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Ok im shooting to get an engine and install it in roughly a month...looked over my Chiltons and saw the many steps...so I gots two questions

1. I know its not ideal but for the time frame I have are there any steos I can skip or short cuts. Im prolly going to remove the tranny and engine together as it will prolly be easier to reinstall on the other engine while its out

2. What should I do while the engine is out...I dont have a huse budget so mas much as id like to the clutch will have to do until a later date but maybe. I also figured now would be a great time to fill all my mounts(any recamendations on what to get)..also ill be painting some stuff. Verg mine will be valve covers and intake. If the engine comes out easy enough ill know bout how much time itll take to put bak so I might paint the block and heads (if I do itll be painted with the manifold paint with ceramic figure that might lower engine bay temp a little)

3. Also itd be awesom for ppl who have done this to let me know and tips or tricks to everything...maybe steps that the book skiped.

Take pictures of your existing engine so you have a reference on where the vac hoses go. Some people label them first. Spray liquid wrench on your engine/tranny mount bolts a couple times before you do the job. Your shifter linkage is a pita as well so start spraying it ahead of time at both ends. Use a C clamp to remove the front shifter bolt. Take your time with the electrical plugs so you don't break any, every plug is different so hard to screw them up. For your mounts some people used simple squeeze tube products, I bought a two part product that is meant for building rubber parts with. Aircraft sealant (prc) is great too, the kind for doing panels or fuel tank repair (hint). Just clean your mounts well first before applying the product. I sanded/scuffed my rubber as well.
Usually a wrecking yard will include the flywheel and clutch with the engine,,ask them. Good Luck.

First and foremost make sure you have the right tools.

Stuck axle nuts are a fantastic way to ruin your day of disassembly.
If you do not have a suitable breaker bar and bar extension, get one.
A solid 1/2" breaker bar with a metal pipe (I picked one up at ace hardware) that can extend the handle a good four feet should do it, however after breaking a couple of harbor freight 1/2" breaker bars, I picked up a huge 72" long, 3/4" breaker bar from northern tools and never looked back.

There are several "disassembly" threads in the FAQ and V6 forums that detail exactly what you're looking for.

An Exedy clutch is most popular clutch for stock applications because of it's longevity/performance/value. do not buy an exedy clutch from ebay. They're generally not exedy clutches.
Grab the pilot bearing from the exedy clutch kit along with the flywheel from the K8 engine and take both to the machine shop. They will press in the pilot bearing for you and resurface the flywheel. This step shouldn't be considered "optional"

I would recommend buying some cheap headers on ebay for the ford probe/mx-6. High chance you will snap the studs from the downpipe to the manifold.

On a nice clean imported engine, it's up to you whether you want to tear down and do the water pump and timing kit. It's a great opportunity to do it while the engine is out, but... I've never seen a timing belt break on a K8 or KL before.

If you're picking up a junkyard KL then you're going to put yourself at a big risk if you don't go for a full rebuild.

When you pull off the valve covers, replace the gaskets with OEM and get an OEM distributor o-ring as well.

I would discourage painting your intake manifold. that's a recipe for an ugly engine bay. Either clean it and powdercoat it black or just clean it is my personal suggestion.

I understand theres a slight risk to a junkyard engine but they have warrenties on it...also my k8 runs fne just burns alot of oil so if I swap in the kl anx its a no go I can drop the k8 bak in to get me by until I exchange the engine...ill be at the yard tomorrow and ill be adding to this thread...ill take pics off all the engines post milage and post pic of the insidd of valve cover and u guys guve me ur opinions

Also if you guys dont know I have found the perfect tool to remove any axle from the tranny. I refuse to us a pry bat on the case...ive heard of it cracking doing that. But go to autozone and pick up the ford fan clutch tool...it has a flat steel wrench thing that perfectly slides around the end of the axle and fit between the axle and tranny...then u have a solid steel piece you can tap on to pop out the axle..

Take heed to what Kris said, the front axle nuts can be your worst nightmare to remove. I used a 3/4 drive breaker bar with a 4' pipe and my fat a-- 280lb friend bouncing on the end to finally get the passengers side wheel nut to move. I'd say have a good impact wrench handy as well. A lot of people give up and use a dremel to cut the wheel nuts off.

Well ive never had too much trouble with axle nuts...I just put a 1/2 socket on a 12" breaker hit a few times with my 5lb sledge then use my 24" breaker it takes a little effort after that. Kinda like an impact wrench at that point.

Buy an electric impact if you dont have access to an air one, it will save you some time, heck bring it to me and I can have a K out in about an hour lol. 2 simple things you will want to make sure of, pull the intake on the KL and swap the knock sensor over to the belt side of the motor before you put it together. Second if its the first time having your motor out, have some bulk heater hose and worm clamps available for replacing the quick connect sections at the fire wall if they crack or break apart when you remove the motor. If they do just finish them off and clamp the hoses directly to the heater core pipes.

Another easy thing to do while the motor is out is run some power leads to your VRIS solenoids and swap them if they dont click while its all apart, depending if you keep the DE intake they can be a pain to swap out when the intakes on.

*another time saver, dont worry about disconnecting your AC or P/s, just unbolt both pumps from the motor(you can leave the PS tensioner bracket attached to the block) theres plenty of space to leave them hanging just pop the radiator out and give yourself some extra room.

yeah being a west coast car your axle nuts should come right off (no snow=no salt=no rust). When i did my swap we couldnt get mine off period. Being a car originally from new jersey and spent the last decade in germany the hubs were just rust no metal was there anymore lol. When we did my swap we broke a autozone breaker bar and the impact wouldnt budge it either. We had to pull the axles out the transaxle THEN lift the engine up. It was a pain to get them back in but wagZE had no issues as he did it before.

A few months later I had to do my wheel bearings and took another crack at cracking the axle nuts. I got one off but the axle nuts were rusted on so bad I broke 3 breaker bars (name brand this time) and ended up replacing both hubs and CV axles from an escort at the PnP. The one axle nut i did get off was hard. Then went to press the bearing out and it broke the machine. The bearing was fused to the hub it was so rusted. Moral of the story is CORROSION PROTECT YOUR CAR. While the engine is out check for any rust you can sand out and repaint

I heated mine up with a propane torch for a minute or two and used a truckers torque wrench. I use it as my breaker bar because it's near impossible to break it and it's huge. It was pretty difficult but I'm not a little guy (squatted 1000 at the gymn the other day actually video on my facebook) They came off with the heat. Propane torch is just about the best way to remove almost all under car parts.