Hello all,

I'm pulling my 6 speed to get behind it to fix a main seal leak, but also to inspect it and make sure it's ok, plus do stuff like the stainless steel hoses and such.

My question is this: It's a 2003 with the external slave cylinder. When watching videos of removal, I noticed there seem to be a lot of different bolt count on the bell housing, some say there are as many as 14 bolts, some say there are 4 bolts on the bottom going in reverse, and so on.

I believe I have removed all the "big" bolts from all the way around, including the hidden ones on top, and I have removed 2 bolts on the bottom that were in reverse of the those bolts. Are there other bolts still in there? I ffigured I would ask so I can look more closely , as I don't want to do anything too stupid here. Bolts that hold starter are removed as part of this so far.

Also, is there any special thing to pulling off the transmission , sometimes one has to muck with the clutch fork. sometimes it's better to push it up a bit then pull it our.

I'm not too worried here, I've pulled a lot of transmissions, but just taking a little extra time as this is my first with this car.

I'll probably be replacing the clutch, flywheel, master and slave cylinder while in there just to make sure they are solid.

Thanks.

 

This is actually one of the easiest transmissions I've ever pulled.

My trick for easy transmission installation though is get a few extra of those long bellhousing bolts, cut the head off of it so it's basically just a threaded dowel then install them back into the block. Helps a ton with aligning a transmission if you are on jackstands and don't have an adjustable angle transmission adapter for your service jack.

On a car lift it's unnecessary since you can see so much better and can get that alignment straight SOOOOOO much quicker.

As for bolts, here's a snippet straight from the service manual.



Don't forget to put that breather bracket back onto the top bolt, that's the only one I ever forget.

 

Thank you , perfect, I found the one I didn't catch. You are correct, that thing just came right now without issue.

The whole reason I pulled it was to see if there was rear main seal leak (the main reason the person was selling the car, he had paid someone but it was leaking just as bad.

the good news and bad new was a bit funny. Looks like the person who he paid didn't know how to do this correct.

1 - He didn't drop the oil pan, so it's just smashed in there, it was obviously not done correctly,
2 - The stupid *** who did it forgot to even put the gasket for the oil pain, he left it off....so that's the main reason it's leaking like a sieve. I feel sorry the the guy I bought it from, that shop was a ripoff and obviously had no idea how to do this job, and didn't even look at a manual or a video.

While that's out, I see the motor mounts don't look awesome, I suspect they might be broken, so I am pulling and replacing those too, especiallt since I have to lift the engine to get the upper out of the way.

Thanks for your help.

 

Yeah it's an absolute motherF putting the RMS in without dropping the pan. It's possible, but it makes a huge mess with the RTV sealant.

There's two small bolts mounted horizontally at the rear up inside that "window" area by the flywheel, don't forget those.

Some other upgrades you might consider while it's all apart since they're all accessible with the front crossmember removed.

-Lower oil pan spacer
-Oil cooler
-Headers

 

Good thoughts, Oil cooler is something I might do, we shall see. I just want this thing back and in decent running condition first, then I suspect my money will be on suspension next if it's needed.

But since on the subject, just an opinion, do you like a specific set of headers and oil cooler (like Mishimoto) or there are so many to choose from. I'm still running the stock exhaust, no mods on this car.

 

No real preference tbh. Even cheap headers are very decent for the DE. It used to be that cheap headers (for all engines) typically had a thinner flange and you would end up going through exhaust manifold gaskets, nowadays even the cheapo companies seem to use good flanges and the modern multi layer gaskets do an exceptional job.

Obviously higher end brands like Mishimoto you are getting a better product though, I'm cheap and I'm ok with fixing headers when they crack so I usually just run cheapo ebay stuff for things like that.

Out of that list I would consider the lower oil pan spacer mandatory though, even if you skip the rest you DEFINITELY should put in the pan spacer which adds an extra 3/4 quart of oil to the crankcase.

If you ever plan on going to the track (autoX) with the car you should definitely think about the oil cooler as well, for street use (even pretty rough street use) it's definitely not necessary though, occasional 1/4 mile use it's not really necessary either since you have such long cool down times usually. If your local drag strip isn't that busy though and you end up hot lapping a lot then you might reconsider the oil cooler.

 

At least right now, this car is just going to be a daily driver. If I was going to track it, oil cooler would be mandatory, I agree, it's what I run on my other track cars.

For now, horsepower seems ok, I don't really want to put in headers at this time, just get it running nicely.

Right now, I am working on getting those motor mounts off. Such a funny convoluted method to use: stubby 14mm, 14mm hex, and extension. Hopefully it works just like in the videos!

 

14mm torque adapter makes life MUCH easier with those motor mounts. Such a dumb design.