I've swapped engines on quite a few cars including a 535 BMW but this car is insane! There are so many wires and hoses. I'm labeling everything but I don't know if I'll get it back together.

Right now I'm close to getting ready to cherry pick the engine/tranny out. It's a quattro so I have to detach the drive shaft. Do I also need to detach all of the front cat parts? Bentley warns about 10 degrees of moving the exhaust. I've got to detach it so can I just slide it off the studs or do I need to detach all the way back to the split in the exhaust pipe?

I'm really surprised at the lack of detail to remove the engine either on forums or Bentley.

Thanks for any suggestions on this last phase of engine removal.

 

My son had no trouble removing his engine & Trans. by removing the front of the vehicle and simply bringing the assembly forward on a cherry picker. He used the Bentley manual for removal tips.

By bringing it forward vs. lowering, he just unbolted the downpipe from the cat.

Search this thread under member "Ballykid", thread name "HELP, oil leak" for some pics.

 

What about my question about the cat? Do you know if I can just slide it off the 3 studs or do I have to detach it from the frame?

 

Just remove the three nuts from each of the cats and move the engine forward. You will have to lift and move or tilt for the down pipe to clear the steering rack.

 

So don't try and remove the 3 nuts where the cat meets the turbo? My car's cat makes a 90 degree turn and then meets the turbo.

I'm wondering if I can push the cat over about an inch to clear the studs on the turbo or will that amount of movement hurt the flex pipe of the cat.

I've pulled engines before but this one has many more things connected to it. I saw your son's pics. How did he remember where everything went!?

 

Hey there!

So, just to clear things up. The part you are calling the cat is actually called the down pipe (dp). The dp connects to the turbo with three nuts that are on studs which are threaded into the housing on the turbo. The other end of the dp actually splits into two smaller pipes and then those two connect to the mid-pipe. The mid-pipe contains two cats at the front end of the pipe, the back end of it connects to the rest of the exhaust system (silencer and muffler).

With this said, the Bentley manual wants you to remove the nuts connecting the dp to the mid-pipe, which again is actually where the cats are. There are three nuts on each cat that need to be removed. With this disconnected, you will then have to man handle the engine to get it out. You will have to tilt the engine on a angle and lift it at the same time in order to maneuver the dp up and over the power steering rack so you dont damage it.

By the way, the reason the manual says to do it like this is because the 3 nuts the connect the turbo to the dp are typically seized on, and you more than likely dont have the space to get at the nuts from any angle. Another issue is if they are seized, the entire stud will come out, which makes it more difficult to connect the dp back to the turbo when the engine goes back in. I did it the way the manual said to do it. It wasnt easy by any means, but well worth it in the end.

I can post a photo of the stock dp later tonight if you want. When i put mine back together I put a 3in dp from 42 Draft Designs on just because i was there and got rid of my cats. So the stock dp and cats are sitting in my attic right now.

I hope this helps!

 

That helps, thanks for the clarification. I see what you mean now.

I'm at the point of almost trying to hoist the engine. The last thing are the 3 10mm 12-point bolts holding the driveshaft on. How the heck do you get to those? Did you have to remove the crossframe member?

 

Well when I did it, I did drop the subframe and let it hang towards the back of the car as stated in the manual. However, the drive shaft bolts I did before the subframe. I used a 12pt box wrench and a large flat head screw driver. It was a PITA, but I got it. They are torqued on fairly tight for the short wrench that I had, so I used the screw driver to try and get it caught between two of the bolts at a time and use it to hold the drive shaft in place so it didn't rotate while trying to break them free.

 

Dumb question but which side did you take the bolts off of? Engine facing or rear facing side? There are three bolts on each side. Bentley seems to show engine side.

Did you get to them from underneath or above?

 

Haha no such thing as a dumb question with these cars. I got them off on the side facing the engine, but either way will work. I got them from below the car. Just do whatever is easiest for you to get at