Tools necessary:
-10mm, 12mm, 14mm, 17mm wrenches (ratcheting kind is super handy)
-10mm, 12mm, 14mm, 17mm, 19mm sockets
-ratchets and extensions for said sockets (the air variety will save time)
-channel lock pliers (handy for removing spring clips)
-cable, wire or string (for tieing stuff out of your way)
-clean table top or other horizontal surface, so you can
place the parts out of the way and not lose them
-cherry picker or lift (to pick the car up off of the engine)
-dolly of some kind (to roll the drivetrain out from under the car)
-catch can for coolant (you can drain this at any time, I choose
to do it when I first lift the car up over my head because its
convenient.
-catch can for transmission oil (if you take the axles out, I do
not take them out of the transmission in this walk through. If
I did, I would drain the transmission first to avoid a mess.)
-flathead screw driver
-common sense (please do not be a booger eating moron and get
yourself killed, people will laugh at your obituary.)

Suggested Tools:
-impact wrench (with one of these the tight bolts you encounter
do not pose as much of a threat to your knuckles and your cereal
will taste better the next day.)
-bright portable lights (if I have to explain why, you should not be
reading this and you are a booger eating moron.)
-plenty of room to work (will also make your cereal taste better
the next day.)

Time Needed to Drop:
This was done in 3 hours and 45 minutes of actual wrench time. That includes the 15-20 minute call I had to make to Blitzo because I got stuck and also includes doing several things out of order and needlessly raising and lowering the car. If I were to do this again in the order laid out in this document, I could have this joker out in 1.5 – 2 hours without breaking a sweat from the halogen lights.

Another handy thing to have is a cushy place for your butt. I don’t know about the rest of the world but I enjoy sitting on mine. Especially when I’m “working”.

btw – I also suggest not doing this in the FREAKING cold. It required me to wear gloves because I can’t work when my hands go numb. I generally hate using gloves because I lose a lot of fine dexterity with my fingers, but given my choices I think I picked the better option. I wholeheartedly suggest you invest in a pair if it is FREAKING cold where you plan to do this swap.

Before you get started, I suggest removing the battery. As you can see, I didn’t do that immediately – however I do recomend it first priority as far as safety for the mobile goes.

All setup on the lift, ready to work. I do not condone this type of action with one of these lifts. It is not designed to have the ass end of a car hanging off of it like I did. However, I didn’t see why it wouldn’t work so I did it anyway.

Gratuitous butt shot.

Off with the wheels. The lug wrench that came with the Spyder will do, but the impact made it nicer. 21mm socket, if anyone is curious.

Both rear wheels need to be removed.

As you can see the two 10mm bolts holding the license plate have been removed along with the plate. Do not forget about these small electrical clips. Leaving them on when you pull the bumper skin off will embarass you in front of your friends.

Hit all three 10mm screws that are on each side of the bumper skin. Two are where I have my ratchet placed, one is hiding up in the wheel well but is easy enough to spot.

This needs to be done on both sides.

Pop the hood

While hard to see, I’m removing one of the two 10mm bolts that secure the tail light in place.

This needs to be done for both lights.

Removing the electrical clip that is attached to the tail light housing.

This needs to be done for both lights.

Removing the two 10mm bolts that secure the bumper skin to some actual metal under the tail lights.

This needs to be done for both sides.

Using a flathead screwdriver to pop up the five (less if you tend to lose them like me) plastic clips that secure the bumper skin along the top.

Carefully pulling the bumper skin off. Make sure you have an adequate space already lined up for this joker to sit. Basically, its flimsy, oddly shaped and is something you do NOT want to scratch up. I ended up putting it on the roof of my Two Door.

Removing the two vertical bars behind the bumper skin that are held on with a 10mm bolt and 10mm nut.

Removing the rear strut brace. This is held on by two 14mm nuts at the struts and two 14mm bolts at the body. Once you have them out, it lifts up and you can set it aside out of the way.

Don’t forget about these little clip things that secure the third brake light wiring when you go to remove the hood. Also embarassing in front of your friends if you forget.

