I'm mostly posting this to see if anyone else has pulled the opti without pulling the rad/fans, etc.

Just curious if anyone else has done it this fast. I was told this should take a TON of time, but I honestly can't see how.

Plan I took (electrical connections and small stuff not mentioned):
drain coolant via drain plug on rad, lower passengers side
remove intake piping
remove throttle body
unhook hoses from waterpump
remove six bolts from waterpump and pull WP (i run an electric pump)
remove harmonic balancer
remove wires/connectors from opti (no ignition wires here, I run the Delteq system)
remove 3 bolts from opti and pull

then, reverse for installation.

Honestly, I can't see how it can take anyone 6 hours... (or whatever the book says it'll take). Perhaps if you remove the rad/fans it would take you a little longer, but certainly not 6 hours.

Thoughts?

 

I can be done easily.. But most time is spent getting stuff out of the way.. But if you plan it out and keep track of everything it can be done.. w/o any negative result's provided you pay attention...

 

exactly. But honestly, I can't see why people make such a big deal about the opti swaps.

 

it doesn't take mechanic's 6 hrs. to do the work not if they want to make money. They usually try to get cars done as fast as posible. If I had air tools I'm fairly sure I could do it in 2 hrs. myself remove and install.
-brandon

 

The general population whom work on their car's are not keen to taking it apart everyday like some of us have.. So it's a big deal.. And they are a lil bit intimidated by the opti anyway..

 

Yeah I never found it bad to do, worst part is if the WP gaskets are really stuck on.

 

I was honestly intimidated by the process last fall when I undertook my first swap. Hindsight, well, how easy could it have been??? You're just draining the coolant, and moving things out of the way. It took me very little time overall in terms of actual work, but I was exploring and playing along the way which prolonged the actual process in it's entirity.

I think it could easily be done in 2 hours if you are staying focused and work hard.

 

The only reason I have ever taken a fan off is because I couldn't get the harmonic balancer pulller to fit, otherwise it's a 2 hour job.

 

u dont have to remove many things at all...30 min job to take it of AT MOST..the longest part is waiting for the coolant to drain. I try not to make a mess..if i didnt give a **** probably could done it a lot faster

 

I did not find it that hard of a job at all. It took me about 4 hrs but I was just fartin around and making sure everything was done right, I also did my TB coolant bypass at the same time.
Scraping on the gasket surfaces took the most time I probably spent a good 45 minutes doing that.

 

I can have it out & back on in less then 1 hour tops, I've done atleast 30+ swaps in the 4 years I've been working on these things.

 

yeah, I made a mess and still took me 2 hrs. Beer got in the way several times. With that and customers getting in my way, it took me some time.

I'm with bunker, if you've done this many times, this should be cake. Fun stuff fellas!

 

when i did mine...i jsut took the fans out, and i never had to remove my TB...just the intake elbow, radiator, fans, cai, harmonic balancer, opti, the air pump bracket, belt, and osme other small things...

 

I don't get it, why do you guys take the radiator out? I have an electric water pump on mine & I can still take it out no problems with the radiator on, I'm confused LOL, pump comes out from the bottom no problem.

All I take out is water pump/hamonic balancer/fans & thats it.

 

DOH!!!! sorry i emant water pump, not the radiator...its a pain to take that thing out..i jsut take fans out....