After getting the engine bolted up to the bellhousing on the Scion, the road ahead is paved with a bunch of wires, hoses and other small hardware that was hooked up to the engine initially. Some things were more problematic than others, such as the intake manifold, but in the end, things started going together pretty fast. I had to make sure of the placement of the wire harness before I placed the intake against the engine, so I didn't miss anything. Once the intake is bolted up, any plugs or ground straps won't be accessible. With the wire harness in place, I was able to plug up some of the other loads like the coils and a couple other devices on the passenger side of the engine I did find that some of the sensors on this engine were different from the plugs, which would go along with the idea that the engine did come from a different car. Far be it for me to think that Toyota/Scion should use standardized sensors/plugs for all of their cars to keep things simple. Seems like all these car makers overcomplicate things now to where the same engine can have multiple devices with different plugs, making for no interchangeability versus how engines were 50 years ago when the same engine would work in 20 different cars/trucks/vans. Whatever. Well with the intake done, the next problematic area was the belt tensioner. I had to remove one of the studs since it was interfering with the placement of the engine. The stud kept hitting the frame, so it had to come out. Of course, once the engine was in, I had to drop the engine low enough to clear the bottom of the frame to place the stud back in. With that done, it was time for the engine/transmission mounts, starting with the passenger side unit, right by the belt tensioner. Unfortunately, the passenger engine mount, the only actual engine mount, is actually bad as well. When I tried to ratchet the bolt down, the core spun around within the mount body. I had to use the impact wrench along with the force of the mount bracket pushing down on the center section to be able to force drive the bolt in place. Of course, this will have to be done to remove the bolt as the core will spin around when trying to extract the bolt. For right now I have to get the engine suspended so I can be able to run the thing once everything is hooked up. I moved on and got the engine/transmission lined up enough using the jacks under the pair to be able to get the rear transmission mount bolted down. With things opened up I was able to access the mount from the top of the car versus from the side and under like when I had to replace the mount in the recent past. The last mount for now was the left side transmission mount. After bolting the mount to the frame I was able to jack the transmission straight up to line the bolt holes up and secure the transmission in place. With everything bolted up minus the front transmission mount, I was able to remove the jacks from under the powertrain as well as the engine crane and its chains. I won't be able to mount the front mount until I get the torque converter bolts in place since there is the crossmember that bolts up from the rear mount to the front, holding the front mount itself, as well as blocking access to the access hole for the torque converter. Once the TC is secured I can put the crossmember and mount up, finalizing the full securing of the powertrain to the car. From there all that's left is hooking up the remaining bits and pieces to the engine. The main reason for trying to get the mounts in and the engine crane free from the car is to be able to place the hood back on the car, even temporarily. I didn't bolt it down on the count of needing to remove it to make access easier without having to duck under the hood while its open. But being able to place the hood down will at least protect the engine from the rain if we happen to get any sudden downpours. There's also the matter of keeping chickens out from the engine bay, last thing I need is chicken shit on any of the hardware on the engine. At least now, we can say we're almost done. I'll have to remove the starter to make it easier to rotate the torque converter to line up the first bolt hole then I'll have to use the crank with a socket/breaker bar to rotate the engine to get to the other bolt holes. After replacing the starter, I do want to test crank the engine without trying to start it just to verify that everything is kosher and not going to bind or otherwise tear itself up. I'll probably ratchet turn the engine manually first to verify everything turns, then try a test crank with the starter as well. If all is well I can then finish hooking the remaining sensors/wires and hoses, install the exhaust manifold, AC compressor, etc to complete the reinstallation.
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