For all you who have pulled E30 engines
 

I am looking at an E30 with a blown engine.

Is it easier to pull the engine with the tranny attached, and swap the tranny to the new engine while it is out, or leave the tranny in the car to pull the engine?

i would think it is easier to pull the tranny with the engine instead of having to remove all the tranny bolts.

if you take the tranny with the block, it would just be detaching the drive shaft and the two mounts where are easy to access.

if you want to disconnect the tranny from engine, there is one torx bolt at the top that a PITA to get to while in the car, and then the two bolts for the starter. to do this, you also have to detach the driveshaft so you can get a buncha extensions to get at these bolts.

just take them out together ;)

I haven't done it but i'm guessing it would be easier with the trans attached, plus then you wont have to mess around with getting the tranny bolted up under the car.

Pull the engine with the tranny attached. Everyone that I know here with an E30 does it that way. Even the 3.5L guys do it like that. Mainly because of the bolts that Cels spoke about and it's easier to swap the trannys from the outside.

Thanks alot guys!! that makes sense. If an E30 tranny is anything like the E36, i know it can be a major pain to get the top tranny bolts out. and if i have to detach the driveshaft to do that anyway, i might as well leave the tranny on and just pull the whole shebang.

my bro did his engine swap also with the tranny
e30 former 324d now 325e

This is how bmw designed the motor to be removed from the bottom.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...d.php?t=954182

Interesting... very interesting. However, it seems like removing the suspension like that could be dangerous. Another way to do it is to remove the front grill assembly and just pull it straight out. Although that takes a little bit of work disassembling stuff though, which would make your way easier. Nice suggestion.

^^^ thats the way i would probably do it too. i think the other way is just the way they put it in.