Projects by Luke: Ford Focus SVT Motor Swap!!

I sold my last car due to the rust issue that was eating away at the frame and bought a car that I wanted. A 2002 Ford Focus SVT

Here it is the day I picked it up!

It needed sway bar end links, a passenger side door handle a new battery and just some general TLC (so I thought).

Long story short it overheated and either warped the head, blew the head gasket, or cracked the block and possibly did some bottom end damage due to the amount of water in the oil. I bought an engine and tranny off a wrecked car and got to work.

New Motor and tranny ready to go!

First step was research. I spent a lot of time on the Ford Focus forums researching what I would need, steps to take and overall general plan. My outline for the project looked something like this after some research:

take a bunch of pictures before I touch anything. Label all the wires and hoses so I know where they go and how they route.
Drain all fluids from the old engine
disconnect wiring harness
disconnect fuel, coolant hoses, control cables, and other misc things
Remove wheels and free the drive axle, (Swaybar end links, struts, hub)
Remove radiator fans
Remove headers and cat
Unbolt subframe
Remove subframe motor mount
Unbolt powersteering rack from subframe
Remove subframe

Motor glam shot

After the sub frame is out and all the wires and hoses are tucked aside, I could build a pallet base to lower the motor on top of.

The motor is connected in 3 places 2 top mounts and a single lower mount. Its put in from the factor from the bottom so I decided to take it out that way because I had a lift and it would be easiest. After removing the subframe and lower motor mount, I could build a support for the engine, simply lower the lift down until the weight of the motor is supported. Then I would unbolt the top mounts and lift the whole car up around the engine.

Some Preliminary pictures:

All labeled with nice blue tape

Mostly all the wires disconnected

I broke a broke a bolt taking the cat off the flex pipe...

Headers on their way out

Half shafts both separated from the hubs

The subframe took a lot of air gun pounding and muscle to loose the bolts but eventually they got out. It had to be fished around the steering rack so a couple people lifted it up and navigated it one way then the other in order to untangle the power steering rack from the sway bar. Not an easy task.

Subframe dropped!!

With the subframe out, hubs free and exhust all out things were looking good!

The shift linkage proved to be a minor hiccup. A rubber bushing tore as it was being removed so on reassembly the bushing had to be remounted back in place

Unfortunately I dont have any pictures of the engine actually getting taken out because myself and Nick were both 'all eyes on deck' making sure nothing was catching or tugging in the wrong directrion