Kizashi Club

Has anyone done this yet? I am just about ready to drop the engine assembly out of the bottom. It comes out in one assembly with the engine, transmission, control arms, wheel hubs, shocks, rack & Pinion, axles, and subframe. I ran out of time last night to tackle disconnecting the steering column shaft. Any input on how to get that disconnected? Looks like it has to be done from inside the cabin to me. Too tight to do it in the engine bay.

This is all a result of my overheating thread here:
viewtopic.php?t=4141

My car has 98K miles and is this is probably a warranty issue but the dealer said they would have to tear it down to determine if it is a warranty item or not and I am responsible for the labor to get it down to that point if it is determined to not be warranty work. Then, if it is that far apart, I wouldn't have them leave the incomplete if its not covered. I would then be responsible for the complete $2,500 repair. Rather than take that gamble, I'm doing it myself for about less than $200 in material/services.

I'll keep uploading photos of this process as I continue.

damn nice roomy shop you have there...jealous. 2-post lift in the future?

It is nice to have space! It's actually my dad's place that I have somewhat taken over. I travel a lot for work and I don't really have a home location of my own or even know where home is right now. I'm looking at property right now and a 40'x60 or 80' shed that I can half insulate and heat. I think your on the right track with a 2 post lift in my future

My guess is that your dad's probably fine with you 'somewhat taking over'...keeps you coming around.
Sorry, can't help you with your original question of how to disconnect the column's shaft (hope I never have to)...but I'll be watching your thread closely. Good luck.

It was actually really easy to disconnect the steering column shaft.

Here are some photos from along the way. The engine and transmission assembly can't come out the top because the battery stay brackets stick out over the top of the transmission. It really wasn't that much more work to drop it all out rather than to fight the entire way with the tight space for the timing cover and oil pan. Maybe there was a better way to do this and maybe there was not but this is how I did it.

Remove two plugs from the fuse box and a couple grounds near here that are fastened with a 10mm bolt Pry off the plastic cover on steering shaft at drivers side floor. Remove the bolt under the cover on the steering shaft completely and slide apart steering shaft. Pull up passengers side carpet to disconnect wire plugs from the power steering module. There is a cover on the module fastened with a 10mm bolt that has to be removed Remove the plugs from the power steering module The serpentine belt needs to be removed to disconnect the AC compressor. The belt tensioner can be loosened with a wrench so the belt can be slide off. The AC compressor is fastened with 3 bolts. The two bolts connecting my exhaust were rusted and had to be cut off. You can also see where I unbolted the driveshaft in this photo. I removed the cross-brace and heat shield from this area prior to unbolting the drive shaft. I did not remove the thermostat and thermostat housing like the service manual says. Instead, I just supported the AC compressor above the oil filter to provide enough clearance for the thermostat housing to clear. I pried off the shifting linkage in the engine bay. It is a ball and socket type connection. Remove the calipers from the brackets and support them with zip ties. (not from the springs because they springs will be lowered with the engine). Also, remove the abs sensor line.

I also drained the fluids before starting this project. Engine oil, trans fluid, and transfer case lube.

A photo showing under the car. Splash shields removed, exhaust removed. Using an engine hoist and the lifting lugs to lower the engine to the floor. Here I used a dolly and a floor jack to move the engine assembly around. 2 dollies would work better than the floor jack. I removed the assembly from the side. I had to jack up the car a little more for clearance. The assembly from the rear. The assembly from the front. Empty engine bay. Additional photos will follow as I start to remove the timing components and the head.

Great photos. Best of luck on your project. Hopefully, the block didn't get warped when the engine overheated and blew the gasket.

Excellent work. Thanks for taking the time to photograph and document your work. It will be very useful for many in the future I'm certain.

Thanks, Ron! I typically wouldn't take all these photos and document it this well, however, I know there is limited info online for this car and I hadn't seen any threads for engine removal. It seams in the 3000GT forums I'm on that everything has already been done and there are multiple threads outlining everything.

Here are some more photos and instruction for starting to take the engine apart. I was really impressed with how clean everything was inside this engine.

Remove the crank pulley. The bolt is torqued very tight so it's tough to hold the crank from rotating. I just used the serpentine belt (for better grip) and a ratchet strap around the crank pulley to hold it in place. It would be better if you had a tool to thread into the two bolt holes on the pulley to hold it with those. I just made due with what I had on hand. Remove the cam cover on the top of the engine. Just remove all the 10mm bolts and gently pry and tap the cover off. Peel the gasket off the block and keep it with the cover. Under the rocker cover. Remove the two idler pulleys and the tensioner pulley. There are timing cover bolts under all of them that need to be accessed. Remove all the 12mm timing cover bolts around the outside of the cover. Make sure to remove the larger 14mm bolt below the intake cam sprocket (more inboard on the cover than to the outside). Remove the 2 12mm oil pan bolts with a wrench. These stick up from the oil pan into the timing cover. I was able to get away with not removing the oil pan this way. Gently tap the cover and pull away from the engine block. Be sure not to tap on any mating or sealing surfaces. Also be sure not to drop any old rtv gasket material into the oil pan. You can see some of it hanging off the oil pan in the photo below.

Ah...SX4s & Kizashis have real timing chains, but, I see what appears to be composite? (hybrid?)tensioner/guides. Curious as to the condition of those, and, your impression of the quality/design of the mechanisms. Also curious if you might feel it worth to replace any of that whist the entire mess is out, accessible and disassembled. Reminds me, the Samurai is long over-due for a timing belt replacement and while that's all apart it's foolish not to replace everything in there at the same time.