full DIY: R18 engine pull, clutch replacement *pic heavy*

[deltatechx]

Here's a full DIY on the removal of the R18 with manual tranny out of my '06 Civic LX sedan at 227,000 miles. The engine stalled which turned out to be due to a fractured friction disk.

Now, I didn't have access to a cherry picker (engine lift on wheels) so I had to resort to a ratcheting cable hoist attached to my mom's garage door frame. This meant that I had to be able to roll the car once the engine was lifted out, so I actually reattached the hub to the struts and put the wheels back on once the cv-axles were pulled out of the tranny. If you have access to a cherry picker you can just keep the car on jack stands and not worry about reassembling the suspension until you put the engine back in.

First thing's first, remove the battery (put the wiper blades vertical first). Then drain all of the fluids (engine oil, tranny oil, power steering fluid, clutch fluid, and coolant) which must be disposed of properly, dumping these directly into the environment is illegal and harmful to the ecosystem. The drain points are show later in the DIY.

Unfortunately I do not have pics of removing the bumper or crash brace. Removing the bumper is very simple, there is a screw on either side in the wheel wells, then two hex bolts under the plastic piece that surrounds the hood latch and plastic clips on the bottom of the bumper, you can then pull the bumper forward to remove it. The crash brace has 3 bolts on either side which are very easy to see.

To make things easier, I disassembled the front of the doghouse before doing anything else, this gives you more room to work with and is pretty much necessary to remove the engine in the end. You start by removing the bumper, a/c condenser, and radiator. Your a/c system is under very high pressure, take your car to a shop to have them pull the coolant out for you before disconnecting any a/c components. Start by removing the coolant hoses and then the fill neck (2 bolts hold it to the front brace) from the radiator. then remove the following bolts:



The condenser and radiator then easily lift out (there's a sensor on the bottom of the radiator that must be unplugged along with the electric fans - sorry no pics). Next remove the hood latch, there are three bolts holding it to the front brace and a plug on the back, also unclip the release cable from the front brace:



(I did this in a different order, the order I'm posting is what I believe to be better from my overall experience with this DIY) Next you need to remove the front brace:





remove the wire harness for the cooling fans before lifting the brace out:



Now you have a nice, large opening to work with:


(the labeled wires are custom, they won't be in you engine bay)

Now to make some more room in the back of the engine bay. Remove the large plastic piece that fits between the wiper blades (it's perforated for the HVAC intake, it has a couple clips in the front that hold in on, and a weather seal). Then you'll have access to these bolts to remove the strut brace (three bolts on either side and one in the middle):





Now you have more room to work with:



Now remove the intake pipe:



Remove the top of the filter box (unhook the clips around the box and unplug the MAF sensor), then remove the bottom portion of the box (it has 2 or 3 bolts holding it down).

Here's where we stand:



Disconnect the power cable from the fuse box and let it hang off to the side:



remove the ECU/ECM (it has a black plastic cover, just pull it off). The ECU/ECM has three plugs between it and the fuse box, push down and toward the fuse box on the outer latch of each plug, then pull them out. Next remove the mounting bolts from the ECU/ECM and set it in a safe place:





now remove the ECU/ECM bracket:





the fuse box can now be moved if needed (there are 2 more tabs on the back of the fuse box that will release it). Now remove the battery tray:





remove the intake resonator chamber:



unplug the wire harness and power plug next to the driver side strut tower:



unhook the harness from its mount (do this with all of these green clips):



unbolt the main harness from the transmission and let it hang out of the way:



now you can remove the shift cable mount. Unbolt these three bolts, pull the cotter pins and slide the shifter cables off of the "gear actuators?" then put the washers and cotter pins back so you don't lose them:





Now remove the heater hoses, there may still be some coolant in them so be ready with some paper towels:



move the hoses out of the way:



disconnect the clutch hydraulic hose from the solid line, have an oil pan ready to catch the clutch fluid (open the clutch reservoir to allow all the fluid to drain out:



The hose just pulls through the bottom of the bracket after the clip is removed:


opening the reservoir will allow it to drain quicker:


remove the tranny mount brace and set it to the side:



disconnect the vacuum hose for the brake booster from the intake manifold:



disconnect the fuel vapor line from the throttle body:



unbolt the power steering line bracket from the back of the intake manifold:



disconnect the a/c lines form the compressor:



