Shane Craddock (Gecko 2) had decided to fix an oil leak on his MKII Turbo engine. The leak appeared to be in the headgasket area, and having pulled the head from inside the car once before, Shane felt that it would be much less of a pain in the *** to drop the engine than bend over the car for hours on end breaking his back. Here’s some pics and info of the project.
The drop was done as safely and cheaply as possible. Thus the wood blocks to support the engine and whatnot. Always be careful (especially when trying something off of these pages). Mainly we’re trying to illustrate that a drop can be done cheaply, and want to point out some tips to make things easier. Day one consisted of 1 person detatching everything needed for the drop such as exaust system before the secondary cat, intake hoses, electrical connections, cables, and draining coolant and oil. Day two was the drop, and 2 people were needed. The BGB was helpful, but it became easy to figure the next steps out after a while.
1: It begins. The most important tool. 
2: What happens to coolant that hasn’t been changed in ten years? It becomes highly corrosive, here’s the proof. 
3: Unbolting the front engine mount the easy way, by removing the thing from the firewall! 
4: Disconnect suspension tension strut from chassis 
5: The right way to unmount 10 year old ABS sensors pt 1. Disconnect ABS wiring plug in engine bay then pull through, leaving ABS sensor in place 
6: The right way to unmount 10 year old ABS sensors pt 2 
7: Engine support. Extra high jack required due to dropping engine with wheels and cross member attached 
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9: Disconnect park brake cables at brake ends. Remove brake calipers from wheel hub. 
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11: Don’t forget to remove the clutch slave cylinder/ lines and hang out of the way before dropping the engine. 
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13: Air Conditioning unbolted, and tied to the body of the car. 
14: Passenger side motor mount unbolted the easy way (not the BGB way) Unbolted from below, rather than removing horizontal support bolt. 
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16: Balancing act. 
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18: Engine, trans, and crossmember assy can be moved by one person when the wheels are attached and a floor creeper is used to support the engine/trans. Good balancing is required though 🙂 
19: Balancing points… 
20: Obligatory “Hey cool, this will be a funny picture!” picture 
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24: Signs of the oil leak…. 
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26: Drivers side motor mount the easy way… by removing the vertical bolts from below instead of the horizontal support bolt. 
27: Here’s how we got the motor out with the wheel attatched and not having to pull out the half shafts 🙂 
28: Carazy! Good thing the wife is away at the moment 😉 
29: 4×4 
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31: Ready for dissasembly 
32: A wombat 
33: Air Conditioning was previously unbolted, and tied to the body of the car. EGT probes visible in exhaust manifold 
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Misc Pics 01: Fuel Tank 
Misc Pics 02: Hose from hell attatches to the thing that comes off the oil cooler in the middle (horrible pic) 
Misc Pics 03: Transaxle shaft, More oil leak signs 🙁 
Misc Pics 04: Turbo and Cat assembly 
Misc Pics 05: Turbo and Cat assembly 2 
Misc Pics 06: Disconnected Shifter Cables 
Misc Pics 07: No worries mate 🙂 
This documentation in no way replaces the Toyota MR2 Repair Manuals. The purpose of this content is only to provide supplementary information to fellow MR2 enthusiasts. Midship Runabout and its contributing authors will not be held responsible for any injury or damages that may occur as the result of practicing any of the methods or procedures described within this website. Article and photo submissions are property of the contributing author.
Its funny that everyone who has ever taken the engine out of the back of a MR2 has to get in the bay and poke their head out, I did the same thing !!