Remove the upper intake manifold and you can get to them easily. But, from under neath you can get to them with the right combination of swivels, extensions, etc.

Long extensions with u joints...........angled back by the middle of the tranny will get to them

Those are the hardest two bolts in the whole operation to remove. I couldn't get to them myself, but my son who has thinner arms was able to reach up from underneath. Best of luck.

i've just about run out of all my options with the swivel joints and extensions. So I will try removing the UIM and see how that works out. Keep you guys posted. And RR you are a god for this write up, saved me a ton of money and hassle... well more money then hassle but you get the idea haha.

Let us know how it works out for you.

You need 3-4 ft of extensions to get at them easily :) Not sure if you tried that or not....

If I do get my rx8 this weekend by next weekend if engine is truly bad I'm doing this thanks

Just to Clear things up for everyone The Automatic has 6 (4 TOP and 2 BOTTOM) Transmission Bell Housing Bolts. Otherwise once the TC and everything else is seperated and you are wondering if the flexplate is touching, when really its a sixth bolt, :uhh:.....:banghead: Lets just say you are gonna get put behind a couple of hours lining stuff back up to remove that 6th bolt.

This DIY was VERY helpful however, it has many Steps that were skipped and most of the pictures that were posted were of the easy and obvious steps, what I think people needed pictures of are of what wasnt taken of. I.E. Where to run the Socket-UJoint-Extensions (like 4 ft really) when taking off the Bellhousing bolts, if you dont know you are left in the dark trying to figure it out. I took pictures of the whole process (maybe about 150 pictures) of a more step by step DIY.

Some pictures like taking off all the coolant hoses/oils line/ electircal plus are almost the obvious and could have been excluded or labeled all in one picture since they kind of dont matter in which order they come off anyways.

Pictures of how to twist and turn the passenger engine bracket to get it out would be helpful LOL, it was like a maze.

But yeah, it was very helpful. Thanks. Look for a AT D.I.Y. soon.

The removal is really easy, almost as easy as changing a clutch, you just need a better guide. I would call this a chopped up D.I.Y. .... especially if someone is not mechanically inclined and doesnt have an idea of how a removal takes place.

I found it easier to remove the Engine Mount BOLT/NUT through the side wheel well housings with a socket, ratchet and cheater bar.

Tools that I used were


Cheater Bar for Ratchet (I dont trust Impact Guns, have broken bolts in the passed, a cheater bar you can slowly turn a bolt and applying more pressure little by little)
WD40 for getting coolant hoses and Engine Mount Bolts off (big Pain in the Ass)
2- Jacks
4- Jack Stands
1- Engine Hoist
2- 20" 1/2-inch drive extensions
1- 1/2-inch drive Ratchet
1- 1/2-inch to 3/8"inch reducer
1- 3/8-inch U joint/ elbow or w/e
8 through 18mm Ratcheting Wrench set
8 through 19mm Deep & Short Socket w/ extentions Set for 3/8-inch ratchet
2- 20" or so PryBars

Ill include in the DIY what size socket, deep or short or which wrench would work best for what ever you are trying to remove. Also list what color and size bolt you are trying to remove.

For people with an AT, the easiest and almost effortless way to get the TC unbolted and keep it from spinning is to remove the inspection plate at the bottom and the starter from the side. Once you have both openings you want to use a Wrench (closed end) to hold one of the NUTs on the flex plate through the inspection plate opening on the bottom of the tranny and turn the flex plate up until the wrench is against the opening toward the driver side, a TQ BOLT should be almost perfectly place where the Starter opening is at for removal. Use a Short Socket 14mm and Ratchet and remove a TC bolt. The Wrench on the NUT in the Inspection plate opening will hold the flexplate from spinning. Rotate the flexplate and removal all of the remaining 3 bolts the same way, they line up perfectly for removal this way.

or You can give me some time to do the DIY

Also, RR or MODs can u please clean up the mess or trash talk of MM and RR, it was pretty useless and didnt use any info for removal (and there is pages of it)

You might not need to remove the underdive pulley but its better to remove the Underdrive pulley for engine removal, just do it like RR said, more clearance and less that will/can get in the way.

Welp, after going back and forth with Mazda for 4 months, they have decided me taking my car in for service 2 weeks outside the warranty, and finding that my engine is toast, is my fault since I didn't take it in sooner to check for a issue that was undetectable.

Yeah, pretty pissed off right now, but anyway, thanks for this writeup, as it seems I will be pulling and replacing an engine in the near future.

Anyone needing OEM mazda parts (individual parts) should check with Ray at Malloy Mazda. He's a very popular supplier with the FD RX7 crowd and I obtain many of my parts from him. He'll beat mazdatrix' price easily. He's the best option for oem mazda parts if you are NOT in mazdacomp.

Google the contact info, don't want to post here in case it's against some rule to help members.

i do agree with the method of removing all the auxiliaries

what i dont get is why you do it the hard way?

you stand a chance of damaging qute a few fluids lines, not to mention possible damaging other finer parts

its way easier lossening the 12 bolts under the car and jacking the entire chassis into the air

that way you have the engine gearbox and subframe still on the wheels and you can obviously not move the car

we remove engines and replace within a 24hr period

your way has to many concequences and the chances of a inexperienced mechanic actually breaking more than one part has propably happned many times

the way the workshop manual explains, is so easy that a total bigining worker with no mechanical experience can do it without damaging any part of the car

Most DIY'ers (to include myself) do not have the capability to lift and hold the chassis safely into the air 36" to clear the engine and sub frame. They also do not have anything that is capable of holding and rolling the engine, trans, and sub frame assembly out from under the chassis.

