Doing a 2.5 to 2.2 conversion, have questions

[Ionlyhave3suubs]

My first question is

 

I am about to pull the 2.5 dohc engine from my 96 LSi auto. I have taken everything loose except for 1 torque converter bolt, which I cannot get to because the engine will not turn a full rotation (something is broken inside the engine and will not allow a full rotation, not even with a breaker bar with pipe extention). Is there a problem with pulling the engine with the converter still attached? Is it important to re-use the Lsi converter or will the converter from the 2.2 legacy L swap in ok?

 

I guess that is two questions.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Donor car is a 97 Legacy L 2.2 automatic (wreck, mostly complete)

[idosubaru]

you have tried turning the engine both ways with no luck?

 

engine is trashed - can you get it close enough to just smash the bellhousing enough with a chisel to get at the last bolt?

 

can you get it from underneath - sometimes there's a plate you can bend or manuever around to see into the bellhousing area underneath, never tried that before though.

 

yes you can pull the engine with the converter attached - the pipe usually stays connected so it's looooong but it'll come out.

 

or just pull the engine/torque converter out enough to have a 1 or 2 inch gap and then dremel, hacksaw, sawzall, chisel the flexplate tab off and get another flexplate.

 

you can use any converter in my opinion, i've never noticed a difference. probably not a bad idea to have the converter that was designed for the engine so the 2.2 might be a good idea anyway.