Now remove the upper dog bone and counter weight, and the ground wire:



Now you can jack your car up (loosen the lug nuts on the front wheels first). Once the car is secure on a set of jack stands drain the power steering fluid (open the reservoir first and make sure you have a drain pan ready). Just remove the clamp and pull the hose off of the pipe, fluid will drain from both the pipe and hose:



if you have an extra drain pan you can drain the tranny fluid now too (the drain plug uses a 3/8" ratchet, no socket is needed):



While your waiting for the PS and tranny fluid to drain, disconnect the downpipe from the catalytic converter:



now unbolt the lower dog bone and half shaft bearing bracket:



and then there are 2 more bolts above the bearing, here's one on the top left of the pic, the other is on the opposite side of the bearing:



remove the access plate and the 2 lower tranny bolts:



here's the tranny without the access plate:



now remove the wheels and disconnect the hubs from the struts (disconnect the brake line mount and the ABS sensor wire from the struts first):


don't let the hub hang by the ABS wire or brake line, you could damage them. Use a piece of wire or string to tie it up.

The passenger side axle should just pull straight out (pull on the half shaft or cv-housing, not the cv-axle, you could damage the boot. Once the passenger side is out, lay it down like this on the sub frame and then bolt the strut back to the hub (it doesn't have to be tightened to spec just finger tight should be fine):



the driver side cv-axle may need some convincing to come loose, use a prying tool to separate the cv-axle from the tranny if needed:



Lay the driver's cv-axle the same way you set down the passenger's side and then put the hub and strut back together:



here's the axle seal (you must replace both of these before putting the engine back together, I forgot to and had to take the cv-axles back out to put the new seals in because they were leaking):



now that the power steering is drained, disconnect the pressure line from the PS pump:



and then the feed hose from the reservoir:



now slowly lower the car back down while you keep an eye on the cv-axles to make sure they don't snag on anything. Attach the engine lift chain to the engine:





I don't know if these lift locations are correct, but they worked just fine for me. The passenger side already had a bolt in that location but for the driver side I had to use a 14 mm bolt from the tranny mount brace. The lift chain I used was a rent-a-tool from Autozone, the driver side bracket actually damaged the EGR valve slightly when I pulled the engine out (broke the plastic connector and bent a couple pins), but it was easily fixed and it still works fine. Now break loose these bolts/nuts on the engine and tranny mounts:





now for the last thing to disconnect, the fuel line. First, pull this cover off:



then take a fuel line quick disconnect tool and press the two green ends together until you can pull the fuel line off. Tie the fuel line up, don't let it hang.



Be sure to check around the entire engine to make sure nothing is still connected. Once you're sure it's fully separated from the car, start to pull the engine up. After you pull some of the weight off the car fully remove the engine and tranny bolts you loosened earlier and then fully remove the tranny mount (it takes some wiggling to get it out from under the clutch line, be careful and take your time, it would really suck to damage the clutch line:



engine ready to be pulled:


after the bolts and tranny mount are removed, pull the engine up until you can maneuver it out through the front of the engine bay. I didn't use any real technique with this, I just kept fiddling with it till it came out. Once the engine is out, either push the car away from the engine or move engine away from the car so you can set it down on the floor (carefully!!!). Slowly lower the engine until it just sets some of it's weight on the ground, then break loose all the tranny and starter bolts after disconnecting the neutral switch and speed sensor:

here's the engine out of the car:




and the engine bay:




neutral switch:


speed sensor and rear tranny bolt:


starter:


then pull the starter off the block

now the tranny bolts:


the back bolt on this photo is the same as the bolt on the above picture:




After all the bolts are loose, pull them all the way out and then slowly pull the tranny off of the engine (it's fairly light, I can easily carry it around the garage by myself.

Here's the tranny off the engine:



and the clutch assembly:



the circled bolts on the clutch assembly are holding the pressure plate to the flywheel (they're 10 mm, 12 point bolts). You can see where the throw-out bearing ground into the clutch fingers and all the shiny specs around and on the pressure plate are damaged areas from metal fragments hitting it at high speed.

Here's the culprit of the jammed starter:


a small piece of metal between the starter gear and flywheel.

I have more pics of the clutch assembly taken apart and of the engine back in the car, but they're on my mom's PC atm, so I'll post those as soon as I get them.

If you have any questions or comments, I'll be happy to answer them.