That procedure also requires significantly more storage space for the engine, trans, and subframe after it is removed from the car. Many DIY'ers will be working in a single bay residential garage and the car takes up nearly the entire bay by itself. Now where are they supposed to put the sub frame etc. when it comes out?

That method also permanently immobilizes the chassis. My method allows you to easily roll the chassis out of the way once engine removal is done, giving you the entire garage to tear down, rebuild, and reassemble the engine.

I have done this R&R procedure at least 10 times now and have never damaged anything. One of those times I did bend the upper a/c metal line a little bit as the flywheel caught it on the way out, but it wasn't punctured or significantly damaged and I've made a mental note to pay special attention to that.

So removing an extra bolt is going to put you behind 2 hours?

The scope of this job is such that if finding and loosening one extra bolt presents a major challenge for you, you probably should not be attempting it to begin with.



I'm sorry my completely free writeup which took hours to document, write, upload and link pics, and post here for no benefit of my own, does not meet with your approval.

In the future I will try to do a better job of photographing each step, no matter how miniscule, working alone, while underneath a car with only a few inches of clearance, while holding tools and wedging my arm into some small space, holding the camera, focusing on what you're looking to see, and taking a well lit picture for you.

Then of course I will also post that for free, and continue to provide free support for the topic years after first posting it.

Maybe one day I will be able to live up to these expectations. :tear:



Others might say that finding a large bellhousing bolt would be fairly obvious and would not require a picture or specific instructions. Obviously not everyone considers the same issues to be difficult.



No one is stopping you from doing your own. Oh, but you have had the benefit of using mine to start with, so even if you do improve upon it you will still not have put forth the effort that I have. I took the initiative to do this a long time ago when no such thing existed. IT is by everyone's admission, better than the FSM, better than any haynes or chilton manual, or any writeup that I'm aware of anywhere on the internet, it is free and readily available, and yet you still claim that it is 'chopped up".

You're one of those people who thinks that society owes them something, aren't you? You're probably the type that goes around and reports handicap accessibility code violations and advocates that your kid get a "participation" award even when his team lost the soccer game.



Think of it as a rite of passage. Most writeups, including this one, are not meant to be a hand holding, coddling, highly detailed piece of work. They are meant to give the overall procedure requirements in an efficient order to accomplish the task. Of course there will be gaps in the information that the user must fill in via analysis, experience or trial and error. It is assumed that any person willing to attempt such a large job has the abilities to analyze the situation and adapt to the information gaps. There will be people who do not have those abilities. Such a person has no business undertaking the task to begin with.

Hey, I'm a 6 foot tall white dude who can't dunk. I know I am no professional athlete. So guess what I do? I STAY MY A$$ OFF THE BASKETBALL COURT. :rollingla


Will you bring me a glass of ice water while I am working as well?

This write up is awesome and more that sufficient. It made pulling my engine and installing the new on much easier. If you guys are still having issues after reading this DIY then you probably should not be taking on a project like this.

Thanks RR for the write up, it was an awesome thing for you to do.

yea, this write up made it possible, going from old school VW's to 8's this was quite different and I never would have attempted it without this write up and the ongoing Club support!!!!

Thanks a ton!!!!!!

Having a problem with my engine revomal..

im closing to the end of the stripping, but i don't have a clue how to remove PCM / ECU

it's not like shown in these pic's

its mounted with gold(ish) braces all around with some weird flat surfaced bolts

there is no regular bolts that can just be opened?

do i need to drill those all off so that i can get the PCm/ECU open to unplug the wire harness?

the label in my ECU/PCM is different then in this DIY..

if needed i can take a photo if it, if somebody needs to see if you don't have a clue what im talking about.

You must have a UK model car...they have security bolts tio make the ECU tamper proof. You well have to remove them top get the ECU out. You could remove all the connectors on the motor and leave it attached..but it is a PIA :)

yes this is a UK model, and thanks for the info.

i guess i'll just drill out the bolts that hold it down :P dont have the intrest to go through all the connectors in the motor.

Sturmgezhutz,

I was about to pull my USDM ECU out for my teammate to use. Still want some up close pics?

Yep, you have to drill them out...they are mandatory for all new UK sold vehicles.

Ok, i just finished my engine swap..

filled it up and were going for a test start..

and surprise it won't start?

it almost starts and oil pressure goes up for a 0,5sec and then it stalls..?

any clue? did i miss something or have something not connected maybe?

or is it possible for me to mix the fuel rail connectors? i swapped the old wire harness to the new engine

i have a -04 high power manual trans and the new engine is a -07 high power

spark plugs are new, coils and wires are few months old.

Interesting, I will keep that in mind, as I had never heard of what the other poster was saying about the rivets/headless bolts.

What, is it some sort of legislation enacted by the drill bit manufacturer lobby in the UK? :yelrotflm

The red fuel line connector goes on the rearmost hard line.

Did the new engine run before removal, and did it run recently? If it has been sitting unused for several months, it may be flooded or otherwise need oil injected into the chambers to restore compression after sitting. Treat it as a flooded engine and use an old set of spark plugs to start it.

the engine was tested before removal from the car..

it have been sitting dry atleast for a month, since the delivery from UK to Finland took a month.

i have a set of ~5000km driven plugs so i'll use them when trying to start so i don't mess up my new plugs.