Just completed this job. If you think the top nut is hard taking off while in place, try forgetting to tighten in until after you have reinstalled.
I removed the passenger side by removing the knock sensor, the bolt behind the knock sensor (incredibly tight on mine much more than mount bolts), and its shield. Then I had to remove the starter to let the mount slip in one piece. Even then, it did not clear the exhaust manifold and needed force applied to remove. It could probably be removed from the front by removing the A/C accessory bracket.
The drivers side came out from the front, as I removed the accessory bracket from this side. It was fairly straight forward requiring little if any force.
I jacked the engine at first without loosening the transmission mount bolt. This allowed a couple inches, but an inspection of the bolt made me worry about braking something. I simply loosened it, as I was changing the hydralic trans mount anyway. Once that was loose, and both mounts' bolts were loose, I jacked the engine up to the point where the back aluminum tubing was half an inch from the cowl.
I found the job overall simpler than it seemed, requiring mostly extended effort rather than having high complexity.
I grinded rust from my brackets, painted them, installed the mounts in them, and reinserted them in once peice. I did one side at a time to try and prevent bolt hole misalignment. Even then, however, I found it necessary to keep bolts loose for jack raising. This caused slight misalignment which I cured after installing both by tightening one side, lowering, and aligning remaining holes.
I will soon be posting a follow up to my motor mounts post from a little while back.. after my last tasks on the car are complete.