[Cr8tive_leo]

That's awesome, thanks for the DIY!

[Yodums]

Very nice contribution! I'm sure it will be very helpful to many people.

[Blktrax]

Well thats quite impressive, its the first i've seen one of theses motors come out out the front like that. Granted in the shop with a lift they come out the bottom much easier.

Anyway you are where you are, just a suggestion, make sure the a/c lines are capped or plugged. If too much mositure gets in the a/c system you can damage the evaporator/dryer. The system is going to need to be put under vacuum and recharged, otherwise you run a higher risk of premature a/c compressor failure.

[[hwy]Hagen]

dang very impressive. i give you props for taking out your whole engine as well as tranny must have took you some time too complete.

[oj88]

Wow!!! Pretty hardcore. You lost me after you got the radiator off. Nice DIY... +99999 for you.

And oh, that flat rectangular thing is the ECU/ECM. The MICU is behind the fuse box inside the cabin.

[dominicanto17dr]

Bro you are GOD! Crazy enough to post a DIY thread! It be cool if they had a *mechanic of the month*

[deltatechx]

Originally Posted by Blktrax

Well thats quite impressive, its the first i've seen one of theses motors come out out the front like that. Granted in the shop with a lift they come out the bottom much easier.

Anyway you are where you are, just a suggestion, make sure the a/c lines are capped or plugged. If too much mositure gets in the a/c system you can damage the evaporator/dryer. The system is going to need to be put under vacuum and recharged, otherwise you run a higher risk of premature a/c compressor failure.

lol, thanx. forgot to mention that. I just used masking tape to cover the holes, it worked great and stayed sealed even after I drove the car a few thousand miles (was waiting for the high pressure line to get in). Pretty much any shop you take it to will pull a vacuum whenever recharging the a/c system, especially if you tell them a hose/pipe or the condenser was off. It was only $45 to have a local shop pull the vacuum and fill up the a/c system, 4,000 miles later it's still blowing cold with no extra noises.

Originally Posted by [hwy]Hagen

dang very impressive. i give you props for taking out your whole engine as well as tranny must have took you some time too complete.

It took me a while to take out because I was waiting for parts so I took my time so I could take plenty of pics. Plus I'd never taken the R18 out of a car before and I didn't have a shop manual, so I was learning as I went. Putting the engine back in was quick (just a few hours) since I knew exactly where everything went. If I had a full tool box and a cherry picker I could probably pull and replace the engine within a day now. I also took the time to clean every single part of the engine and engine bay, that thing was so dirty, it looked brand new whenever I put it back together.

Originally Posted by oj88

Wow!!! Pretty hardcore. You lost me after you got the radiator off. Nice DIY... +99999 for you.

And oh, that flat rectangular thing is the ECU/ECM. The MICU is behind the fuse box inside the cabin.

Thanx, I don't know where I got the idea that it was the MICU, I probably saw something relating to the MICU while skimming a thread and it just popped the picture of the ECU under the hood into my mind and stuck that name with that image. LOL, my memory is real wonky like that. Thanx again I'll go ahead and edit it.

[radiocontrolhead]

You couldn't just remove the transmission?

[el_ben2]

wow! great DIY...
but after seen that its a lot of work... i preffer to pay instead of trying lol
God bless the cheap mexican labor rates

[deltatechx]

Originally Posted by el_ben2

wow! great DIY...
but after seen that its a lot of work... i preffer to pay instead of trying lol
God bless the cheap mexican labor rates

$1,000 just for labor is cheap?

[Zeuceone]

very nice work.

[amerkel08]

wow that about 100000 miles a year! what have you been up?

[deltatechx]

Originally Posted by amerkel08

wow that about 100000 miles a year! what have you been up?

actually it's about 180,000 a year.

I deliver meds to nursing homes in KY.

[Civic Pride]

Congrats on all that work.

So all that has to be done just to replace the clutch? wow i was thinking it was alot easier than that.

[deltatechx]

Originally Posted by Civic Pride

Congrats on all that work.

So all that has to be done just to replace the clutch? wow i was thinking it was alot easier than that.

I didn't know what was wrong with it, so I just figured I'd take the whole engine/tranny out and give it a good look over and cleaning since it had so many miles on it. I was glad to see it was just a jammed starter though.

[shady_FA]

thyat has got to be the best DIY I have ever seen