheel speed sensors. You'll have to unbolt your brake master cylinder from the booster to get it out of the way so you can get at the strut bolts, unbolt the struts. Also make sure you unhook your Trans Shift cable (my car is an M6 so you'll have to see if there's anything else on the trans) Then I usually take the front fascia off so I can wrap straps around the front bumper support, then I use an engine hoist to lift up the car. It'll help alot to find or build a cart or dolly with caster wheels on it. I use a 4 wheeled dolly that really comes in handy. Set the cart under the k-member and carefully let the car down just far enough to touch the cart. unbolt your K and slowly lift the car up off the K. Don't forget to unhook your steering shaft. Get it up high enough for the top of the engine to clear the bottom of the car. Then let the car down on some jackstands to get the engine hoist out of the way, then wheel the engine/K-member out from under the car.

This is very easy to do and you'll have much better access at everything. Trust me it seems complicated but it's way easier than unhooking the harness and leaving it in the car, plus you wont have to worry about forgetting one of the grounds on the back of the engine. I'm sure I forgot a couple details, just look everything over and be carefull not to break anything.

 

You don't have to take off the front bumper to hook into the bumper support. You can slip hooks in with only removing the headlights

 

Its really not that bad. You can leave your manifold on and do it. But its alot easier if you take it off. I got mine off in 5 minutes.

 

I was VERY curious about this topic as well. Does anyone have pictures of how they did it. Ive seen some cars on 4 cinderblocks stacked up but i mean i wanna see how it would be done at home because i dont own a machine lift. This is a little off topic to but i also wanted to no how many people have put headers on the car with it being on just jackstands? How hard was it?

 

You ask and you shall receive.

 

never figured out ....why the **** you guys drop them out the bottom??i pulled motor and trans out the top and set it all back in through the top....no way in hell id ever consider dropping it out the bottom...

 

I followed the step-by-step instructions the first and only time I dropped a Z28 engine out the bottom with the subframe, etc. Instructions were in this book:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Build-High...4441753&sr=1-2

I think it's worth the $14. Literally accurate step by step instructions. Very hard to mess up!!

 

Drop it out the bottom. Comes out as one big unit. Best site I came across. Link Only took about 5 hours.

 

bjmick works being done on a bird i like that and thanks

 

I took mine out the bottom in my driveway. I unplugged all of the sensors and left the harness/pcm in the car. Made it a lot easier not fighting wires while disassembling/reassembling motor. Nor did I have to hunt somewhere to store the harness/plugs in the garage. I say it depends on what you are doing to the car/motor but I would usually prefer leaving the wiring in the chassis.

 

great info.

 

Awesome info, I do have 2 very important questions though....

- Can this still be done if you have done the !wire mod on the pass side or will I have to tear all that apart as well?

- How high does the car have to be to get the engine out? Should you remove the hood? The reason I ask this is because the ceiling in my garage is not 8 foot in one spot where all the heating and water lines runs (Bi-level House) more like 7 foot there.

Anyone ever measure the max height of the car?

 

Dude, look at bjamiks pics...no hood on his car and thats in a garage. The hood is what, 4 bolts and 2 hood struts.

To the guy asking about headers on jackstands...yes its possible and many of us have done it. Yes its a pain in the ***...doing it on a lift would make it a little easier, but its still a long and rough job.