Removing the four 10mm bolts that hold the rear deck lid to the hinges. Don’t be a dumbass, get a friend to help you with this. Have them hold up one side while you remove the bolts from the other. It is possible to lay a towel out and work one side at a time but its easier to have a buddy hold up one side while you do the other. They can help you put the rear deck lid on a clear horizontal space as well. Be easy, scratching this piece will hurt your feelings.

Just taking a step back to admire the handy work…of the disassembly…the exhaust work is nothing to write home about and I’m glad that I’m finally getting rid of it. It used to be two mufflers, but I blew one out and had to cut it out and weld a piece of pipe in its place. I had to do this pronto because the muffler gave on a Thursday evening and I needed to be at work Friday morning. btw – This nastiness was what I learned to weld on. I expect the next exhaust system will reflect my improved metal sticking abilities (grin).

Popping the clips that secure the wires for the license plate lights.

Removing the rear bumper from the sub frame rails. There are three 14mm bolts holding this on each side.

Removing the O2 sensor. 2zz’s only use one for A/F ratios, plus its common to do a custom exhaust when you put one in your Spyder.

The exhaust for a 1zz would look nothing like the one pictured in this project.

After 30 minutes you too can have a spyder as light as this one.

Using a 19mm socket, loosen the accessory belt tensioner so you can take the belt off while you have the car on the ground.

Lift the car and pop the coolant drain plugs. There are two 12mm bolts. One on each coolant line. As an aside, the draining is helped if you pull the resevoir cap off the tank in the back of the car. As you can see from all the mud under my car, I hate dirt roads. Mine is finally paved but not before a few weeks of extremely nasty rainy weather got to visit and decorate the underside of my car.

Have a catch can of some sort for when the plugs come out.

Pictured here is me removing the two 12mm bolts that hold the clutch slave cylinder to the bellhousing. I used a ratcheting wrench to get these as my air ratchet wouldn’t clear very easily.

Using the impact to zip the transmission mount by the clutch slave cylinder apart. As I recall, that was a 17mm. It may seem strange that I am taking this bolt out, but it needs to come out anyway because it keeps the mount bracket out of your way when you finally lower the engine from the car.

Removing the two 14mm bolts that secure the mount bracket to the bellhousing.

What I ended up with after I removed all that stuff. (one mount down, two to go – the fourth is left on, you’ll see)

Tie the slave cylinder up out of the way so its not stressing the clutch line.

Basically – there are four 12mm bolts that are holding the compressor on. Well that and an electrical clip. Don’t forget about the clip or you will embarass yourself in front of your friends. When removing the bolts, remove the two that are above the compressor first. The bolts are long and thin, so if you do the bottoms first, they won’t come off entirely and simply get in the way when you try to unbolt the top ones.

Untied the slave cylinder and tied the compressor in place. I then used the left over on the wire to secure the slave cylinder to the compressor.

This is the fuel line. More specifically, this is the spot where you should disconnect the fuel line if you intend to pull a 1zz/2zz engine from a Spyder. I simply pressed the white plastic thing together and the rubber line easily lifted off and out of the way.

Keep a rag handy for the little bit of gasoline that will pour out.

Yes, this white plastic thing.

Using a 10mm wrench to remove the bracket that keeps the hydraulic brake line from moving too much.

This is the ABS sensor for the wheel. There is a 10mm bolt that is holding it in place.

Actually removing said 10mm bolt and tucking the sensor up out of my way.

Some random bracket that is held on by a 10mm bolt. Since the hub assembly is coming off, this guy must stay with the car. So I’m taking it loose.

Using Mr. Impact again to zip off the lower 17mm (maybe 14mm, I forget at the moment) bolt that is holding the caliper on.

Removing the upper 17mm (maybe 14mm, I forget at the moment) bolt that is holding the caliper on.

Pulling the caliper off. At which point I balanced it on the forward locator bar for the hub.

Pulling the rotor off. I laid it on the floor out of the way.

Tied the caliper up out of the way so I could unbolt the forward locator bar for the hub.

