Removing the old motor (part 2)

Some one said to me a few weeks ago, " Those Citations are nice cars, but I hear changing the motor is like disassembling a swiss watch. Guess with the Honda that won't be a big problem in the future." I think he must have heard about removing the upper engine mounting plate. This was a long exercise in contortion and frustration. Removing the obvious 6-7 bolts was not so hard, only to find that I was not half done. Under the plate covering the fuel filler and outlet were another dozen or so countersunk allen heads. But they were not blind. Each one required snaking a 3/8" wrench underneath in extremely tight quarters to capture the nut. I think it took me a good hour and a half to get them all out (and most of the nuts and washers are still somewhere in the bottom of the car right now). But once removed it makes for fairly easy access to everything else.

In the morning my dad is stopping in to help. A few odds and ends to remove (throttle cable, sway adjuster cable, hot cable to the starter, and brake/clutch lines) and the car will be ready to split. Sure would hate to have to do something like this at the track though.

Right side of motor bay. The oil system is a regular "bundle of snakes". No way you are putting those on (or taking them off) with the motor in the car. Looks like they really need to be in place before the 'engine cradle' subframe is bolted on. This is certainly one area where the later model Van Diemens are much easier to deal with. Here's hoping that the Honda install is a lot less cluttered (and it should be).

Removing the coolant connections from the outlets behind the oil filter allowed me to drain the system partially with only a moderate amount of mess...

Water plumbing removed from the top of the motor... Exposing the top engine mount and stressed plate. Looks easy enough to remove in this pic. Looks can be deceiving...