Heres my problem, we have the engine hanging on the chains (everything removed except the crank pulley and alternator) but when we lift it it dosent look like it will come out with the tranny in the car. I did an search and a couple people said they removed just the engine but i couldnt find anymore info. The reason we want to leave the tranny in is because a 2.4 is going in and we want to dry fit it to see how its gonna work. So how did you guys do it?? The car is a 98 Talon ESi 5spd if that matters.

Maybe a stupid question but did you unbolt the flexplate from the clutch assembly?

Now that you metion it i dont think we did, we just unbolted the tranny from the engine(obviously). How do you unbolt the clutch from the flex plate.

It's a tough task. I had to take the crank pulley off to get it out. It's a very very tight sqeeze. Actually, I pulled the head, alternator, and everything else and then pulled the block out alone. It was still a tight fit. Ofcoarse I had to unbolt the driveplate from the torque converter (AT). Good luck!

There are 4 bolts (17mm) If I remember right. The heads of the bolts are on the motor side. Slide the wrench up there and take a bolt out. Then you need to turn the crank to have access to the next bolt. Once all 4 are out then it should come out. I'd also mark it somehow if I were you. The flexplate and clutch assy will only bolt up one way so if you don't mark it then it may take 4 tries to get it back on.

Im assuming you unbolt it through where the starter goes right?

Well you move the crank so the bolt comes to the bottom so you should be able to just slide the wrench in there and undo it. I'm not sure if you can even reach them from the starter hole, can't really remember though.

Well, the 2.0 can go in and out without pulling the transmission, but the 2.4 cannot. The only way to get the 2.4 in is to pull the transmission, put in the 2.4, bolt the tranny to the motor, and lift it into place. Pain in the ass.
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Thanks for the help guys, The motor finally came out but it was a really tight squeeze. We ended up pullin the bolts out through the starter hole but we has to bend back the metal to get them out. probably not the best way to do it but it worked. Anyway the 2.4 should be back from the machine shop next week and we will start on that. Thanks again.