Saturday ended up being mostly a prep day for pulling the engine. Ended up going hiking for a bit, so didn't have as much time as planned, but I definitely didn't mind. Pulling the axles was easier on this thing that on most FWD vehicles I've done the job on. Probably helps that I didn't care what condition the upper ball joints would be in, as long as they would bolt back to the control arm. There was conflicting info about whether the hubs needed the axle stubs to keep the bearings together, and I suspected it was okay, as the spec for the axle nut was only 103 ft-lbs, but it was not too hard to cut the boots, disassemble the CV joints, and reinstall the axle stubs.
After the job was done, I remembered seeing a picture of a stock Solstice front hub with a splined hole in it, so I bet it was unnecessary, but that's alright.
Got up this morning, and finished prepping to pull everything.
Around noon-ish, 84FSP and eastsideWife helped start the job. Took way longer than hoped, and made a few mistakes, but the engine is out.
One of the big issues we had was getting the transmission separated. Once it finally was, I tried to jam it up in the tunnel with the jack. Unfortunately, while we were yanking on the engine, it came loose and fell. I righted it, and took a quick assessment. Looks like the shift lever is bent, but otherwise, externally, I did not see any damage. No idea if the pan is dented, but it does not appear to be leaking fluid. I am hoping the guts are hardy enough to be okay. If there's anything I should be looking into that you know of, please let me know. I ended up leaving it underneath for tonight, I'll recover it tomorrow when I try to get the harness detached from it.
For our one garage bay, I think pulling the sway bar was the correct choice, as it did give us enough room to maneuver the engine out. If we had more room, though, yanking the suspension and removing the frame mounts would have made it go much faster.
While I know I could do it faster in the future, I think this is the only Trailblazer engine donor I ever have. Although, maybe the remove the oilpan method would make it a ton simpler.