Unbolting the two 19mm bolts that hold the cup to the strut. Incidentally, this is how you adjust your camber alignment if you’re curious. You buy different diameter sized bolts that allow the cup to tilt in or out a specified number of degrees and tighten them up while holding the hub assembly tilted one way or the other. My friends tried to explain to me that there was rocket science involved in automobile alignments…if they only knew.
btw – caster is not adjustable on these cars, if you have adjusted it you are not concerned with your alignment so much as the butt pillaging that the insurance company is going to give you for wrecking your car.

Removing the 17mm bolt that holds the forward locator bar to the hub. At this point the hub moves really easily.

As you can see.

Every detail shown regarding the hub must be duplicated for the other side of the car.

Removing the three 12mm bolts that hold the battery holder in place. The third one is way down low next to the strut. Its hobbies include making you go find a magnadoodle pen so you can retrieve it when it drops out of sight.

Removed the intake that was behind the battery. I am running a Pelican Racing style intake on my car. Stock intakes will need a little different finagling so I didn’t even go into it here…just remove your entire intake if you would still like to keep up.

Make sure this ground wire comes off the transmission. You will embarass yourself in front of your friends if you don’t when you go to lower the engine out of the car. Its a 10mm or 12mm as I recall.

Remove the 10mm nut holding the starter wire to the fuse panel.

Then take this wire loose and lay it over onto the engine.

All plugs to the ECM have been removed including the four wires that are necessary to integrate to the body harness if you are running a 2zz motor in your Spyder. These wires have to do with the O2 sensor if you’re curious because the Celica GTS keeps its O2 sensor so far away from the engine that it is wired in with the body harness. There are three plugs to the right of the two wiring bundles pictured that must also be removed. They come out with the engine wiring harness.

The scene just before I yank the engine harness through the firewall and lay it on the engine.

Said engine harness yanked through the firewall and laying on the engine.
btw – there are a few little clips for the harness to attach to the transmission that I have not mentioned here, they are pretty obvious when you see them in person and they simply require a flathead screw driver to disconnect.

Right after I laid everything up on the engine and made sure all the wiring junk was separated and out of the way.

The are the shift linkage connections. Just pull the little pin and the washer pops off along with the linkage head. Do not lose those parts.

These little clips tried to hurt my feelings. Basically I pushed the little metal piece down (circled) and forced the linkage (arrow points to it) up with a screwdriver. It popped out. I seem to recall there being a more convenient trick for this, but I don’t know what it is.

Using the impact wrench I zipped the driver’s side transmission mount loose. This was a 17mm I think. 17 or 14… I expect it will be pretty obvious when you start wrenching on it.

This is the modified celica mount used to keep the passenger side of the motor connected. I highly recomend to anyone using a 2zz in their Spyder to get a custom mount. Modifying the celica mount will let you get by, but the other three mounts tend to twist a little because its impossible to elongate the bolt hole enough to sit correctly.

I forget what this looks like on a 1zz, on the 2zz its just a 17mm bolt on the body side, two 14mm bolts on the motor side along with two 14mm nuts on the underside of the bridge mount toward the motor.

I used an old engine stand and laid a board across its legs. Then I placed two tires on the boards to let the motor and transmission sit on. This worked pretty darn well. Once I had the drive train sitting on this, I removed the two 17mm bolts holding the crossmember to the subframe rails and also the 12mm bolt that was holding some kind of bracket for the brake lines. Ignore the detail of the rear sway bar being disconnected. It was not necessary and I put the bolt back right after I took this picture.

Each side of the crossmember has two 17mm bolts and a 12mm bolt that need to be removed.

This is a pic of me lifting the car up from the drivetrain. I don’t recall moving, but apparently I was having some sort of epileptic fit when I pressed the button. Notice how I twisted the motor a bit to better clear the passenger side frame rail. It was at this point that I disconnected the throttle cable. If you forget about the throttle cable you will embarass yourself in front of your friends when you lift the car from the drivetrain.

