1997 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 5vzfe motor swap without removing transmission

Hello everybody,

I'm new to this forum. I have a couple of questions and thank you for taking the time to read this. My 1997 Tacoma has bad piston rings and cylinder #4, so i'm going to get a remanufactured motor and drop it in. I've been watching Timmy the Toolman. The videos show the motor removal with the transmission out already Completely disconnecting the wiring harness from the ECU. My question is can I take the motor out without removing the transmission. Can I take the motor out without disconnecting it from the ECU and just leaving the wiring harness zip tied out of the way. Does anybody have any experience doing this and what snags they ran into getting the motor out. Any feedback and links with the procedures would be much appreciated. To say the least I'm a little intimidated by this job. I've done other motor swaps before but this is probably the most complicated one I've done. Any advice would be helpful.

 

When the mexicans swapped mine out.....3Rz.....they left everything..
just pulled back....

 

When they put the new engine in the whole drive line had shifted back an inch...

they got it in but at great pains to pull forward back onto the engine mounts...

I saw in another thread that you have to keep whole tranny from sliding back on you....that is, if you leave the tranny in...
it naturally wants to slide back....


When it was all put back together......the exposed amount of the slip spline was now too much...
....so ended up having to use a spacer to push whole drive line forward......

 

Getting the engine installed again onto the transmission is much easier to install the engine then put the transmission up into place.

It can be done with the transmission in place But your going to need at least 3 people to make it happen or spend hours moving from place to place gaining a inch of progress every few moves maybe.

You can disconnect the engine harness on the engine but it is easier to remove the 3ecm plugs at least to me.

Rather then all the points the engine harness is attached.

After all it is your job do what will work best for you.

Good Luck!

 

I pulled the engine and left the trans and tcase in place and it took 3 or 4 of us to wrangle it all back together when dropping the engine back in. It's a bear like @Bivouac stated above. I think it's actually quicker and easier to pull the engine out with the transmission attached.