Engine removal day was intense. The night before, I removed the grille and bumper assembly. I took out the condenser and radiator. This gave us a nice clear shot at the engine.
I spent the previous two weeks putting ads on Craigslist trying to find a buyer for the motor. A couple people wanted me to drive up to LA and then somehow get my engine-less car back home. I finally found a local buyer. He and a friend came and drove the car and we agreed on a price.
The following Saturday, he and his friend came to get the engine. They brought a hoist and pneumatic tools. It took from about 9 am until about 3 pm to get that sucker out. A lot of the time was spent cutting out the exhaust system. They wanted it, and it was welded to the body (it should have been attached with rubber hangers).
Once the exhaust was separated, the engine came out. We left the transmission in the car since a few of the bolts that attached the differential to the CV joints were not cooperating.
I cut the head off one of the bolts and damaged the CV joint. After that, I took a break and did some web searching. The VW transaxle is attached to the CV joint using 6 cheese head bolts with 12 point triple square heads. The key to removing them is to clean them out really well. Otherwise, the little points don’t make a good contact and they strip very easily.
Even after cleaning, one bolt was still difficult to remove. I ended up taking a hammer and driving the triple square bit into the bolt. After that, I used a breaker bar and got the thing out. The triple square bit is still attached to the bolt.
Finally, I had a Jetta with an empty engine bay.
