So let's get to this! Good motor in bad car. Plan was to drop motor, trans, steering rack, and subframe. Changing slightly as its subframe is rusty junk. I dumped the motor out the bottom, and with it on jackstands was able to wheel it out the front. I had to pull the bumper cover to get at the computer, so the bumper itself was just four bolts away from coming too!
Plan was since I'd never done a j-body before I'd trash the car and be careful around the motor. Oddly, all six subframe bolts came out fine-- I had heard they seize in place. But a 7mm headed bolt holding the engine wiring harness to the body harness rounded off. I gingerly slotted the screw and trashed the body side of things with a 4.5 inch cutoff wheel. Found I could then open the harness with a slotted screwdriver. I kept the engine harness on the engine; I assume that's how it's lifted into place. The car has pretty clear "engine" and "body" harnesses.
The AC was dead and discharged anyway, and I need the OHV radiator as the ecotec one is different. No real effort to drop the bottom brace and keep the rad attached via tranny cooler lines. Line nuts looked rusty and like something I shouldn't mess with. BTW engine and tranny are both still full of oil.
I dropped the K-frame seperately. The nuts on the steering rack look sort of rusty; I might move this rack to the "good car". I was able to unto the fasteners at the pump side. The frame is rusty junk though. The ecotec hydraulic steering is radically different with wrong length hoses. It's driven off the cam and IMO this put a load on the timing chain when it was cold started.
The engine bay of nothingness. Next, I tackle removal of a powertrain I don't care about. Stay tuned.
