2001 ford focus starter

How do you fellas change out a starter on a Focus?? nephew asked me to help put a starter back in his focus .he was told easiest way was to pull the intake manifold assembly and work from top .with little warning .one bolt snapped off intake manifold ,others proved to be willing to breakoff too , .because of age of car .he chose to leave manifold alone rather than start a major rethread job ;;Besides there is a lot of delicate everythings down in there to disconnect and reconnect in a tite area .. he got the starter out from bottom somehow ,, but could not get the exact same size starter back in .that's when he called me in ,I suggested rockin engine forward and removing a mount down below ,,he insisted he got it out so therefore it ought to go back ,we turned that starter 6 ways from Sunday and just always ended up wedged between exhaust and intake ,. . .we ended up squeezing it thru the bottom , by using a jack and a block of wood...wasn't that hard to do , and didn't stress anything . ,, but durn that was tite,and a hale of a goofy job ,.NOW , it is fixed and starts and runs out fine .... Just
Thinkin.. Surely there has got to be better way to put a starter in this little headache

if it has the 2.0 sohc it can be done from the bottom maybe 2-3 hours