Remove engine without trans?

[sethro_GT]

Quick question. The factory manual states the whole drivetrain comes out as a unit. I don't want to take the trans. Question is will this suck and I should just pull the trans with it or go for it?

Thanks

[irishkev90]

Would probably be easiest to pull them as one piece. Curious, why do you want to pull just the motor?

[therieldeal]

why don't you want to pull the trans? it might be possible to remove one and not the other but you'll spend more time to do it that way.

[Rocketman]

Pull them as one, significantly easier. I dropped the transmission out the bottom once, and only once - never again. Theres' no room to work

[therieldeal]

I can drop the trans only quicker than pulling the whole shebang (don't have to deal with exhaust, fuel lines, wiring harness, etc, etc, etc) but if you're pulling the motor the amount of "extra" stuff you have to do to also pull the transmission is minimal.

The only exception i can think of is if you have an axle that's STUCK in the transmission. I've seen it happen.

[jay]

The only reason I'd remove just engine is if I didn't have access to a cherrypicker. I can lift an engine outta the bay. Bolted to a trans? Well, no, not quite so much...
The way to do this is on a goldern lift. I simply HAVE to get a shop built and one of them darlins installed in it. One o' these days!

[azgtx]

Out the bottom with it all. Then jack the car up and slide it out. Put it in the same way...push it all back under..passenger side is best..let the car down some and then lift the lot back into the car. By far easier than out the top and dealing with the hood. Makes it a one man job if you have to. Trying to put the tranny in with the motor in the car is a beotch..especially on your back. just my .02

[sethro_GT]

Ha ha, I did just the engine. No problem. Well, I had to take the entire front of the engine off to get the clutch clear, but since I'm tearing it down to re-ring it....

Now I'm faced with a problem of finding pistions, too bad I sold my 7.8 pistons a while back. I suspect running a miata 9:1 long nose long block with unknown miles on 10 psi boost killed the head gasket. Anyone think putting 9:1 pistons back in is a mistake?

[Wildfire0310]

Ha ha, I did just the engine. No problem. Well, I had to take the entire front of the engine off to get the clutch clear, but since I'm tearing it down to re-ring it....

Now I'm faced with a problem of finding pistions, too bad I sold my 7.8 pistons a while back. I suspect running a miata 9:1 long nose long block with unknown miles on 10 psi boost killed the head gasket. Anyone think putting 9:1 pistons back in is a mistake?

People have been running well over 10psi in mx5 without any issues. Honestly the issue when boosting mx5 engines isn't the pistons but the rods. You'd be kinda crazy to not keep running the 9:1, as it will get more power overall and also more power off boost

[sethro_GT]

Thanks for the comment, I feel better about my decision to just ball hone the cylinders and re-ring it (using a chrome top ring). On that note, it looks like the standard miata had 4mm oil ring whereas the auto has 3mm. I have the 3mm so it was definitely an auto.

Scratch that, I did some research and one shouldn't use chrome when just honing and reusing pistons.