Insight engine replacement - has anyone done one?
Hi all,
My friend had an unfortunate problem this past winter. He fired up his Insight one morning and after running for a few seconds, the motor suddently stopped. When he attempted to restart, it would spin over using the IMA, but wouldn't fire. He took it to a local shop that he has been dealing with, and they discovered that his camshaft had siezed. This caused his valves to stop moving and resulting in "interference" (what a nice word). The shop was pretty good about his problem. They charged him for their diagnostic work, and suggested that they could have the head rebuild or put on a replacement, but they were concerned about the original cause of the problem, thinking that it might be a blocked oil passage which would cause a second head failure. After looking at all of the options and costs (the car is a 2000 with 160,000 Kms), he decided on finding an engine from a doner car and doing a swap.
Last night I was reading up in my Honda Service Manual to see just how we were going to do it. The manual describes how to drop the entire drivetrain out the bottom of the car and also how to support the motor while you pull the transmission sideways and then down, but they don't describe how to slide the motor sideways and up - leaving the drivetrain in the vehicle.
Has anyone out there simply pulled the motor over and out through the top? I don't see any reason why this can't be done, but maybe there is.
Also, when reading how to take things apart I noticed that it is not a simple thing to remove the IMA motor. I'm sure hoping that when his replacement motor arrives it has the IMA and flywheel still attached. I expect that the wrecker would leave the two motors together because of the special tools required to take the electric motor off.
Has anyone purchased a used motor from a wrecker? Do they normally keep the two motors as a unit?
Any other tips on this project would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Bill
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