Another pic to illustrate the twist I put on the drivetrain to clear the passenger subframe rail. BTW – something not pointed out during this is that the 2zz’s have a ground wire connected to the body above the valve cover towards the pullies. If you forget about this, you will embarass yourself in front of your friends when you lift the car from the drivetrain.

Voila – No more engine.

Still no more engine.

Everything that came out with the engine.

Everything I laid on one of my work tables. I keep the related bolts grouped together and move from a top to bottom, left to right motion as I put another pile of bolts on it. This way its easier for me to work backwards and put everything back in its place while I am reassembling.

Thats the whole show as far as I’m aware. The most important tool to use for this task is common sense. Yes that bears repeating. If you have any questions, please direct them to someone who cares.

Photos by Marilyn Murray – Copywrong 2005 my rights reserved and all that jazz.

Jason (Muffdan), Russ (UKtotty) and I did two cars in a leisurely day. Mine took nearly 2 hours, Russ’ was done in 45 minutes! Jason and I then did his car the following week, and it took just about 90 minutes. We can also confirm no differences post or pre 03.

The basic tools for fitting the mounts are 14mm & 17mm sockets (preferably 6 sided) and a torque wrench, though it might help to have same sized (ratchet) spanners, extenders, medium size ratchet as well as a bigger one, all to make the job that little bit easier. You will also need to lift the back of the car up, ramps, jacks, axle stands, take your pick – BUT BE SAFE.

The mounts come in pairs, each very different. You will easily see which is for which once you get the mount off the car.

The two mounts in question can be reached down the middle line of the car, which definitely needs to be jacked to give working room. Make sure you put in axle stands because you may well be applying lots of force to the car. First task is to take off the two back “nappies”. 10mm socket and Phillips screwdriver should be sufficient.

We did the operation on one mount at a time to at least ensure one side of the engine / gearbox remained in its proper position. What would happen if you took both mounts off at the same time, not sure?

The first job on each mount is to take the centre bolt out with 17mm tools. This is done up tight so the torque wrench or a breaker bar could be very useful. With the nut off the bolt should slide out or unscrew fairly easily. Here is a picture of the mount nearest to the front of the car. The large 17mm nut is highlighted as are 2 of the 3 x 14mm bolts.

Please excuse the excess tubing which you might not have, oil feed for turbo and wires to the oil gauges!

You then have to take the mount off the chassis member. 3 bolts in the case of the front one, 4 in the case of the rear. Here is a view of the front one. The centre bolt is already out, and 1 of the 4 mounting bolts is partially undone..

Here is a different view. Note this is the mount that you can put a jack on to lift the car. Also please note from the photographs that there are other nuts and rubber thingies around. These DO NOT have to be undone.

Once your chosen mount is off you can come out from under the car and study the pattern of the existing rubber insert.

Firstly it’s a good idea to give the original rubbers a brush up to release any dirt that may have accumulated. All you then have to do is match the appropriate Kirkosaurus and push it on. Note that there is only one way they can all go, so look at the designs carefully. We noticed on Jason’s rear mount there was a little “nib” on one side of the OEM rubber mount which seemed to stop the Kirk’s mount going fully in. We took this off with a Stanley knife, and afterwards all OK.

Once both sides are in, it is a good idea to squash them together with a vice or “workmate”, so the rubbers were level with the centre bolt sleeve. We also added a smear of washing up liquid to the outer faces so movement within the holding bracket becomes easier when re-fitting.

As they say in all good manuals, installation is the reverse of dismantling. It makes sense to put the centre bolt in to keep everything square, but this can get in the way of the chassis mounting bolts installation.

Again on Jason’s we noticed that one of the chassis mounting bolts on the rear bracket was longer than the others, probably as a result of his engine “takeouts”. This proved very useful. Alignment of the bracket was being a bit difficult. With I a bit persuading we managed to align the bracket with one hole and screw in the longer bolt (the shorter ones would not have reached). We then did this one up and used it to pull the bracket towards the chassis member and align the other bolt holes.

Sorry, don’t know the bolt size (or length), but happy to add it here if somebody can oblige.

The chassis bolts seem to have no particular torque, but the centre bolt nuts are done to 93 NM. The bolts themselves are done to 78 NM on the front one and 89 NM on the rear. Why different – don’t know.

Be prepared for a much better gear change and take-off, but a glass vibrating resonance especially at a cold tick-over or a high gear pull away. We are told it gets better!

<ADDENDUM 2/2/2009 >

I’m afraid I couldn’t cope with the vibration. After much thought it was decided that most of the vibration was not because the mounts were too stiff, but because the new inserts were transmitting resonance back into the vehicle. If you look at the last photograph you will see the flat face of the mount is very close to, if not slightly proud of the centre tube / ring. Having taken the mounts off the car we actually saw the indentation of the metal arm of the mount in the inserts.

So we cut off about 2-3 mms off that face with a hacksaw. Putting the inserts back in they definitely fell back below the metal ring.

Did that on all 4 inserts, put them back on the car, and bingo!!!! Vibration, resonance, noise all gone. I suggest this is a mod to the insert you should thnk about before you even fit them.

There is a thought that the insert might now move a bit, and I suppose could start touching the arm again, with the resonance coming back. If it does the thought is to clamp them together with nut/bolt. I’ll post here if I ever have to go down that route.

Put the back of the car on stands. You will absolutely need a trolley jack later in the procedure, so don’t even dream about trying this with only the emergency jack. At some points, when you’re hauling and shoving at things down there, you’ll be very glad the vehicle is secure.

Remove the rear and center shields (aka: diapers). Note which fasteners are screws and which ones are poppets, as they are just as much fun to refit as they are to remove.

Here’s the rear mount. Easy to get to, easy to remove. Before you unbolt it from the frame, pad your trolley jack saddle and place it beneath the bell housing. You don’t want to lift the motor, you just want to fully take its weight off the mounts.

And here’s the front mount. You’ll have just barely enough room to get to it. Keep your tools at arm’s reach. Unlike the rear mount, with its four bracket bolts, the front mount only has three. That’s the good news. The bad news is that only the lower center is easy to get to. The others require patience and good tools. I’ve circled all three. The one you can’t see is the one that will test you.

I recommend doing the mounts one at a time. You could do them both at once, but if you slip out of alignment, you’ll need friends to help horse the motor back into position. So first I removed the rear mount, and cleaned it thoroughly. That’s the editor way.

Here’s the rear inserts snapping into place. I lubricated the inner part with WD-40, to aid in fitment and hopefully give myself a bit of relief as the mounts resettle. WD-40 will disipate eventually, so I thought this a wise move.

Have your assistant (no photos, I was under the car!) give the jack small inputs until the center holes line up, then shoot the center bolt home. Torque the bracket bolts to 38 ft/lbs, torque the center bolt to 66 ft/lbs.

Here’s the troublesome bolt on the front mount. It actually goes in the other way, but I thought you’d like to see the position. Reinstall the mount, double-check your work, and wipe down and clean and lubricate all the parts you have access to down here. This is a great opportunity since the shields are off and you’re down here anyway. As always, I was pleased to note the general cleanliness and good operating condition of my Spyder.

Driving impressions: No vibration on startup. A good sign. I began to experence some faint vibration or buzzing when launching out of first, and in engaging second gear on rolling starts. It could be worse, but I’m pretty well braced up already with Corky’s and Che’s. A rear STB would probably help. Once into third and beyond there are no vibration effects. In first and second, there’s now no lag on throttle – the accelerator pedal instantly pushes the car forward. Nothing extreme here, but a general sense of things being tightened up and more solid-state, more fly-by-wire. I suspect my 0-60 time is slightly improved. I may add more comments later after the mounts break in fully, a period I expect to take between four to eight weeks, depending on much I get to run the car.

PITA factor: Minimal, maybe two brewskies. Aligning the front mount bracket bolts took a long time, as it was difficult to force the polyurethane blocks through the bracket. I used a screwdriver through the center bolt track to horse the mount up and down, side to side, until the bolts finally seated.